With mobile devices accounting for around 58% of global traffic — and around 4.25 billion daily email users, receiving hundreds of billions of e-letters — it is clear that your message, whether it be a promotional email, newsletter, or survey, should look compelling on both mobile and desktop.
It would be suicidal for brands not to have responsive emails in 2022, when the attention span of humans has decreased to eight seconds, one second less than a goldfish. Jokes aside, your emails must look equally sleek on any device they hit unless you want to sacrifice more than half of your customers. In other words, your emails should be responsive and — ideally — available in bulk to choose the suitable template depending on the message.
The good news is that responsive email templates are not hard to design, do not cost much, and can dramatically enhance your outreach, improve the customer journey, and ultimately grow your business ROI.
Read on to learn more about why you need responsive email templates.
What Is a Responsive Email Template?
You must’ve heard the word ‘responsive’ before. A decade ago, responsive websites were all the rage. They’ve come to adapt webpages for different screen sizes and viewports. Surprisingly, emails haven’t transformed the way websites did. Tons of unresponsive letters still flood our mailboxes, but only to be discarded.
- A responsive email looks good across any device, be it a desktop computer, a mobile phone, or a tablet. The change in layout, navigation, hierarchy, size, and color to fit a specific user (operating system, browser, and email client) is possible due to CSS media queries that automatically adjust the content to the screen.
Knowing HTML and CSS, you can create templates of any complexity, from the simplest to the most elaborate, to cater to customers in every segment. But sometimes, there are so many different operating systems, browsers, and email segments that it’s much simpler to use ready-made templates rather than creating your own from scratch. “Which solution you choose, use DKIM check to guarantee domain authenticity.”
How to Design a Responsive Email Template?
You have to respect several things in your responsive email template:
- Layout: Not only should you use eye-catching visuals and striking messages in your emails, but you should also arrange the page sections right, making sure customers see what you want them to see. The easiest, trouble-free layout would be a 500 or 600-pixel layout with sections displayed below the other.
- Brand message and positioning: It’s best not to overload mobile users with content. A craftily designed main message on the first screen should interest them. If the email is long, make sure to use hooks. Most users scroll through the content before reading it.
- Fonts: Not all email clients support all fonts, so it would be reasonable to have a backup if some of the fonts you rely on don’t work. Or you can stick with web-safe fonts: Arial, Brush Script MT, Courier New, Georgia, Garamond, Helvetica, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Times New Roman, and Verdana.
- Links and buttons: Apple’s recommended minimum for CTA buttons and links is 44×44 pixels, as this is precisely the space you need to make links and buttons comfortably clickable. Any smaller size worsens user experience and leads to a loss in customers.
- Light mode and Dark Mode: Around 82% of smartphone users occasionally switch to Dark Mode, so don’t neglect that. You can even apply Dark Mode by default for some time-sensitive emails (for example, emails delivered in the evening).
Finally, do not impose your products on customers. Make unsubscribing easy. Cut your losses, and don’t spend time or resources on those unlikely to engage.
3 Benefits of Using Responsive Email Templates
1. Consistency, Time, & Money
You may want to design every campaign manually, but it is difficult to do so if you have many campaigns for different customer segments. However, having several dozen or better hundred ready-made responsive templates would save the day, allowing you to plug branded content – logo design, colors, motto, etc. – into an existing email. This way, you can stay consistent with your brand image and avoid unproductive design work.
2. User Experience
A properly designed and displayed layout, positioning, fonts, and CTAs in a responsive email will significantly improve the user experience. A neat, understandable, convincing, and visually appealing message is hard to resist for those even slightly interested in your offerings.
At the same time, those uninterested are likely to leave you for good, which can be good for your email hygiene. After all, who wants subscribers who aren’t interested in the touchpoints you have with them?
3. Conversion & Sales
Designed mostly for mobile users, responsive emails will help you deliver your message to customers who are on the go, making sure it looks beautiful on their devices. Responsive emails might be the only way to reach busy customers and those tied to their phones.
More customers mean more sales. With the right first impression, you have a chance to convert subscribers into customers on the spot.
Measure Your Success
Empowering your business with responsive email templates is only half the job; the other half is measuring your performance to understand what works and doesn’t. Luckily, even standard email metrics – CTR rate, open rates, and email forwards – can show you which of your emails resonate and which ones lack success.
Now, you know what to do next: double down on the most successful campaigns and cut down unprofitable ones to grow your email ROI while granting a seamless customer journey for your leads.
Get Top Email Insights at MailCon 2023
The announcement for MailCon 2023 is right around the corner. The email and omnichannel conference is expected to return with more content, diverse speakers, a luxurious exhibition experience, intentional networking, and great fun for its attendees.
Stay tuned and connected for future announcements and details on MailCon’s next event or webinar series in the meantime.
