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an email being viewed on mobile
Chris Webb, Product ManagerJuly 23, 20253 min read

Small Screen, Big Impact: Mobile First Email Marketing

Ever skimmed a new listing alert while waiting for coffee? You’re not alone. Over 70% of marketing emails are now opened on a mobile device (WebsiteBuilder.org, 2024), and buyers, sellers, and agents make decisions in those tiny in between moments. When your message looks sharp and loads fast on mobile, staying connected feels effortless. 

This post covers why mobile first design matters, simple ways to boost engagement, and a few spots where you can drop in the rezora features that make it even easier. 

 

📱 Why Mobile First Email Design Matters 

  1. Your audience is already on mobile. Over 60% of real estate emails are opened on a phone (WebsiteBuilder.org, 2024), and 69% of buyers use a mobile or tablet during their home search (NAR Home Buyers & Sellers Highlights, 2024).
  2. People decide in seconds. A clear, single column layout keeps property photos and calls to action obvious, so readers can tap without hunting.
  3. It helps you stand out. Many emails still pinch and zoom their way onto mobile. Responsive design feels modern and professional, setting your brand apart in a crowded inbox.
  4. Higher deliverability. Lean, mobileready code and compressed images reduce load times and spam filter triggers. The average inbox placement rate across email service providers is 83.1%, yet campaigns that follow responsive design best practices routinely reach the “excellent” 89% threshold. And since 80% of recipients flag emails that look like spam, clean mobile rendering helps keep you in the primary inbox. (Emailtooltester.com, 2025, Icegram.com, 2025) 

 

📝 Eight Friendly Tips for Mobile Engagement 

  1. Build in one column. A full width layout lets photos shine and buttons stay thumb friendly.
  2. Prioritize scannability. Recipients decide to read or skip an email within seconds, so concise, compelling content is key.
  3. Keep subject lines short—about 35–45 characters. Short, clear subjects stay intact on small screens and cut through the noise.
  4. Make buttons big (at least 44×44px). Easy-to-tap buttons invite quick actions—think “Schedule a Showing” or “Let's Chat!”
  5. Set body text to 16px with generous line spacing. Comfortable reading means no pinching, squinting, or bouncing.
  6. Break copy into bite-size pieces. Short paragraphs, bullet points, and even emojis (if onbrand) help busy readers skim.
  7. Preview on popular apps and in dark mode. A quick test in Gmail, Apple Mail, and Outlook—plus dark mode—catches surprises before your contacts do.
  8. Personalize where it counts. Elevate local events, city names or neighborhoods in the content so your emails feel one-to-one. 

Pro Tip: Hit send only after you’ve peeked at the email on a real phone. Real world lighting and thumb reach can surface small tweaks you’ll be glad you caught.  

 

🛠️ How rezora Makes This Easy 

Our email builder helps you automatically create mobile-responsive designs by stacking multi-column content and adjusting image widths. However, in just a few minutes you can really make your email stand out in mobile.  

  • Enable Mobile Editing 
Click the Mobile icon icon in the top left corner to switch to mobile editing. Now you can customize the mobile version directly, and gain access to some mobile-specific styles in the right panel. 
 
  • Use Mobile-Specific Styles 
You can set mobile-specific padding, alignment, font size, and more! Make those buttons bigger, center align your text and reduce padding to let your content take advantage of the full screen width. You can also control how (and if) your content stacks. 
 
  • Create separate mobile content 
You can create content that only displays on mobile or desktop! For example, on desktop your call to action might be "Schedule a Showing", but on mobile, you could have "Call Me Today" instead. 
 
  • Preview mobile in-app and on your phone 
Use the "Preview" at the top to view the desktop and mobile versions of your content, in both Light and Dark modes! It's also a great idea to send yourself a test email (under "Tools" at the top) and view it on your phone. 

 

💭 Final Thoughts 

Mobile friendly design is the easiest way to meet your clients wherever they are. Higher open rates, better engagement, and more opportunities to close deals make it a table stakes best practice in the modern email marketing world.