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Are responsive emails outdated?
Looking for opinions / insights. I responded to a proposal on UpWork where the client needed four emails - four built for desktop and four built for mobile. I responded that in my experience responsive emails are the route to go. The proposer responded:
"we have spent 20 years doing email marketing and to us seperate mobile designs are a must in this day and age. We don't believe in responsive. Thats the lazy way out."
I responded that I would be open to understanding their process.
Is this true? Should we now be designing two separate emails for desktop and mobile? If so, do all ESPs have the capability to serve the correct version to the end user?
Depends a bit on how you're defining responsive.
Neither is outdated. Neither is "the lazy way out".
It's worth noting that no ESP can or will be able to serve the different versions to the end user depending on if they are using desktop or mobile. Tracking for mobile v's desktop isn't 100% accurate. and just because someone has previously opened on desktop doesn't mean they will never open on mobile.
Also viewport size is more important than the device. You can have a mobile device with a huge screen and a desktop device with a small preview pane both can be adjusted very easily to change the viewport size.
My only guess would be they are talking about having the layout change significantly on smaller viewports rather than just scaling down to fit. But worth clarifying with them to be sure.
I appreciate your feedback, it goes along with my beliefs. I was wondering if I had missed something in the email world. Unfortunately the proposer has not responded to my request for clarification.