Designing Mobile-Friendly Emails: Tips for the Modern Reader

Intro

Are your best leads unsubscribing from your emails because they can’t read them easily on their phones?

Over 70% of email opens now happen on mobile devices. Mobile-friendly designs are vital if you want to grab and keep attention … and make sales. Whether you’re in real estate or an entirely different industry, your email marketing list is likely your most valuable asset.

In this article, we’ll run through some practical ways to optimize your emails for mobile.

Why Mobile-Friendly Emails Matter

In 2012, less than a third (29%) of emails were opened on a mobile device. But at the end of 2024, that’s up to 70%. Most of your leads and clients will prefer mobile over desktop.

Poorly optimized emails result in:

• Little engagement. People may open your email… but then immediately close or delete it if it’s hard to read.
• Missed conversion opportunities. Even if someone reads the email, they may struggle to click a button (or not even realize it’s there) if it isn’t optimized for mobile.

With mobile-friendly emails, you’ll provide a much better user experience. Your emails will look professional and engaging, and your click-through rate will improve—along with your leads’ perception of your brand.

Design Essentials for Mobile-Friendly Emails

Creating a mobile-friendly email isn’t complicated. Here are the basics you need:

1. Use a Responsive Design

Email marketing software providers (like Constant Contact, HubSpot, AWeber, and Mailchimp) all provide responsive templates you can use.

It’s important to use these flexible layouts along with scalable images so that people using mobile devices won’t need to scroll sideways.

Here are just a few templates available in AWeber:

Tip: Preview your email on multiple devices and screen sizes. E.g. send a test email to yourself and check it out on your phone.

2. Simplify Your Content

Molly Ancel, Managing Partner at Peerpoint Property Solutions, shares it’s always good practice to keep your email newsletter concise and scannable … but this is particularly crucial when the text is read on a mobile device.

“Signpost” the reader through your email with bold headings. That way, people who are skimming can quickly find the information that’s relevant to them.

Images can enhance your emails but can also be slow to load. Consider whether keeping your email mostly text-based would work best for your audience.

3. Pick Mobile-Optimized Fonts and Buttons

Use a simple, clear font for your email. Make sure it’s at a legible size (16px or larger).

Buttons need to be easily tappable! That means a minimum size of 44px by 44px.

With links, use several words (not just one or two) as the anchor for easy tapping. Don’t have separate links too close together, either.

4. Optimize Your Images for Mobile

Always compress your images with a tool like TinyPNG. That way, they won’t take ages to load.

Include alt text with your images: this makes them accessible to leads who are using a screen reader. It also means the alt text will show up if the image doesn’t download for any reason.

Best Practices for Crafting Engaging Emails

Imagine your lead is scrolling through their emails while waiting in line for coffee. How can you grab their attention?

Subject Lines and Preheaders

Rob Gold, VP of Marketing Communications at Intermedia, recommends keeping your subject line under 50 characters. Remember, a mobile email client won’t display nearly as long a subject line as a desktop.

You should use the “preheader” text (sometimes called “preview” text) to add extra context or interest to your subject line. This text usually displays before the email is opened.

Here’s how that looks in AWeber:

Personalization

Use segmentation to target specific groups of leads or customers on your list. This makes it easy to send information they’re interested in.

You can also use personalization to address people by name, to add details of previous products/services they’ve bought from you, and more.

Call-to-Action

Leon Huang, CEO at RapidDirect, suggests making your calls to action prominent. Use action-focused language like “Shop Now” or “Learn More” to get people to click through—or try these one-line calls to action.

Testing and Iteration

A/B testing (sending two slightly different versions of an email) lets you refine your designs and content. For instance, if an orange CTA button outperforms a green CTA button, you can stick with orange for future emails.

Tools and Resources for Mobile Optimization

To go further with mobile optimization, you can use tools like Litmus and Email on Acid. Both of these let you preview your emails on 100+ different email clients/devices.

Tip: Including up-to-date information from the web like local house sales? Web scraper tools let you gather this automatically.

Create More Mobile-Friendly Emails Today

We’ve seen how crucial mobile-friendly emails are in a world where most of us are reading emails on our phones.

Making just a few tweaks to your email template or content could dramatically boost engagement and conversions.

Choose one tip above to put into practice today—and track your results.