This article is intended to provide information on how email readers view emails on mobile devices. This includes how to optimize email design for viewing on small screens. Using these easy-to-follow bullet point-based guidelines, you can design messages that can be browsed easily while minimizing reader’s need to zoom or scroll through the message. The goal is to create messages that can be read at a glance.
Details
Considerations
- A typical computer screen measures from 17” to 21”, while a smartphone screen measures 2" to 4" diagonally.
- Not all smartphones display HTML messages properly. Several BlackBerry models are known to mangle messages as they cannot process HTML code properly.
- Text formatted messages are still the preferred format for mobile email reading.
- As it is common practice to send HTML messages, consider limiting images in your HTML messages so the text portion of your email is easy to read.
- The average mobile email reader scans through the Inbox quickly, to skim through easy-to-read emails on their mobile device, while saving the rest for the PC.
- A usual email has 60 to 80 characters per line. However, mobile screens can display 20 to 40 characters per line with up to 12 to 15 lines per screen.
- Emails for mobile devices should be small – less than 12kb. Otherwise, they may be at risk from being cut off halfway, forcing the user to scroll down.
- Reading emails from mobile devices is becoming part of "email triage", which is the term used to describe how individuals manage their emails, potentially on multiple devices.
- This means that messages that are not easy to read, not relevant, or do not have a strong call-to-action are likely to be deleted by the user on the mobile device instead of saving it for review on their PCs.
- Fact: A recent Forrester study found that 15% of mobile users are using both their PCs and mobile devices to read their emails.
- Pre-headers are important as this is the first thing users see in their email when reading off of a mobile device or a PC. This is the area of an email that is above the top header image.
- Text-based pre-headers are visible in the Reading pane, Preview pane and on mobile devices, regardless of whether images are rendered or not.
- Provide key actionable information in your pre-header as that is valuable real-estate, such as a "view on mobile" link described on the next page.
Best Practices
- Minimize scrolling – The goal is to assemble valuable information in as little space as possible. This means that sentences and paragraphs should be as concise and as to-the-point as possible. Excessive scrolling is a deterrent for email readers to follow the call-to-action.
- From Addresses – These should be kept as short as possible as it will occupy space in the mobile screen.
- Subject Lines – Typically, these are limited to 50 characters including spaces. However, a full 50 character subject line, in addition to the From Address, uses valuable screen space on a mobile device. We recommend keeping the subject line as short as possible when deploying to mobile readers.
- Above the Fold – This is generally the top 500px of a message body, which is the portion users can read without scrolling down when reading off a PC. However, this gives new meaning and importance for mobile devices as screen sizes are so much smaller.
- The average smartphone has a 320px screen.
- Try to utilize short paragraphs and sentences to ensure that personalization (addressing reader by their name), relevancy (explanation of why the message is relevant to them), and call-to-action (survey length, deadline, incentive, and survey link) are all displayed on the first screen to minimize the need for the user to scroll down.
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"View On Mobile" – The pre-headers is potentially the most valuable real estate in the entire message body. Normally, this space is reserved for lines like “Please add us to your Address Book”. However, if there is a growing list of mobile readers, it may be as important to encourage users to read the message off a webpage in a mobile friendly format. Ie. "View on mobile."
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Test, test, test! – This is always one of the most important steps of any email campaign. However, this is even more important as users are reading emails off of mobile devices more frequently. You should test to see how you message renders on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and any other phone in your office that can display emails.
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Finding out who reads on mobile devices – Include an option in the PQ process that allows panelists to indicate if they are likely to read survey invitations on a mobile device. Further, ask if they are as likely to take the survey from their mobile device instead of a PC.
Email Sample
Below is a sample survey invitation. This email creative follows all email best practices in accordance with industry standards, which includes utilizing the "pre-headers", personalization, relevancy, concise call-to-action, physical address, and an opt-out link.
As a note of importance, we have highlighted the section of the message that is "above the fold", which is the area of the message that an email reader can see on a PC without having to scroll down. Our objective is to ensure that everything above the fold can be viewed on a mobile device with minimal scrolling.
Email Sample on iPhone
The screenshot below shows how the exact same email is rendered on an iPhone. This message rendered wonderfully with all the key elements (above the fold) on the first screen.
In this particular example, email readers would be able to understand the content of the message without having to scroll at all. Generally, some scrolling is inevitable – the goal is to minimize scrolling as much as possible.
More Information
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