Responsive email is the new standard

More than half of all recipients open their emails on a smartphone. This does not include tablet users. But there are still many emails that haven’t been designed in a responsive fashion, which are all missed opportunities! Let’s be honest: swiping through an email is much more pleasant than zooming in and out to read the text, or clicking on the right link. This is why we work with responsive templates and why our content editor ensures that the email is responsive by default.

More than half of all recipients open their emails on a smartphone

Different types of responsive emails

• Scalable
  The terms scalable and responsive are often used interchangeably. However, there is a very important difference. A scalable email is displayed at 50% zoom on a smartphone, but is still legible and clickable. Devices that do not support responsive email, a scalable version is displayed instead.
• Fluid
  A fluid design is a bridge between scalable and responsive. In fluid emails, tables and images change based on a percentage. Fluid emails resemble scalable emails. The email’s layout is not changed deliberately, but it fills the space on the screen. A fluid design usually works best for layouts with a lot of text, because you don’t have as much control over the ratio of text to images.
• Responsive
  A responsive email is built (coded) differently, meaning the way it’s displayed changes depending on the device’s resolution and orientation (horizontal or vertical). As a result, images and buttons increase in size, and you can swipe through the email. Do keep in mind that how your email is displayed in the end is partially determined by your email client. An email opened in Gmail may look quite different from one opened in Outlook.

When to use what?

Scalable is perfectly suited for:

• Trying out mobile applications
• Reliable display for all clients and devices
• Organisations with limited means.

Fluid is perfectly suited for:

• Simple layouts
• Email that mainly contains text
• Organisations with limited means.

Responsive is perfectly suited for:

• Organisations with large groups of mobile users
• Maintaining control over layout
• Organisations that are knowledgeable about media queries