3 Apps for Designing Mobile Friendly Email Campaigns

We know that customers are increasingly consuming online content on their mobile devices. Designing mobile friendly websites has become imperative for business. But what many small businesses are failing to realize is that they also need to create mobile friendly email campaigns as well, or their information will simply be passed by.

In a recent post we reviewed applications for mobile friendly websites. The good news is that designing mobile friendly email campaigns also just got a lot easier. You no longer have to design two emails, one for desktops and other for mobiles. Email service providers now provide responsive email design templates that are compatible across viewing platforms.

GetResponse, the global email marketing company, has recently upgraded its email design application to what it calls the first ever ‘truly responsive email design’ tool. All newsletters and e-mailers designed with GetResponse’s  Email Creator application will by default be adjusted for mobile viewing so that the reader gets the best possible experience in terms of email navigation and readability. The responsive feature is automatically activated regardless of whether you design emails from scratch or using the existing design templates.

GetResponse Founder and CEO Simon Grabowski said, “Today’s busy consumers are quick to embrace new technologies and quick to develop strong expectations of how they should work. So unlike other providers, we made this feature available as a standard feature rather than a paid add-on”. GetResponse email design pricing starts at $15 a month for 1000 subscribers.

As part of our research we also contacted the two other major players offering email marketing services.

MailChimp in fact reverted stating that they launched mobile friendly email templates in November 2012 and their fully responsive application was launched in June of this year. The upgraded application has drag and drop features and editable content blocks for easy email design. You can also preview the mobile friendly email in real-time as you make the changes in content and design. They have also recently made updates to their iPhone and Android mobile apps and even more recently introduced an editor app for the iPad. MailChimp ervices are free of cost for up to 12000 emails and 2000 subscribers a month.

Constant Contact currently offers seven mobile friendly email templates at no additional cost. These templates can easily be customized to match your brand. Joel Hughes, Constant Contact’s Senior Vice President, Strategy and Emerging Businesses says, “Our top priority with mobile email marketing is making sure our customers’ emails look great regardless of what device they are being viewed on. Along with our Quickview mobile app, which allows customers to create and edit mobile-friendly emails on the go, we continue to focus on super easy ways for our customers to mobilize their email marketing.” Constant Contact pricing is based on the number of contacts stored in the account, with the number of emails you can send being unlimited. Pricing plan starts at $15/month for between 0-500 contacts.

A 2012 survey by Litmus concluded that 48% of all emails are read on mobile devices. A 2011 study by Google called the Mobile Movement (covering more than 5000 on online US adults) revealed that 89% of users access their smartphones throughout the day, with 82% using their smartphones to check and send emails. Email marketing is known to be the most effective online marketing technique and mobile friendly emails will only enhance its potency as a business promotion tool.  

Thanks to these mobile friendly email apps growing businesses can maximize benefits from their email campaigns at no additional cost.