Within thinking of optimizing email campaigns for mobile devices, one must take this into account: how periodically users access their emails on smartphone or desktops?

At the time as smartphones seem to be the favorite choice of every individual around the globe when deciding to purchase a phone, duly, the majority prioritizes to check their email using smartphones neglecting any other device they might posses, the key reason for that is checking emails on smartphones seems easier no matter when or where. Accordingly, designers nowadays are tending to breed email templates customized for mobile users and test them if they fit on desktop as well. When fine designs and email best practices are launched, more users are exposed to sign up and start checking emails on their phones. Optimizing email marketing for mobile is the trendiest method to attract not only new users but new opportunities as well. 

Recent research in this field have pointed out that the optimal method to encompass mobile optimization is to regularly set a target that implies updating email patterns which can be noticed by users and considered as mobile-friendly, thus, users start recommending it to each other. It is inevitable that maintaining fine designs on desktops jointly with smartphones or any other device is challenging, however, it is fundamental.

A few workable counsels are drawn here to help develop email designs:

Maintaining Simple Layout.

Simple and succinct layouts are crucial for all emails in order to fit on different devices, specifically for mobile versions in light of the small screen sizes. Simplicity makes an impression that lasts. Simplicity is realized by maintaining the design clear; positing the major elements in a place that firstly catches the eye, usually at the top of the email and social sharing button can be also added. Functionality is the focal point in this case due to limitation in displaying windows on smartphones. 

Applying a simple layout is recommended and this requires avoiding multi-columns, as the single column is easily readable when it comes to smartphones along with keeping the width not more than 600 pixels and not less than 500 pixels, particularly the threshold, it mustn’t go beyond 600 pixels. Otherwise, viewing messages is going to be difficult, so users display messages with ease with no need for zooming. 

Optimizing Readable Fonts

As indicated before, users do not have to zoom in order to read emails, this includes choosing the suitable font size, i.e. for the header size using 22-30 pt is perfect and 13 pt for the body of email, any smaller fonts will not get things balanced and possibly ruin the envisioned layout. Lastly, the color of the font against the background is a key factor when outlining an email design, due to the variety of options that different smartphones may include, at some point brightness of the screen plays a major role that when users turn down brightness colors make the words loom and absolutely more readable, so it is about simplicity again.

Crafting Attracting Subject Line

The email subject line is the threshold which induces prospects to open an email or delete it immediately, thus, crafting the perfect subject line has become an obsess for the digital experts; in this respect a shiny subject and the number of characters used in the subject are the essential points to give thought to. A shiny subject attracts users and gets emails more opened and not being neglected or deleted at the first sight. This, however, should go in alignment with the number of characters; this is tested by checking out what is the most used email by users since it differs from one email to another, this helps choose the suitable subject length, i.e. it is 41-70 characters for Gmail and iPhone as they the most common used all over the world. It is also recommended using the A/B testing facilitates this mission to bring the best outcome of it. 

Checking the Pre-Header and Footer

Another factor to convince users to open emails is the pre-header which is the brief summary that follows the subject line. Some email campaigns ignore adding the pre-header meanwhile it is very requested these days, since it gives a further explanation to the subject line, in most cases; the company logo is used. In the meantime to guarantee that users browse emails effectively, it is requisite to make sure that the header contains a description as some email recipients can’t browse images properly whilst using their phones. This also assists users to relate to the email subject whether it is a newsletter, invitation, advertisement or a merely email.

The footer in an email is the bottom part in which further details about the business, or whatsoever, is included such as company’s mailing address, phone number, website, email contact address, etc. as they grant credibility for the incorporate. It is commonly included the “unsubscribe” button and the latter is greatly suggested to optimizing the footer. Although emails seem to be an effective method to keep clients as well as to attract more; but for reason of respecting the users’ choice of terminating viewing emails from a certain company, the “unsubscribe” button has become a must in the footer, as it is considered inconvenient to impose a user receiving unwanted emails particularly promotions. This also gives more credibility to the company too.

