Yes Lifecycle Marketing recently released a study about gaps in email marketing. You can check out part 1 in my series here. The second gap in email marketing that we are going to evaluate is the gap between mobile and desktop clicks and CTO.

Data from Yes Lifecycle Marketing shows a consistent rise in mobile click-to-open rates, as well as the proportion of mobile clicks to desktop clicks since 2013.

Mobile clicks have rise 56% over three years, and 17% year-over-year. Mobile click-to-open is also steadily rising. Desktop click-to-open is conversely on the decline, and is now only about 4% higher than mobile CTO.  This means that the gap between desktop and mobile rates is shrinking rapidly over a variety of industries.

So how is this affecting auto specifically? Auto has just over a 1% difference between mobile and desktop click to open rates, with mobile just slightly behind. This indicates that the auto industry has one of the closest gaps between mobile and desktop, and the customers for auto are as inclined to use their phones as they are their computers to shop and check out dealerships.

The proportion of mobile to desktop clicks surpassed the 50 percent mark in 2016. In other words, more clicks occur on mobile devices than they do on desktops. This is yet another closed gap that illustrates consumers’ growing comfort with mobile. And again, that’s especially the case in the automotive ring.

Research also shows that consumers are incredibly likely to engage with email marketing on mobile phones, but few brands and industries have worked to make sure their email marketing is as efficient on mobile as it is on desktop.

How can you close this gap?

We recognize that many brands and dealerships have not yet adopted responsive design for all campaign. It would be smart to make it as easy as possible for subscribers to navigate and click through mobile marketing emails. Responsive design should be common knowledge, but many brands are still failing to use this extremely useful tactic. Consumers have come to expect it and are bothered by brands and stores that don’t make it easy for them to click through and convert. Make sure your email design and layout are optimal for a variety of screen sizes, and work to reduce the number of steps a user needs to take or form fields they need to fill out before proceeding.