27% of marketing emails opened on mobile devices

When mobile marketing firm Knotice studied 974 million marketing emails in the U.S. they found that the number of emails opened on mobile devices rose sharply in the second half of 2011 from 20% in the first half to 27%.

iOS devices make up the majority of mobile email activity. Knotice reveals that the iPhone and iPad together account for more than 22% of mobile email opens, compared to less than 5% for Android devices.

However, while mobile email opens are on the rise, click activity is not following as fast and the share lags behind that of desktop PCs. This is mainly down to a lack of mobile email optimization making it difficult, if not impossible, for recipients to interact with an email on their mobile device.

"Email may be one of the largest sources, if not the largest, of mobile impressions and leads that any organization sees," says Knotice in their report (.pdf). "The traditionally disparate roles of email and mobile marketing within the organization need to come together, understanding that email is very much a mobile marketing channel."

Earlier this year research by RedEye and Econsultancy found that a whopping 84% of companies in the UK fail to design emails for viewing on a mobile device and over a quarter don't bother to test campaigns across various mobile devices, if at all.

"Accepting that consumers often use multiple devices to access email and Internet, if the content is not optimized for the media it directly impacts conversion," said Mark Patron, CEO at RedEye.

Tags: Android, email campaign, email marketing, iPhone, mobile device, open rates, smartphone, tablet