It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of managing and marketing your restaurant, but a focus on optimizing emails for mobile devices is essential. Not doing so could keep you from attracting new customers, and it could even inspire them to turn to your competitors instead.
Here are some quick tips and tricks to help ensure your emails are optimized for mobile devices.
Responsive Design
If you’re using a predesigned template from your email service provider, make sure it incorporates a responsive design. Responsive templates are designed to automatically adapt to the size of the screen it is being viewed on. So whether the email is opened on a computer, tablet or smartphone, it will look good, function properly, and be easy to read and engage with.
By using a responsive template, like the ones available in the Bloom Intelligence automated marketing suite of tools, you won’t have to worry about your email appearing incorrectly to your readers. If you are using your own custom HTML or having it created, make sure it is tested on as many different screen sizes and devices as possible prior to sending out your first email.
Optimize Email Images
Many email readers will scan emails before making the decision to read it. If you have images in the email – and you should – then this will be one of the primary things that will grab the reader’s attention. This is why you should take the time to find the perfect image for your email. It should be relevant to the overall email message and it should be interesting to the subscribers in the email list.
You should also use an image with the smallest file size possible without losing quality. The image format should be JPEG, PNG or GIF. You can find out which to use in which situation here.
Keep The Text Short
A lot of restaurateurs will attempt to be warm and friendly while portraying their brand identity with their email copy. While this is fine, it tends to make emails rather wordy. Not many people are willing to read through a bunch of conversational fluff in order to get to the main point of the email.
Once you’ve drafted your email, go back through it and edit out all the filler words and phrases. If you have a group of details that need to be shared, use bullet points. And apart from an initial greeting, skip the small talk. If you need to provide more information or details, include a link to website page or other reference.
Use Buttons Instead of Links
Mobile screens are inherently smaller than computer screens, this makes in-text links harder to click on using a smartphone touch screen. Buttons are much more user-friendly and can be used on larger screens as well. Make sure to leave plenty of space around the button to avoid mis-clicking.
Buttons have also been proven to increase click-through rates. A study done by Campaign Monitor, a global email marketing technology company, revealed a whopping 28% increase in clicks by simply changing from a text link to a button.
Use Shorter Subject Lines
On smaller device screens, you are working with limited real estate, so you need to make sure you are including the important details only, and use a very small word count. On most iPhones, when held vertically, only about 30 characters are displayed in the subject line, so make those characters count. In fact, it has been found that subject lines with less than 30 characters have higher open rates.
Also, give the “From:” label some thought. It is displayed on many smart phones more prominently than the subject line.
Test, Test, and Test Again
Every audience is diverse, and every industry is different. What works best for one might not work at all for another. The only way to get the best results for your subscribers is to always test and measure your email campaigns. Some things to consider testing include:
Make sure to study the results of each campaign for performance. Look at the open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribes, and coupon redemption if applicable. When you find a winner, stick with it and test another aspect of the email on the next send.