According to the latest US Consumer Device Preference Report from MovableInk, 66% of all email in the US is now opened and read on smartphones or tablets. To break it down more specifically, 49.5% of emails opened were on a smartphone, 33.66% on a desktop, and 16.8% on a tablet.
This presents both a great opportunity as well as a significant problem. First, most mobile devices do not come with built in SPAM checkers thus getting into the attendee’s inbox is a bit easier. On the other hand, with real estate on a smart phone being rather small you must ensure the attendee will see what you intended.
So when you create an email as a marketer you need to be prepared for your code to be opened on multiple devices with different screen sizes. There are generally two different ways to create your emails to make them render correctly across multiple screen sizes, summarized below.
Responsive email
Responsive email is the most common way to make emails render correctly across all devices. Responsive email uses a media query, also known as @media. This is a special set of CSS styles that act like conditional statements. So in effect, this code will set up a different set of rules on how to display the email based on what the screen size is.
Here is a good explanation with examples: https://litmus.com/blog/the-how-to-guide-to-responsive-email-design-infographic
This link has a solid list of resources: https://litmus.com/blog/our-favorite-responsive-and-mobile-email-resources?utm_campaign=infographic&utm_source=litmusblog&utm_medium=blog
Alternative approach
The other option is to go with a single design that will look good across all of the different devices. The link below explains how to do it. The key is to keep it simple. Their one column design will look good across multiple screen sizes. However, you will have to put in some extra code for this to work in Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Lotus Notes.
Here is the design and explanation: http://blog.fogcreek.com/responsive-html-emails-a-different-strategy/
It is getting increasingly important to create your emails with different screen sizes in mind. Event Technologies has been involved in sending marketing emails for trade show organizers and exhibitors since 2005. If you have any questions or want to discuss particular issues feel free to email me at kevin@event-techs.com.
