• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 8, 2015

According to the Yesmail Interactive analysis of data from Q4 2014 and Q4 2013 to gauge how mobile is trending in terms of key metrics like click-to-open rate (CTO), desktop-to-mobile purchase ratio, average order value (AOV), and conversion rate. Mobile clicks now account for almost 40% of all email clicks, a 10% increase YoY

This overview examines the use of smartphones and tablets, finding that purchasing has changed year-over-year (YoY,) and that responsive design impacts CTO on mobile devices. Mobile CTO has increased by over 20% YoY while Desktop CTO has increased by over 6% YoY.

As mobile devices have become indispensable, marketers have started to effectively adjust to the mobile preference expressed by their consumers over the past few years; by incorporating responsive design in their emails, building adaptive landing pages, or optimizing the mobile path-to-purchase, the YoY data shows that, at minimum, marketers have set an intention to truly cater to their mobile audience.

37% percent of all emails deployed in Q4 were responsive, a 28% increase from Q3. Marketers have recognized that responsive design doesn’t just make email more accessible for mobile readers; it also significantly affects the bottom line. And in Q4, this recognition and the stride towards optimizing for mobile were amply rewarded, says the report. CTO for mobile emails jumped by 40% for marketers who use responsive design in all of their mailings compared to those who use it in none of their campaigns.

Implementing responsive or mobile-friendly formatting is the bare minimum marketers can do to cater to their mobile audience, says the report. The mobile context should change the email content and cater to the unique functionalities of the device it’s being viewed on. To simplify conversion for the mobile audience, consider specific mobile subject lines, calls-to-action, and landing pages.

Since both the share of mobile clicks as well as mobile CTO have registered double-digit increases YoY, the higher number of clicks has translated into an increase in mobile conversion rates. The report analyzed the same set of marketers in Q4 2013 and Q4 2014 to provide an apples-to-apples comparison. Within a calendar year, says the report:

• Mobile conversion rate (purchase resulting from an email click) grew by 70% while desktop conversion rate declined by 4%
• Mobile revenue share grew by a third and made up 20% of all email-generated revenue
• Share of orders completed on mobile devices grew by 21% of all email-generated orders
• Average order value (AOV) for mobile grew by 28%, doubling the annual growth of desktop AOV

There was a YoY shift in the way consumers used tablets and smartphones for purchasing. The use of smartphones for completing orders went up almost at the same rate that purchases completed on tablets went down. Most of this increase stemmed from the growth in Android smartphone use, says the report. The email-generated purchases placed on an Android smartphone grew by almost 50% YoY for the same set of brands. The percent of all purchases completed on a mobile device was down 7% on tablets and up 8% on Smartphones.

Consumers use smartphones and tablets in very different ways, says the report, showing that consumers use smartphones on-the-go because these devices tend to be better connected and more portable. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), 79% of smartphone users have their device on them for all but two hours every waking day, supporting the report’s note that responsive design is crucial for the user experience on smartphones, which typically have three times smaller screen size.

Tablets, though, have a different nature, says the report: they are widely employed as a more convenient alternative to laptop computers and are typically used at home. According to Forrester Research, almost three quarters of consumers access the Internet is on their tablet mostly in their living room. Quartz digital news reports that 66% of US tablet owners are surfing the net while watching TV. In comparison, three quarters of consumers use their smartphones for internet on-the-go: on their daily commute, on public transit, or in their cars.

Standard email metrics, just like Mobile and Purchase Behavior metrics, suggests that marketers have advanced to a point where they are able to deliver a consistent mobile experience that customers are utilizing along the entire path-to-purchase. Since mobile-friendly design impacts smartphones to an even larger degree than tablets, it results in faster growth of smartphone conversion. In the fast-changing landscape of email marketing, adapting to new trends and evolving consumer preferences will remain the key winning strategy for smart marketers, concludes the report.

 For additional information from Yesmail, please visit here.