Build responsive emails

  • Knowledge needed: HTML, CSS
  • Requires: Text editor, web browser, media query capable mobile device
  • Project Time: 1 hour
  • Support file

In this tutorial we’ll look at bringing some of the web’s mobile techniques to HTML email. User take-up of mobile email is massive: some email campaigns get more mobile opens than desktop, yet many marketing emails render poorly on mobile devices. Mobile support on the web has never been better – so if you’re sending emails that drive customers to the web, it makes sense to design mobile friendly emails too.

The design challenges for mobile email are similar to those on the web: we have a small screen, a touch interface and (sometimes) users are out and about – so the design approach is similar. We have one extra challenge, in that many older mobile email clients lack proper support for media queries.

With this in mind, our best approach is to design a campaign that works well on both desktops and mobiles, and then use media queries where they’re supported to add an extra layer of optimisation for smartphones. So first, let’s look at how we can make a regular email campaign more mobile friendly.

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