Designing an email message so that it displays well on a variety of devices is not an easy task. These are the days where people are replying to email from their phone first thing when they get up, checking messages on a tablet on the train on the way in to work and wrapping up their day by sending that last email from their phone as they walk through the door. We are all in constant communication, and our marketing messages have to be optimized to display correctly and get the point across at any time and on any device.

According to MarketingProfs, nearly half a billion people check their email on the go, and 20% of all email is opened on a smartphone. Now that mobile devices are becoming a more and more popular platform we face a whole new set of challenges when it comes to email marketing.

The following tips are geared toward helping you move your email marketing efforts in a direction that will make messages more accessible across all platforms—something that’ll work as well on an iPhone as it will on a desktop computer.

The From Line
You might not have given this component much thought before, but you have to now. The from line is now more prevalent than ever. That might sound crazy, but with the increase in the use of mobile devices, the name of who sent you the email is larger and bolder than the subject line. I know it’s easy to agonize over that perfect subject line (believe me, I do this myself), but that might just be wasting your time now. Here’s what we suggest—make sure the from line is a basic representation of your company and that it is easily recognizable. This is necessary to your message getting recognized and read instead of ignored. Also, try to make sure that your subject line and from line aren’t too repetitive of each other.

Mobile Design
Like everything else, Web and email design has its trends. Currently, the trends appear to be going back to the basics. By the basics, we’re talking about moving back toward a balanced ratio of images to text and ensuring the vital content in the email is visible with images turned off. Why is that? Many mobile devices limit the amount of graphics they load to avoid the extra steps and time it takes to download images.

Of course, if you had the time and budget you could create different emails to perfectly fit each of your targeted devices—but not many have those luxuries. Let’s focus on how to create one version of a message that will display well for both mobile and desktop email clients.

The goal is to keep things simplistic and uncluttered, which will allow the message to look great at half its size without looking odd if displayed at 100%. One method that helps with this is to design by using a grid system. Many designers do this anyway, but if the elements of your design are made according to a proper grid, the message will scale down while staying proportionate.

Sizing
The standard width for email messages is generally around the 600-pixel range. To be more specific, the screen on an iPhone has a width of 320-pixels. Since the iPhone is considered the standard for smartphone screens, plan on designing your email messages with a width of 640-pixels for a more proportionate scaling.
The topic of sizing also applies to the size of a font, too. It can be hard to gauge what an appropriate font size is that will work across various devices. At Knowledge Marketing, we recommend that your body text shouldn’t go below 12 pixels. However, we also recommend that you use your best judgment when it comes to different fonts and that it never hurts to test across multiple devices before sending that campaign.

Strong Call to Action
Is your call to action button hidden in your message? This is one part of your message that can’t afford to get lost. Make sure that your call to action is leaping off the page and that it is brightly colored and simple to read. Another way to simply emphasize your call to action is to add a text shadow or rounded corners—something to differentiate those elements from the rest are what you’re looking for when it comes to your call to action. Small details can make big differences. After all, what’s the point of sending a campaign with little to know call to action?

Also, make sure to leave plenty of space for people to click on the call to action buttons. Think ahead about how fingers are going to navigate the clickable areas of your email on a smartphone or tablet’s screen—be sure to add plenty of padding around the area recipients will be clicking within your message. We recommend around 10 pixels between clickable items (links, buttons), which should ensure your recipients plenty of space for inaccurate fingers.

Take your campaign full circle
In many cases, your email message is going to be sending visitors to a custom landing page as part of a full campaign. All the above rules should apply to the landing page as well—you don’t know what kind of device your recipient will be using when they open your email marketing message.

KM has been an expert in email marketing for nearly 10 years! Contact us us today to find out how we can help with your marketing needs.