Social media moves traffic to blogs and blogs move traffic to landing pages… it’s true. But for a whole bunch of reasons, email is still the most important online marketing channel for the majority of us, and it will continue to be for at least a few more years.
If you don’t believe me, just ask the big wigs at Amazon. I got a total of six marketing emails from Amazon last week Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Deal Days… Jeff Bezos wouldn’t be wasting his time on email something if it didn’t work, believe me.
You absolutely can’t afford to ignore your mobile email users. Not only will over a third of you emails be opened on mobile devices, mobile users score way higher on the action-taking scale.
So what are you currently doing (or not doing) that is KILLING your mobile email conversions?
Mobile Email Formatting
Basically, it all boils down to readability.
The first step is getting the email opened, but you already know how to write great, concise subject lines. Step 2 is where most marketers are seriously blowing it, and it’s a huge shame… because most of heavy lifting (Step 1, for example) has already been done.
Step 2 is making sure, at almost any cost, that your email displays properly on mobile devices. If you’re going with a nice, visually-driven layout, that’s great. However, if it does ANYTHING to hurt readability on Android or iOS devices… drop it.
The one thing you can be sure of is that a plain text email will display well on mobile. And plain text shouldn’t hurt your CTRs at all or annoy mobile users. In other words, it’s not pretty but it will get the job done.
On the other hand, 63% of Americans say they’ll immediately close or DELETE an email that doesn’t display right on their smartphone. Don’t kid yourself, they’re not going to scroll around to read the rest of your headline or see your discounts…
Here’s the other thing to keep in mind when crafting a mobile-optimized email. Most users are on Apple iOS and Android, so you should check the display on those two at the very least.
Got something to add? I’d love to hear your thoughts about mobile marketing… Go leave me a comment!
Talk soon,
Ryan
Josh is the managing editor of Digital Marketer, as well an aspiring novelist. Find out more about what Josh is working on on 
13 comments
We got an awesome question from a subscriber on FB:
"Ryan, I read your blog post on Why You Need to Mobilize Your Email and it brings up a very important question. What if you're using an inbox newsletter/ ezine?
How can you "mobilize" that? Because as far as I know you can't. Are you suggesting we drop that model completely cause its not particularly user friendly?"
I thought it would be awesome to find out what YOU guys are doing to address this... What are you guys doing to make sure your newletters/ezines are as mobile-friendly as possible?
Do most phones etc auto convert text to the small column email?
Well I read your email on my Blackberry OK and followed through to comment so something worked for you! The landing page here did not appear readable on my BB until I scolled down to the comment section below the repeated text of the email.
Thanks for the information
Pilling back and responding to email is a necessary vital mechine to getting important notice out to everyone you see fit your lifestyle.
I made a comment the last time that I couldn't read your email right on my smartphone.
Not sure if you read that comment. Then again, maybe that's why you wrote this post!
You need to get video email! Talk Fusion is awesome. Http://growwithtalkfusion.com to People will really notice your emails then.
I know that iPhones do, but I'm not sure about all the Android versions...
Ryan, great post. We should connect. I have a new email delivery and accountability free solution (reallybigresults.com) and a free and unlimited newsletter service anyone can use. It is appropriate to your blog item. Cheers
Dear Ryan Deiss:
Your "How to Create Your First Kindle Book This Week End" is awesome. To reach over 400 million more people with it, would you like to have it translated into Spanish? Using the same concise, direct and interesting style as in the English version. This in exchange for you letting me join the "Number 1 Book System" (I don't have a credit card).
Best regards!
Most of our email marketing involves short videos. Doesn't that present a problem for mobile devices?
Most smartphone users can watch videos, but it does depend on the player you're using. Flash-based videos won't work for Apple users. It's definitely something to test!
Very Interesting and practical tip, but the question is how to solve the problem.
Please give us the solution.
Great article on email. I love to read your posts, emails and blogging pages. thanks !