Mobile engagement rates dropped for first time in Q4 2016
Mobile click-to-open (CTO) rates declined by 12.6% from Q3 to Q4 of 2016 and were down 14.4% YoY, according to data from Yes Lifecycle Marketing. The company noted that mobile engagement had never declined since it began tracking CTO rates. However, mobile clicks through to email increased 8.5% YoY to 53.4%. Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing, advised marketers pay more attention to how the design of mobile emails works along with the email's content and context. Yes Lifecycle Marketing also found that smartphone revenue increased despite a decrease in smartphone orders.

For email marketers, mobile engagement trended downward in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to fresh findings from Yes Lifecycle Marketing. No footnote -- that's actually a first since the marketing services firm began tracking mobile click-to-open (CTO) rates.

Specifically, CTO rates declined by 12.6% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2016, while they were down 14.4% year-over-year.

In response to receding CTO rates, marketers need to rethink their strategies, according to Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing.

"Tactics like responsive design are no longer enough to spark engagement,” Fisher notes in a new report. "Marketers need to pay attention not only to the design of mobile emails, but now, even more so, the content and context.”

More broadly, Fisher believes email continued to drive revenue for brands during the holidays -- especially on mobile.

More than half (53.4%) of all email clicks came from mobile -- an 8.5% increase year-over-year, and a 31.5% increase since the fourth quarter of 2015, the marketing firm finds.

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Also of note, smartphone revenue increased, while the number of smartphone orders decreased, which translates into larger average purchases on smartphones.

In addition, over the past three years, the proportion of email-driven orders placed on smartphones has almost tripled -- and the email-driven revenue generated through smartphones has grown by 250% -- according to Fisher.