AMP 219: Avoiding the Pit of Dark Mode Despair and Making Sure Your Emails Look Awesome With Melissa Sargeant From Litmus

Are you familiar with the dark mode? About 92% of those with smartphones use dark mode on at least one app. The increased use of dark mode with various email services and clients present challenges. How do email marketers make sure that emails are easy to read in dark mode?

Today’s guest is Melissa Sargeant, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Litmus, a well-known email marketing software company. She explains exactly why dark mode matters for marketers, and what they can do to make sure their emails look their best. Melissa provides insights into why this is important for marketers to understand, test, and optimize.

 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• App Developers: Dark mode makes type and visuals lighter on dark backgrounds
• Functional Trend: People use dark mode to read content; easier on their eyes
• Benefits: Reduce screen brightness to preserve battery; accessibility preference
• Email Clients: Apple, Samsung, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo offer dark mode
• Problems: Prioritize dark mode for subscriber preference, different email clients
• Cost: Sending email versus potential cost of not optimizing email to be visible
• Tips and Tricks: Settings, assets, code, examples, and guide to dark mode
• Do More with Less: Build, test, and analyze emails, then send them for review
• Email Analytics/Insights: It doesn't end with send; use data to make better email
• Test every email, every time to deliver an experience that exceeds expectations

 

Links:

• Melissa Sargeant on LinkedIn
• Litmus
• Litmus Blog
• The Ultimate Guide to Dark Mode for Email Marketers
• Ben Sailer on LinkedIn
• CoSchedule

 

Quotes from Melissa Sargeant:

“The reason why a lot of people are viewing things in dark mode—we talk a lot in email marketing about accessibility to your emails—for some folks, it's just easier on their eyes. It’s an easier way for them to read content.”

“We think about email as a channel. It’s truly this one-to-one connection that you have with your subscribers. If they are showing a preference for how they want to view their content, it's a good idea to honor that and respect that and do the best you can to deliver them their content the way they want to read it.”

“If you are using an email optimization platform, you can do all this building and testing across all these devices and ensure end clients that when that email goes out the door, you'll know with certainty that people who are viewing in dark mode are able to view it in dark mode.”

“Efficiency and the email workflow process is super important.”