Over 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices. Yet most business emails are still designed desktop-first — or worse, not designed at all. Good email design isn't about being flashy. It's about making your message easy to read and act on, regardless of device or email client.
Mobile-First Design
Design for the smallest screen first, then scale up:
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- Single-column layout — multi-column layouts break on mobile. One column works everywhere.
- Minimum 16px body text — anything smaller is unreadable on phone screens without zooming
- Large tap targets — buttons should be at least 44x44 pixels. Fat fingers need room.
- 600px maximum width — the sweet spot for email that looks good on both desktop and mobile
Visual Hierarchy
People scan emails in seconds. Your design should guide their eyes:
- One primary CTA — every email should have one clear action you want the reader to take. Make that button impossible to miss.
- Inverted pyramid — start wide (attention-grabbing header), narrow to the key message, end with a focused CTA.
- White space — give your content room to breathe. Cramped emails feel overwhelming and get closed.
- Consistent branding — logo, colors, and fonts should match your website. Recognition builds trust.
Images and Media
- Always include alt text — many email clients block images by default. Alt text ensures your message still makes sense.
- Compress images — large images slow load times and may not display. Keep total email size under 100KB.
- Don't rely on images alone — your email should be readable even with all images turned off.
- Use real text, not text-in-images — text in images can't be resized, searched, or read by screen readers.
Subject Lines and Preheaders
Design starts before the email is opened:
- Subject line under 50 characters — mobile inboxes truncate longer subjects
- Preheader text — the preview text after the subject line. Use it strategically, not as an afterthought.
- Personalization — emails with personalized subject lines have 26% higher open rates. Use the recipient's name or company.
Testing Before Sending
Email rendering varies wildly across clients. Test in Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, and at least one mobile client before every send. Tools like Litmus and Email on Acid show you how your email looks across dozens of clients and devices. The five minutes of testing saves you from sending a broken email to thousands of people.
Related Reading
- Email Deliverability Guide: Stay Out of Spam
- Email List Building Strategies That Actually Work
- Newsletter Best Practices for Business
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