Your Email Newsletter Needs A Mobile Friendly Design - Here’s Why!

Did you know that over 60% of all emails were opened on a mobile device, and that this figure is increasing every day? You may think marketers go on about mobile far too much, but with these figures, it’s easy to see why mobile-friendly design needs to be taken so seriously.

With mobile users rising rapidly, the last thing you want is to show your audience an unresponsive email template that doesn’t appear properly on mobile. You may also be missing opportunities with subject lines that don’t fully appear, or Calls To Action (CTAs) that are too far below the fold on mobile to be fully noticed.

Here’s our comprehensive guide to the importance of mobile-friendly design in email newsletters, including the key benefits, how you can make an email template mobile-friendly, and how beehiiv can help along the way.

Why Do You Need a Mobile-Friendly Design?

So why is a mobile-friendly design so important?

Here are our top five reasons why you need to start using mobile-friendly templates now.

#1: Responsive Design

Arguably the most important reason why mobile-friendly design is so important is to ensure that your email template is responsive on all devices. Naturally, an email will look different on mobile from how it would appear on a desktop, so you need to bear this in mind when designing your templates.

Sticking to a column layout is one way of ensuring a responsive design, as this way your content will adapt depending on the device. It’s also important to pay attention to font size; you want your copy to be large enough to view on a small screen without taking up too much space. Bear these points in mind to ensure your email template is as responsive as possible.

If you’re looking at using custom sizes for your email template, check out our blog for some top tips on email newsletter dimensions.

#2: Audience Engagement

Audience engagement is an important KPI that will be greatly improved with a mobile-friendly design. If your email template works well on a range of mobile devices, it’s more likely that your subscribers will be able to view your email in its entirety and engage with different links and CTAs.

Good audience engagement could include a high click-through rate (CTR), users taking time to fully engage with your email, and also high open rates. If your audience knows that your emails are mobile-friendly, they are much more likely to open emails from you in the future, as they know what to expect.

#3: Unsubscribe Rates

If your email template isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re likely to receive a higher number of unsubscribes than if your email looked great on all devices. This is because your email may not load properly if it isn’t mobile-friendly, and that could encourage your audience to hit the unsubscribe button.

Changing your email template to a mobile-friendly design will keep your subscribers enjoying your emails whether they’re checking their inbox on their phone or computer–and, ultimately, make them less likely to unsubscribe from your mailing list.

If you want to know more about unsubscribe rates or figure out the unsubscribe rate for your industry, check out our blog!

#4: Interactive Email Templates

Mobile-friendly email templates give you the functionality to make your newsletters more interactive, including video elements and polls.

If your email template is more interactive you’ll find engagement rates will increase, keeping your audience enjoying your content and coming back for more. Remember, the more engaging your email is, the longer they’ll stay on the page–and the longer they stay on the page, the more likely they are to respond to your CTAs.

#5: Spam Rates

Emails that don’t respond well on mobile are more likely to hit spam filters, resulting in your email landing in the dreaded Junk folder.

This is because email providers are becoming more intelligent when it comes to determining spam, and since most emails are now viewed on mobile, it can be seen as ‘spammy’ if an email isn’t fully responsive. Make sure you keep your email mobile-friendly to reduce the chance of it landing in your subscribers’ spam boxes.

How Do I Make My Email Newsletter Mobile-Friendly?

So now we know why it’s important to ensure that email newsletters are mobile-friendly. But what can you do to create the best mobile-friendly email template?

Here are a few top tips to get you started! You’ll be on your way to being a mobile-friendly email expert in no time.

Subject Line & Preheader Text

Set a good first impression on mobile by choosing an appropriate subject line for your email. There’s little point in coming up with a lengthy subject line. Chances are, most of it is going to be cut off on smaller screens. This not only looks unprofessional–it will likely result in lower open rates, as your subscribers won’t fully understand what your email contains. Stick to no more than around nine words when writing your subject line - if you need some subject line inspiration, check out the beehiiv blog!

You should also make sure you’re using the preheader text when writing your email newsletter. The preheader text is the copy that appears after the subject line as a brief summary of the email. This is very important for mobile users, as it gives them a guide to what the email is about. This is a good opportunity to increase open rates.

Short Content

When writing the content for your email newsletter, make sure that the copy is concise. Subscribers who are reading your email on mobile won’t have the screen space for reams of content, and it will look like huge blocks of text that won’t be appealing to the reader.

Stick to short sections of copy broken up by images and CTAs. It’s also important to ensure your font size isn’t too small so that subscribers on mobile won’t have to zoom in to read it on a small screen.

Images

Another top tip for making your email mobile-friendly? Don’t over-use images. Some devices won’t load images automatically, which could leave large gaps in your newsletter. Also, if a subscriber’s connection isn’t great, or if the images are too large, this could prevent your email from loading at all.

Stick to a few compressed images with short sections of copy and relevant CTAs. This should allow your email to load properly and keep your audience engaged.

Important Content & CTAs Above the Fold

Mobile users are going to have a different viewing experience of your emails than desktop users, as the screen will be significantly smaller. Because of this, it’s really important to get the most important parts of your email “above the fold,” before they need to scroll down, including your best CTA.

This way you’re increasing the chances of your audience engaging with your email, as they won’t need to scroll down to view the key elements of your newsletter.

Test, Test, and Test Again

This tip may seem obvious, but we can’t stress it enough. When creating your mobile-friendly email newsletter you must test it on a range of different devices/email providers to make sure it’s fully responsive.

You could be viewing your email on a tablet and think it looks great, and then realize your images aren’t loading properly when viewing on a smaller device. Send yourself test emails before scheduling the final design, and make sure you’re checking how your email appears on different devices, email providers, and browsers.

What Are the Characteristics of a Mobile-Friendly Email?

When viewing a mobile-friendly email, there are a few characteristics that are easy to spot.

Mobile-friendly emails tend to contain short-form content, so as to not overwhelm the user, and include interactive content such as videos or images. It’s also likely that the content will be laid out in columns, ensuring that the content can adapt and be responsive no matter the size/orientation of the device.

The email will have a concise subject line, and the preheader text will be populated so that the user will know a rough summary of what the email contains before they’ve even opened it. You also won’t need to scroll in and out of content, as the font will be large enough and all content will be visible.

Ironically, the main feature of a mobile-friendly email is that you won’t notice that it’s trying to be mobile-friendly, as it will appear perfectly on whichever device you’re using!

Do Email Templates Work Better on Mobile?

Email templates are likely to work better on mobile. They tend to be responsive, and will therefore automatically respond to the device they’re being viewed upon.

Templates give you the ability to create a responsive design that you love, and the ability to use it over and over again without the fear of it becoming unresponsive in the future. You can simply create a template, thoroughly test it, and then re-use it to your heart’s content–saving you time, and reassuring you that your email newsletter will appear correctly on mobile.

Wrap-up: Use beehiiv for Your Mobile-Friendly Email Template

We hope you’re feeling full of knowledge and ready to get started on your own mobile-friendly email template!

You’ve got all the tools and tips to create an awesome email that will look great on all devices, so what are you waiting for? You can sign up for a free trial with beehiiv and start putting your new-found knowledge into practice!

Our email newsletter platform ensures that your emails are fully responsive on smaller screens which, as you’ve learned today, is super important. Start creating your mobile-friendly email with beehiiv today - we can’t wait to hear what you come up with!