Mobile Email Conversion Rates Increasing with Optimisation

Mobile email
More emails are being optimised for mobile – but not yet all

Mobile email conversion rates jumped 70 per cent over the past year as marketers adjusted their strategies to better cater to customers opening messages on smartphones and tablets, according to a report released today by email service provider, Yesmail.

Driven by double-digit increases in mobile clicks and mobile click-to-open (CTO) rates, the Yesmail Email Marketing Compass benchmark report reveals that the mobile conversion rate – purchases resulting from an email click on a mobile device – grew at a rapid pace between Q4 2013 Q4 2014, as marketers’ use of mobile-friendly strategies such as responsive design, adaptive landing pages and path-to-purchase optimization started to pay off.

The growth in the mobile conversion rate is driven largely by increases in mobile clicks and mobile click-to-open rates. Mobile clicks now account for almost 40 per cent of all email clicks, a 10 per cent increase year-on-year, according to the Yesmail report. And the mobile click-to-open rate increased 20 per cent year-on-year.

Mobile click-to-open rates are even higher for brands that use responsive design in their email marketing campaigns. At 14.1 per cent, the CTO rate on mobile devices is 40 per cent higher for brands that exclusively use responsive design compared to marketers who only use non-responsive emails.

The report also reveals that the improving mobile email experience is leading to higher revenue for brands. Average order value for mobile email grew 28 per cent between Q4 2013 and Q4 2014, doubling the annual growth of desktop average order value. Mobile revenue share grew by a third, making up 20 per cent of all email-generated revenue. The share of orders completed on mobile devices grew by 21 per cent, accounting for almost a quarter of all email-generated orders. The average mobile email click generated 40 cents in revenue, compared to 19 cents for a desktop click.

You can download the full report here.