More and more recipients are reading their emails on mobile devices. At the same time, the monitors used in the office and at home are getting larger.

For email, this means that the design must be able to be displayed on multiple devices and screen sizes. The choice of email client used to display the email also affects the display of the email and makes it necessary to adapt to individual layouts.

In some clients, images are deactivated by default. Other clients ignore special CSS layouts or style sheets. The exact display of a message is influenced by the numerous end devices in combination with diverse email clients.

Ideally, a separate email design would be used for each combination of device and email client. This, however, is practically not possible. Plus, some email recipients view emails on more than one device.

The development of a single email layout that would be optimally displayed on each email client and device still lies in the technological future.

At the moment the email marketer's goal should be to find a middle ground that guarantees the readability of the email and optimizes the design of the email as much as possible. Mapp Engage offers special tools to automatically scale the message and to insert links to optimized layouts

Solutions for Adapting Email Layout to the End Device​

Mapp Engage offers functions and services that, depending on the layout and target group, offer different ways to optimize the layout. The following options for message optimization are available:

Detection of the different email clients used to open the mail.

This first step, which is above all used for planning the design and analysis of the target group, shows which clients must be considered for the message.
Designers can check that the message is optimally displayed in the most common email clients. Clients that are not included in the target group can be excluded from the optimization. Additional design possibilities can potentially be available, or certain design variations can be excluded based on the display by individual recipients.
This also makes clear what optimization is necessary for a mobile end device. To request an assessment of the various email clients, please contact your customer service representative.

Inclusion of a Read Mobile Link and a Read Online Link in the message.

Mapp offers a way to include a link in your email message that links to an online version of the message on a website. This online version can be adapted to individual requirements. The mobile version adapts the width of the email and scales the images. Furthermore, additional information or different links can be added which are personalized for mobile users. For more information, see Read Online Link / Read Mobile Link​.

Automatic scaling of messages - customizing for mobile displays

Engage sends emails with Media Queries. These queries make it possible to design the layout in such away that the message is automatically adapted to the size of the screen. Two or more layouts are available depending on the end device (mobile or desktop). Please be aware that the Media Queries from the W3C Consortium do not consider the end device or the email client. The message is only optimized for the width of the screen. If a client does not support the media queries, the message must still be displayable. It is not possible to use two different alternatives (e.g. two different-sized images), because if the email client does not support media queries, then both will be displayed. For more information see ​Using Media Queries​.