I don’t know about you, but when I get an email on my phone and have to squint my eyes to try and make out the words, I hit delete. The emails I’m deleting aren’t spammy, unpersonalized messages — they’re just poorly optimized for mobile. And I’m not the only person who does this.
In fact, at the time of this post, 49% of poll participants on LifeHacker voted that out of the emails they receive each day, only 25 or fewer of them were spam. That was the smallest bucket that the 3,304 voters (thus far) could choose from.
If only a small portion of emails received each day is actually spam, that means you have a chance to actually compete for attention in a user’s inbox. And your mobile readiness may just be what makes or breaks you.
The following 13 stats explain why.
Case #1: Mobile Email Usage Is Increasing
1) 74% of smartphone owners use their devices to check their email. (Source: Gartner)
2) Mobile now makes up the majority of email opens at 51%. (Source: Litmus)
3) 68% of Gmail and Yahoo opens are coming from mobile devices. (Source: Litmus)
4) By the end of 2018, worldwide mobile email users are expected to total over 2.2 billion. By this time, 80% of email users are expected to access their email accounts via a mobile device. (Source: Radicati)
Takeaway? Prepare mobile-friendly emails.
More and more mobile users are accessing emails through their mobile devices. In order to effectively see results from your email marketing campaigns, you’ll need to ensure each of those emails is ready for reading by the 74% of smartphone owners who use their mobile phones to check email.
Case #2: Businesses Aren’t Preparing for Mobile
5) Only 11.84% of newsletters use responsive design techniques to optimize their layouts for mobile devices. (Source: Equinux)
6) 24% of companies aren’t optimizing their email creative for mobile viewers in any way. (Source: Experian)
7) 39% of marketers have no strategy for mobile email. (Source: eConsultancy)
8) Over 95% of emails are only opened on one device. Very few users open emails on mobile first and save for desktop later. (Source: knotice)
9) 70% of consumers delete emails immediately that don’t render well on a mobile device. (Source: bluehornet)
Takeaway? Beat the competition with mobile optimized emails.
Despite rising consumption of email on mobile devices, many businesses refuse to address this shift. The technical and expertise changes needed to become an early adopter prevents marketers from investing in a mobile email strategy. Don’t let that be you! Mobile phone owners aren’t starring emails on their phone to be read later. Once they read it once on their phone, they’re done.
You can either be another unoptimized sender, or you can get on the mobile trend before the competition does and start winning deals faster through mobile. Fortunately many tools are available to show you where your email traffic is coming from, including Signals, a free email tracking tool that will show you who is opening your emails and what device they opened it on.
Case #3: Mobile Emails Generate Revenue
10) 56% of shoppers are likely to make a purchase via a mobile app in the next year. (Source: Adobe)
11) 69% of shoppers are influenced to make a purchase on mobile by company emails. (Source: Adobe)
12) 90% of consumers who have joined mobile loyalty programs feel they have gained value from them. (Source: Zoomerang)
13) Special offers (27%), vouchers (21%), and real-time tracking (21%) are most preferred email types to receive on mobile. (Source: Edialog)
14) Nearly two-thirds of consumers subscribed to mobile marketing indicate that they have made a purchase as a result of receiving a highly relevant mobile message. (Source: Responsys)
15) Mobile offers are redeemed 10X more frequently than print offers. (Source: eMarketer)
Takeaway? Use mobile email content to make money.
Whether you’re an ecommerce business directly generating sales from email sends or a B2B company sending a dedicated marketing offer to increase lead flow, mobile-friendly emails can benefit your bottom line.
Now I’m not going to lie, optimizing for email can take some time. But investing just a little more time when preparing your mobile campaigns can go a long way in benefiting your business.
