Did you know that a whopping 81 per cent of people check their emails on their phone rather than at a computer?

Mobile-friendly design has become a must-have in email marketing communications. Without it, you will miss out on engaging your audience and driving results.

Here are four essential tips for transforming your message into a mobile-friendly email.

Keep subject lines short

We value email subject lines as recipients but hate writing them as senders. They need to be magnetic, contextual and work on multiple devices. Simple, right?

To start, keep subject lines short and snappy. Get straight to the point to catch your reader’s attention. And remember that while a desktop inbox displays about 60 characters of a subject line, mobile devices hover at around 25–30 characters.

Bonus tip: If you use an email marketing tool, dig into the stats to understand which devices your readers use. You can then fully optimise your subject lines for your audience.

Don’t overlook pre-header text

Pre-header text is generated from the first line of your email. It displays below the subject line as a preview in your inbox, giving further context and encouraging recipients to click.

Remember that mobile-friendly emails – particularly newsletters and email marketing campaigns – rely on well-thought-out pre-header text for engagement.

Bonus tip: Depending on the reader’s device and settings, pre-header text will display as the first seven or so words of your email. Keep this in mind when crafting that first line.

Write clear and concise text

The days of reading may tragically be behind us. We now live in the age of scanning.

Think of your reader as someone who is multitasking and short on time. Keep your writing concise and easy to skim and consume:

  • Avoid lengthy emails
  • Write short sentences and paragraphs
  • Use headers, bullet points and numbered lists

Bonus tip: Your email is no place for unnecessary adjectives. Write your message in straightforward language so that you’re using as little of your reader’s brainpower as possible.

Call your readers to action

More often than not, we email people to get them to do something. But on-the-go readers have no time to search for a call to action (CTA) – the part of the email that tells them how or where to click, buy or visit.

Keep your CTA simple and clear. And to optimise it for mobile devices, place your CTA towards the top of your email.

Bonus tip: Make your CTA button 44×44 pixels with 10 pixels of space around it to achieve the gold standard for maximum clickability.

The key takeaway

Making your emails mobile-friendly and mobile-responsive will convert your recipients into readers, making them more likely to engage with your message and boost your brand.

If you have any questions about how to optimise your emails and make them work for you, get in touch. The WriteMeAnything team is ready with the answers you need!