Mobile optimization tips to boost your email marketing conversion rate

The verdict is in: m-commerce (or mobile commerce) is the new e-commerce. Now more than ever, it’s important to get your brand’s email marketing down to a tee on mobile.

Your marketing efforts likely include welcome emails, transactional emails, newsletters, post-purchase follow-ups and cart abandonment emails. All of these email types require mobile email optimization to boost your email marketing conversion rate.

In this article, we cover how you can optimize mobile-ready email templates, subject lines and body copy across a number of emails to grab interest and increase email conversion rates, before breaking down an example of an abandoned cart email template.

Note: To learn more about email marketing on mobile devices, check out our guide to mobile email marketing best practices🔍

The easy email marketing conversion rate booster: Mobile-ready templates

To create good emails that maximize your email open rates, click-through rates, opt-ins and other important metrics, it’s critical that your mobile email campaigns look professional and are user-friendly on all mobile devices.

Mobile-optimized templates are the best way to do this because you can “set and forget”, meaning the emails will automatically detect the screen size and optimize themselves for viewing on that device. This is also called a “responsive email”.

This optimization can include:

• Adjusting font size to improve readability

• Adjusting image sizes

• Altering line spacing

For more advice and ideas on responsive email design, check out 9 email design trends within your reach.

Get to the point by condensing your subject line

Your email subject line is the first thing that a potential customer sees in their inbox and one of the main things that can boost your email marketing conversion rate. It needs to make a lasting impression on your email recipients but also get to the point fast, as long email subject lines will get cut short on mobile devices. Different devices truncate mobile subject lines at different lengths, so there’s no specific number to stick to. Best practice is to keep your email subject lines under 60 characters, or around 9 words.

Personalized emails are among the most effective and personalization in the subject line (e.g. including the customer’s name) can work particularly well to create an impact.

Before you send out your email campaign to your entire email list, use segmentation and A/B testing to discover which subject lines work best with your email subscribers. Pick small list samples based on different demographics and don’t be afraid to experiment with your email message.

Optimizing your email body

Now we’ve addressed templates and subject lines, we’ll look at how you can optimize the content and body of your emails for mobile. If you’re formatting your content manually, rather than using a template, here are some tips to remember.

• Bigger fonts are far more readable. To ensure that your email content has maximum readability, your copy should be set to 14 pts minimum. Headlines should be at least 22 pts. However, note that any font smaller than 12 pts will be automatically resized to 12 pts on Apple devices, which could cause text to wrap differently than you expect and affect your email designs.

• Western users focus on the left-hand side of email content, according to eye-tracking research. Consider this when deciding where to place your links and images. The majority of users interact naturally and easily with elements in the bottom left and middle of their hand-held mobile screen.

• Screen size is generally small, so ensure that your content is concise. Use clear headers to break up large chunks of text and include bullet points and short paragraphs wherever possible. Position important information and statistics at the start of sentences and paragraphs, followed by further reading afterwards.

Strong copy and clear design can not only help you hit your conversion goals but also please email service providers, reduce bounce rates and unsubscribes, improve email deliverability and keep your emails out of spam folders.

Abandoned cart email template example

According to Barilliance, the average conversion rate for marketing emails is 1.33% – a helpful benchmark. The email type that generates the highest total revenue is the abandoned cart email.

To achieve a good conversion rate, your cart abandonment emails must be optimized for mobile devices. This will maximize the chance of your customer returning to your online store and making a purchase.

Here’s how you can boost your average email conversion rate and return on investment (ROI) by optimizing abandonment emails.

Nordstrom has mastered its cart abandonment communication with automated emails. Note how the content is short and snappy, with an image of the item in the cart. There’s one clear call-to-action (CTA) to return the customer to their shopping cart, so they won’t get distracted by anything else in the email. This CTA will take users to a landing page that recalls their shopping cart.

Session regeneration across devices is really important. If a customer receives an email and clicks on the CTA, only to find their cart empty, there’s a good chance they won’t bother to fill it up again. The desired action for this type of email is for them to buy, so make it as easy as possible.

Final thoughts

Implementing these top tips in your m-commerce email marketing strategy will help to ensure that you have the best chances for conversion through your emails.

Email templates, marketing automation and email optimization services are fantastic ways to get your email marketing up to scratch fast and achieve conversion rate optimization.

Mobile devices, like smartphones, are where your customers spend the most time and check their inboxes most often. Therefore, if you’re going to jump on the m-commerce bandwagon successfully, your emails require just as much mobile optimization as your social media apps.

Make sure that m-commerce is something that features high on your digital marketing agenda so you don’t get left behind.