There’s no getting round it: your emails should look nice on cell. According to Fluent, 75% of shoppers say they examine emails most frequently on their telephones.
If you need optimum performance (who doesn’t?), a mobile-first design is the way in which to go. You’ll additionally scale back the necessity to code cell swaps, which cuts down on manufacturing time.
Ready to enhance your mobile-first design? Keep these factors in thoughts.
1. General Device Settings
As of 2018, the usual iPhone and Android system measurement measures 375px in width. But there are older units in use which might be round 320px.
The customary measurement for desktop is 1400px; nevertheless, email sizes are usually no wider than 600px to accommodate the left panels of Gmail and Yahoo.
Generally, an utility’s mailing particulars take up the primary 33% of the display. And the “above the fold” content material seems within the latter two-thirds of the display.

Common system sizes throughout telephones and tablets. All photos courtesy of Ragnarok.
And listed here are extra common device sizes.
2. Creating Mobile-First Email Assets
Due to varied display sizes, rendered photos can look pixelated or blurry when scaled down. To forestall this from occurring, create belongings which might be 2x in measurement.

A pixelated or blurry picture just isn’t a superb look.
As an instance, in case your base template width on desktop is 600px, scale your photos to 2 instances the dimensions of the bottom, which is 1,200px.
3. Maximum File Size
3G connections can go away shoppers feeling…disconnected. And others take care of restricted 4G connections when using public transit. While 5G is nice, you continue to wish to make sure that photos load rapidly for everybody, so it’s finest to slice your email into sections based mostly on file measurement. Always optimize for all connection speeds to make sure a easy expertise.
You can simply make slices utilizing packages like Photoshop or Sketch. Remember, you may need to slice headers and footers individually, or divide massive photos into subsections. If you do that, be certain the scale of each slice find yourself being an excellent quantity.

Slicing your picture into distinct components makes cell rendering simpler.
Sizes to recollect:
- JPGs and PNGs must be no bigger than 500KB
- GIFs must be no bigger than 600KB
Once you’ve completed slicing, you may add the photographs one on prime of the opposite in your email builder. Or merely incorporate fashion=“display: block;” into your HTML img tags. The particular person slices will seamlessly kind a complete image.
If a picture is simply too massive, it might freeze throughout loading and show as a clean area.
Limiting the file measurement of photos doesn’t simply create a greater consumer expertise; emails that load rapidly enhance deliverability, which might help enhance your sender fame.
4. Maximum File Size of Overall Email
From a code and asset measurement perspective, there’s an optimum higher restrict for the overall measurement of an email. Gmail tends to “clip” emails which might be better than 2MB. Meaning, the content material is hidden previous a sure level.

If your picture is simply too massive, the content material will probably be clipped and hidden from view.
No one desires to play hide-and-seek when studying emails. For the perfect outcomes, use shorter, light-weight templates.

Keeping the picture smaller in file measurement means your whole content material could be seen with out clipping.
5. Benefits of Live Text
Live textual content, also called HTML textual content, is just like the textual content you kind right into a phrase processor. It works effectively when it comes to deliverability and the 70/30 rule of email: 70% textual content, 30% photos. This is the candy spot that makes emails extra accessible to shoppers in 3G networks.
Live textual content additionally scales completely from desktop to cell. And from a course of standpoint, copy edits could be made with out having to run via a redesign of the belongings.

Using reside textual content ensures your message adapts and scales to keep up high quality and maximize influence.
When coding reside textual content, comply with these pointers:
Minimum reside textual content font measurement:
- 16px for cell and desktop
- Use a line peak that’s a minimum of 6px better than the font measurement
For textual content that’s a part of a picture, see the specs under:
Minimum font measurement:
6. Designs That Don’t Work for Mobile-First Emails
Some design parts don’t take too kindly to cell units:
- Emails which might be designed like an internet site
- Text that’s too small for cell. Avoid forcing viewers to zoom in to learn copy or entry the navigation.
- Too many CTAs require the buyer to scroll to take motion. Keep all important data above the fold.

Avoid designing your email like an internet site. Make it simpler to your viewers to grasp your message immediately.

Too a lot textual content could be overwhelming and laborious to learn. Keep your message easy and easy.
In our expertise, the typical consumer spends about 2 seconds on an email. To get essentially the most out of this tiny window, hold your emails easy and scannable. Focusing the content material round one or two CTAs will assist you to comply with these ideas.
Why Should You Choose Mobile-First?
75% of shoppers say they examine their email most frequently on their telephones. To attain them, your emails want to supply nice readability on any system. Going mobile-first can also be an enormous time saver. After all, your artistic group simply has to provide one template for all use instances.
If you’re into nice performance, shortened manufacturing instances, and superior trying emails, there’s just one method to go: mobile-first.
To study extra about find out how to create the perfect mobile-first emails, schedule a demo at present and take a look at Ragnarok’s main email marketing providers for improved email administration, design, and migration assist.