Minding the Mobile Inbox: 10 Tips to Get the Attention Your Email Deserves by @BBorowicz

by Brittney Borowicz  | Featured Contributor

Why email? This question haunts many marketers’ dreams. In the age of spam filters, Gmail’s “Promotions” tab and one-click unsubscribe buttons, it seems like email is going by the wayside. Despite the new and emerging hoops that marketers have to jump through just to get their message to their audiences’ inboxes, email remains the second largest acquisition channel behind organic search.

In fact, 79% of email recipients use their smartphone for reading email… a higher percentage than those who use it for making calls. In addition, 91% of consumers check their email at lease once per day on their smartphone, making it the most-used functionality on these devices. Knowing this, it’s time for marketers to change their thinking of the present day as the “Age of Spam Filters” to thinking of it as the “Era of the Email Device.”

Marketers must adopt a “mobile-first” mentality, which means it’s time to start minding the mobile inbox. In order to get the attention your email deserves, take these 10 tips to make your emails more mobile-friendly.

Technical Details

1. Make your emails responsive. Click-to-open rates are 40% higher for brands that send exclusively responsive emails versus brands that send only non-responsive.
2. Use a “friendly” sender name. Try using the name of someone in your company. Using “Customer Service” or “Info” is a turn-off for consumers but a definite turn-on for an inbox’s spam filter to kick in.
3. Set your images to the right. In case your email is not responsive (Tsk. Tsk. See number tip #1.), this allows your reader to see your important text first rather than making them scroll for it. Mobile users don’t like scrolling.
4. Have your main calls-to-action visible at the top of the email. This tip is similar to the last… mobile users just don’t like to scroll. This entices them to act when they first open your email!
5. Make everything clickable. Images, section headlines, calls-to-action… you name it! A mobile reader is more likely to click to get more information than try to find it in your email.

Subject Lines

1. Keep your subject line short. Remember, a consumer’s inbox on their phone is much smaller than on their computer. Keep your subject line between four and seven words max. (From personal experience, this is hard to do at first. Don’t think you can do it? Read the next tip.)
2. Ditch the “If you can’t see this, click here” preview text. Instead, use this area as an extension of your subject line to deliver your “hook.”
3. Use the people-to-people rule. Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened.
4. Give your subject lines urgency. Include a deadline or other featured date so that your readers know they need to act fast!
5. Give your subject lines some extra energy! Subject lines that end in exclamation marks have higher open rates than those that don’t.

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Brittney Borowicz is an integrated marketing professional with a strong communications background specializing in journalism, public relations and social media. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Brittney has spent the past few years working with entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Chicagoland area to enhance their marketing and social media efforts.

Prior to her current role as the Marketing Manager for an embedded networking company, Brittney realized her affinity for all things media and marketing while working in radio and television and as a professional presenter. Later, she began working at a couple of small marketing agencies in Chicago as a Public Relations and Sales Director and Account Manager, which required her to be well-versed in coordinating specialized public and media relations strategies, creative marketing initiatives and cohesive sales process implementations.

As a strong believer in intimate consumer/brand involvement, Brittney helps her clients create content that engages and educates brand audiences while establishing each individual or company as a thought leader in their industry.

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Brittney Borowicz

Brittney Borowicz is an integrated marketing professional with a strong communications background specializing in journalism, public relations and social media. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Brittney has spent the past few years working with entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Chicagoland area to enhance their marketing and social media efforts.

Prior to her current role as the Marketing Manager for an embedded networking company, Brittney realized her affinity for all things media and marketing while working in radio and television and as a professional presenter. Later, she began working at a couple of small marketing agencies in Chicago as a Public Relations and Sales Director and Account Manager, which required her to be well-versed in coordinating specialized public and media relations strategies, creative marketing initiatives and cohesive sales process implementations.

As a strong believer in intimate consumer/brand involvement, Brittney helps her clients create content that engages and educates brand audiences while establishing each individual or company as a thought leader in their industry.