Mobile optimized emails drive higher conversions and bad user experiences can have a negative impact on your brand

1. Mobile optimized emails can increase conversions 10 to 20%.
One of the most impressive email stats around mobile optimized emails is the impact on conversion. Based on our own testing, J&C has found that conversions can be improved 10 to 20% by mobile optimizing emails. This is a pretty astounding impact given the nominal incremental cost of mobile optimizing email. This email stat underscores the impact of ensuring users can interact and fully view emails via mobile devices. Not mobile optimizing your emails is literally like leaving money on the table.

2. Email open rates on mobile devices are over the 50% mark.
There are a number of email stats that validate email opens on mobile devices are growing. Mobile email opens now dominate when compared with webmail and desktop email opens. According to a recent study by Litmus, nearly half of all emails are now opened on a smartphone or tablet. It is a reality that users are utilizing a combination of computers and mobile devices to receive, open and read emails.

3. Mobile email usage grew 10% from 2012 to 2013.
Mobile email usage continues to grow. According to Litmus, a 10% increase in email opens on mobile devices occurred between 2012 and 2013. There is no reason to think that this trend will stall; all evidence points to these numbers continuing to grow. Mobile email opens will continue to build in their dominance as even more email users grow accustomed to using their smartphone or tablet, increasing the need for mobile optimized emails.

4. More than half of mobile device users expect fast mobile load times.
Users aren’t tolerant of usability gaps with mobile optimized emails. According to KISSMetrics, 58% of those surveyed expect that load times on mobile devices should be faster, equal to, or only slightly slower than on their desktop. And the vast minority, only 11%, of consumers expect their mobile browsing experience to be much slower than their desktop experience.

5. Users expect a mobile-friendly experience, with 80% deleting emails that don’t fit their device.
Over 80% of mobile email users surveyed said that they simply delete emails that look bad on their mobile device.¹ This underscores the importance of ensuring your emails are mobile optimized and properly fit mobile devices. Probably the more astounding email statistic is that 30% reported that an “ugly” email would cause users to unsubscribe from the email list. Mobile optimized emails are a must if marketers want their emails to be read and want to maintain an ongoing relationship with users.

6. 3 out of 4 mobile email users judge brands based on email appearance.
75% of email users indicate that they attach a negative association to a brand based solely on a poorly designed email.¹ This is just one more reason that mobile optimized emails are necessary for building and keeping trust in a brand. While mobile optimized emails clearly perform stronger, they also have a direct impact on the brand experience. It’s clear that email recipients will apply their email experience to other parts of their relationship with a brand.

7. Nearly 9 out of 10 email newsletters aren’t sending mobile optimized emails.
Given the usage of mobile devices to open and read emails, this email stat will likely surprise you, but most marketers aren’t mobile optimizing their email newsletters. It is clear that sending mobile optimized emails has many advantages, but many marketers fail to act. In July of 2013, Equinux reported that just under 12% of email newsletters sent by marketers incorporated the advantages of mobile optimized emails. Brands that want to thrive in a mobile dominated environment still have the opportunity to be among the first to deliver mobile optimized emails to their target audiences, but they must take action to avoid being left behind.

1. BlueHornet