Only 1 percent of marketers use responsive design in all emails they deploy, though this type of layout leads to more clicks on opened messages, according to a new study from Yesmail Interactive.
The latest benchmark report from Yesmail, Yes Lifecycle Marketing’s email marketing solutions provider, analyzed more than 5 billion emails deployed by enterprise clients in the first quarter of 2014. Across all industries, 31 percent of marketers do not use responsive design at all. Twenty-four percent use responsive emails for more than half of all emails, while 44 percent send responsive emails less than half of the time.
Yesmail’s analysis also found that mobile emails employing responsive design perform much better than non-responsive emails. Of all messages opened on a mobile device, 11.9 percent of responsive emails are clicked, compared to 9.8 percent of non-responsive emails – a 21 percent increase in the click-to-open rate for responsive layouts.
“More than half of all emails, 52 percent, are opened on a mobile device,” said Michael Fisher, president, Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “Whether smartphone or tablet, consumers expect to be able to complete the path to purchase on the same device on which they opened the email.”
The rapid decline of hybrid viewership – emails opened on both a mobile device and desktop – also signifies the shift to mobile. Over the past year, hybrid viewership has declined from 30 percent in the second quarter of 2013 to less than 8 percent in the first quarter of 2014.
The number of purchases made on a smartphone decreased by 13 percent Q4 2013 to Q1 2014. This may be attributed to the considerable percentage of emails being non-responsive. During the same period, however, purchases made on a tablet jumped by 7 percent. With tablets, responsive design may be less of a factor due to the larger size of their screens.
“Adopting responsive design is a crucial email best practice that enables marketers to engage consumers whose behavior may change not only annually, but on a seasonal basis,” said Matt Caldwell, VP Creative and Agency Services, Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “Marketers who don’t want to be blindsided as seasonal events cause a temporary change in behavior should implement responsive design consistently, in every email they send.”
Source: Yesmail Interactive
