By Amanda Roach

In the age of email subscriptions, delivering relevant content to consumers’ inboxes has never been more crucial to conversion rates. The key elements to creating crave-worthy content extend beyond the subject line. While a compelling subject line may entice consumers to open, what keeps them engaged, and more importantly, what makes them purchase?

Nowadays, brands are using personalization to impact conversion rates. eCommerce retailers are facing quite a challenge with the adoption of smartphone devices among all demographics. Customer retention through email means delivering relevant and consumable content that is also mobile friendly and responsive. This creates perceived value in email subscription.

What we’re seeing is an increase in mobile views and a decline in desktop views. However, the mobile-to-desktop conversion rates are down and therefore revenue is down as well. Mobile readers who open emails a second time on their desktop computers are 65% more likely to click through*. Mobile purchasing is climbing, but it just hasn’t reached the level of desktop conversion yet. Realistically, mobile may never achieve the same conversion rates as desktop because desktop will always be easier and more secure.

To overcome this, brands must invest in making their mobile site experiences more simplified so there are fewer barriers to purchase on a mobile device. Brands can also implement login screens to collect data such as credit card information. Unfortunately, marketers often don’t have direct access to suggest mobile site infrastructure changes.

But there are other tactics that we can implement to improve personalization such as displaying the last product or category that a consumer browsed by plugging in the image in realtime. Sophisticated technology enables us to set up this automated process. By working with site strategy, marketers can create a seamless experience that reinforces an email’s message.

Brands must also focus on one-to-one communication and increase automation of email campaigns, which allow for personalization without all of the manual work. If a consumer opens an email on mobile and doesn’t convert over a certain period of time, marketers resend the email later in the evening when consumers are more likely to be near a desktop or tablet at home. That’s when we see the peak in traffic.

We’re constantly trying new things in the space, and realistically not every tactic is going to work. If there were an easy solution, every marketer would have figured it out by now.

*via Campaign Monitor