The majority of the emails that you send will be read on Smart Phones and tablets. That means you could be missing out on important business if your emails are not displaying correctly on mobile devices.
In this post we look at things you MUST do to ensure that your emails are displayed correctly on computers, tablets and most importantly smart phones.
Stats say 55% of email is now opened on a mobile device (Litmus “Email Analytics” -March 2016) and the numbers are expected to increase. In fact it is already up 500% since 2010.
Here are 3 quick and easy things you can do in Outlook to ensure that your emails look right, get read and most importantly get responded to.
- Use a BIGGER font size
Mobile device screens are small and you need to make sure that your text can be read easily. We recommend a minimum font size of 14 pts for body text.
- Use a dark text color (Black) on a light background (White)
Don’t get too creative with your font colors and backgrounds. Dark text on a light background usually works best.
It is readable in most conditions…like in bright sunlight. It is also readable if users have turned down the brightness of their screens to save battery life.
- Don’t use too many images
You can’t assume that your images will be displayed because many mobile operating systems (e.g. Android) turn images off by default.
Users often don’t download images in order to save data.
We recommend that you add images for effect but still write emails that convey your full message even if the images were turned off.
4th (Bonus) Tip: Write what is important at the top of the email
People often use their mobiles for “pruning” their emails before doing the real reading and responding on their computers.
Make sure you make your point quickly or your email could be deleted and never actually re-read on the desktop.
5th (Bonus) Tip: RESPOND QUICKLY! Don’t wait for the recipient to reply!
According to lead response management survey, your odds of qualifying a lead in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drops 21 times.
That’s within the first 30 minutes!
The same survey shows that you have 10x greater chance of just contacting leads if you contact them within the first hour.
So… you need to know who has opened your emails and contact them, even if they don’t reply.
Coming Up…
We are relooking at all of our Outlook addins for Business to ensure that they continue to serve you in the new era of mobile devices. Next week, we will be making an announcement for Email Merge for Outlook which thousands of Outlook users are using to send out sales and marketing emails to their customers.
In the meantime, please let us know if you have your own tips on making emails more readable on mobile devices by leaving a comment below.
Another suggestion may be to list an overview of attachments included with the email, since a) email clients on phones not always make it very evident to see that there are attachments and how many and b) here too they are not necessarily downloaded automatically.
1. A brief yet informative subject is essential to a well crafted email. A well conceived subject determines whether the email body is read, saved or discarded at first glance.
2. Use straight line wrap. Only enter a hard line break to delineate a true paragraph check. This avoids unnatural line breaks on any size screen.
3. Always provide a signature which includes your name, company and phone. This enables the receiver to respond immediately to an email without having to access a contact system.