Including Clear Call-to-Action

Call-to-action  buttons are the buttons used to help users take the action requested by the website; for example, free trial sign-up button, download buttons and purchase buttons. Providing benefits to the recipient requires necessarily working on call-to-action button that have an obvious message. Any action on the phones, which has to place fingers on, buttons’ size should be fit enough so that users feel comfortable when clicking on it. As scientific studies have shown that the adult’s average size is up to 20 millimeters; which equals 45-57 pixels approximately, thus, a clickable size should be 44 px according to Apple. Furthermore, the size of such buttons and links should be a minimum of 44 x 44 px, any smaller size makes it hard to click on. Meanwhile to give users the option to deal with such buttons with ease it is recommended to design them of 57 x 57 px to ensure that they will appear in a well-shaped form and fit for different sizes of thumbs of clients as well.

Optimizing Images

Depending on images in emails has become common in almost every single email regardless the email content. Digital marketers are aware of this trend as clients have become more visual. This doesn’t imply that messages must contain only images; since not all clients are the same, off course there are some clients who look for the content itself. This category of users, particularly Android users, might terminate displaying images by default; meanwhile the Apple’s iOS developed an automatic displaying for pictures. Therefore, adding an alternative text (alt text) is suggested so if the image is not being browsed for some reason, the description will give the client a brief idea that intended to be described in the graphic.  

Reducing included file size as well as the size of the image optimizes the graphics in an email. The most workable process to that is converting the image using specialized tools such as the file optimizer; the choices seem varied due to the multiple online image optimization plugins on the web such as, EWWW Image Optimizer, WP Smush, CW Image Optimizer, etc. The plugins effectively perform the needed compression with the requested resolution for an image by centering it to fit all devices, for maximum benefit it is suggested to set the height of the image to "auto", and setting the max width in proportion to the screen so it is taking up. After having done with adjusting settings a constant email viewing must take place to guarantee that images and alt text are being well-performed

Developing Meaningful Content

In any email and as a result of the limited retail space, every single word is considered; so mindfulness is required in two aspect; words and spaces, when it comes to craft the proper content. 

As mentioned before, the key words are used either in the subject or at the beginning of the text. Crafting a brief straightforward to the point “subject” that makes a good impression, considering that users do not spend more than a few seconds to decide displaying an email or deleting it. The content should be also succinct and meaningful. Heaps of unread emails are constantly found in users’ inboxes, an email which conveys intriguing content will instantly catch the eye.

Choosing Scalable or Responsive Design

Scalable and responsive designs are both usable by digital designers to outline an email design. Selecting the first type or the second one will be profited into extra ROI. However scalable design adopts the simpler format, where emails are formatted to only fit a mobile screen, thus, many issues will emerge if an email designer or a blogger decides to add extra contents within a message. On the other hand, responsive design might not be that easy for a beginner, but there are still tips on Youtube to deal with it. Concerning the number of clients who already handle predesigned responsive templates this can be beneficial in the guidance of creating an email outline that efficiently works on all platforms, not only on smartphones. An efficient way to invest in time and money is by applying responsive design, as it considerably renders email message across all platforms, which can produce more clicks and conversion rates. 

Apply Best Practices

Well-formatted email designs, which look good on the various devices, are excessively used.

Ensuring crafting email designs properly requires applying carefully the aforementioned tips, which eventually lead to increasing email open rates.

To avoid mistakes, it is necessary doing extra work on testing and reviewing of an email before sending it, as mistakes decrease the credibility of the email and its sender.  It can be tested by some email preview tools available on the web, for example, Previewmyemail, Emailonacid, Putsmail, Litmus, etc.

Regular email designs are vastly applied and they still can bring the best practices. Briefly, crafting a significant content, including images smartly, finding harmony between images and plain text, adding alt text and it is always recommended to retaining a plain-text version.

Recognizing carefully the right methods to apply to a mobile email optimization campaign will guide in adopting a responsive email at its best. The key factor that determines whether recipients will continue reading a certain email or not is design and content, thus, email designers should bring more awareness and effort of them. Growing the audience of a business depends on sending emails to the right relative audience in the first place as well as testing and viewing emails before sending them to make sure they get perfectly browsed.