The surge in mobile users over the last three decades has only accelerated the dominance of email as a form of communication. Not only is email incredibly accessible, with users being able to create their accounts for free, but the prevalence of mobile phones has led to more people than ever before having their accounts only a touch away.
At present, there are around 1.8 billion Gmail accounts, with 85% of all smartphone users having access to their email accounts from this medium. For Android users, the quick accessibility to email applications makes checking your inbox and staying on top of all your messages easier than ever before.
However, for those sending out emails, the ease of access is also a factor that works against you. With so many emails coming in and out, you need to be able to make your emails stand out on mobile. The vast majority of email users will check their accounts directly from their email. Even when you’re creating a marketing campaign that’s for the web, you should always expect the bulk of recipients to check the email from the comfort of their Android devices.
In this article, we’ll dive into email optimization on mobile, demonstrating how you can make your emails stand out on Andriod. Let’s dive right in.
How To Make Emails Stand Out On Mobile
Making your emails stand out on mobile encompasses everything from textual copy choices to a masterful selection of color and pallet. However, beyond these elements, there are also some core areas that you can refine to improve your emails.
Here are a few methods you can use to make your emails stand out on mobile.
Use A Mobile-First Email Template
Not everyone will have a dynamic understanding of what mobile-friendly emails should look like on the page before sending them. With that in mind, it’s okay to seek a little help. By looking for mobile-first email templates, you can get a rough idea of the dimensions and amount of text that you should include in an email.
As an easy way of understanding more about mobile email design, this is a wonderful place to start with. That said, be sure to experiment with different templates for certain systems, as some will work better with Android while others will fit with smaller screens.
Select Images Carefully
Images are one of the most challenging parts of optimizing emails for mobile. When done incorrectly, a poorly spaced or sized email will instantly bring the overall quality of your email down, even making it look like spam in some cases. Poorly sized emails are even one of the many spam detection markers that email providers like Gmail search for.
When selecting your email images, make sure you understand the correct sizes that your images should have. Some marketing tools allow you to dynamically change the size of images, based on the screen dimensions of the device someone is opening the email on. If this isn’t an option for you, go for a smaller image that doesn’t dominate the space.
Always preview your emails on your Android device before sending them out, to assure yourself that you’ve sized and spaced them correctly.
Center Your CTA
On a mobile-friendly email, one of the main things that a recipient will be looking to engage with is going to be your Call To Action (CTA). A CTA should always be featured in a prominent place on your email and will direct users to take a certain action when reading through. These actions will depend on what the purpose of your email is, with some marketing emails seeking clicks to a website while others are looking to point to resources.
Whatever the purpose of your email is, you should always center your CTA as soon as possible. Both on the page but also in terms of making it stand out from other textual elements, emphasize your call to action. When a user opens their email and sees that you’ve already outlined the expected action they should take, they’ll know what to expect instantly. As attention spans continue to dwindle, this is an impactful way of capturing your audience.
Alongside your CTA, you should always conclude your email with an email signature. Once again, most email signatures will automatically come optimized for the web. However, you should always look into alternative signature generators, like one that can provide a Gmail mobile signature or one that’s specifically built for mobile devices.
The mobile format of these emails will typically constrict your mail signatures, making it vital that you prepare for this ahead of time. Signing off your emails will an optimized signature for mobile will radically increase your ability to engage your user. If you don’t get a click on your CTA, the additional links and information you provide in your email signature will turn the tide.
Larger and Shorter
When you think of emails on mobile, the most important element that changes is the space that you have available. On the web, you have potentially endless space, with large computer screens allowing you to spread out your design and offer an alternative experience. However, with mobile, you are working with a heavily constricted space, one that many users will also pay less attention to.
With our falling attention spans, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a user that will read through your emails with lots of care. On mobile, you only have a few seconds before people lose interest and click off. Due to this mobile custom, you need to make sure every aspect of your email counts.
Instead of trying to fill your email with information, an email written for mobile should focus on larger fonts and shorter texts. Condense your writing as much as possible to eliminate any redundancies and help your readers to get to the core of your email as quickly as possible.
Final Thoughts
If you want to make your emails stand out on mobile, you need to have them in mind throughout the design process. As mobile is such a distinct form compared to web emails, you should attempt to accommodate this style as much as possible. Over time, we’re seeing more people than ever before using their mobiles to interact with emails.
By focusing on delivering an effective email experience on mobile, you’ll capture the attention of your audience and boost engagement. Your emails don’t need to be long or dynamic, they just need to fit within the bounds of good mobile practices and deliver your core message. With these practices in mind, you’ll be able to make your emails stand out on mobile and succeed in this space.
