Optimizing Emails for the New Mobile-First Incentive

On 26 March 2018, Google rolled out the first stages of its new mobile-first incentive. This means, from now on, the way their search engines work will forever be changed to favour the mobile user. This change has come about as a result of the rise in mobile users, as in 2016, for the first time in internet history, mobile users outnumbered those on a desktop. But, I hear you cry, what does this have to do with email marketing? Simple, the Google mobile-first index is a major signpost for changing user behaviour. It’s not news; people want fast loading and responsive websites. If you fail to do this then you will be penalised with a huge bounce rate and low conversions on your site. The same can be said for email marketing. Slow, clunky, email marketing should be a thing of the past. But, even big companies are a victim of emails that are slow, don’t fit on the screen, and worse, some even follow the old-hat rule that 8 seconds is an optimal email load time. Most people are frustrated when a website doesn’t load in 3 seconds or less, why would they wait around a whole 8 seconds for an email? Especially when a majority of people access emails over slower 3G and 4G data wifi.