How we open our email

It may seem a small thing, but for marketers knowing the devices we use to open our email is a big deal.

The reason? Email is still the most used most used marketing medium – by both advertisers and users. One cannot simply assume that users still sit comfortably in front of a desktop or laptop, coffee at hand, grazing over their email and clicking on the tempting links often embedded within emails. And, as it turns out, research shows that such an assumption wouldn’t be “quite” right.

While 55% of emails are still opened on traditional desktops and laptops, an increasing amount of email is now first being opened on mobile devices – 25% on smartphones, and just over 7% on tablets. For the marketer, recognizing that nearly 1/3 (and growing) of email is first being opened on mobile devices has implications:

it must be readily readable on the mobile device (think font and font size)
long emails spell death for marketing results – fewer words are better
the attention-grabber must appear early and clearly
the call to action must be both clear, easy to see, and easy to action

Clear, concise, legible, attention-getting, and actionable. But, is any of that really new?

Written by Michael

Michael Douglas has held senior positions in sales, marketing and general management since 1980, and spent 20 years at Sun Microsystems, most recently as VP, Global Marketing. His experience includes start-ups, mid-market and enterprises. He's currently VP Enterprise Go-to-Market for NVIDIA.

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