Over 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices. So, an email that doesn’t adapt to screen size quickly gets deleted or ignored. Marketers can’t afford to send campaigns that look great on desktop but fall apart on mobile.
Yet, designing responsive emails that hold up across devices, screen sizes, and even light/dark modes can be challending. If you’ve ever struggled with broken layouts, unreadable text, or distorted images, you’re not alone.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the steps you can follow to make your emails responsive.
What is a responsive email design?
Responsive email design ensures your email content automatically adjusts to different screen sizes — whether it's a smartphone, tablet, or large desktop monitor. This means:
- Text remains readable without zooming
- Images scale without breaking
- Columns stack neatly on smaller screens
- Buttons remain tappable
The goal is to deliver a consistent, engaging experience no matter where your user opens the email.
Challenges of responsive email creation
Responsive email design isn’t the same as web design. You’re dealing with dozens of email clients, each with its own nuances and limitations. Some of the key challenges that you may come across include:
- Limited CSS support in certain email clients
- Media queries that aren’t consistently supported
- Rendering issues between Apple Mail, Gmail, Outlook, etc.
- Dark mode inverts colors, which can break image and text visibility
- File size restrictions, especially for images and animations
That’s why even experienced marketers often struggle to get emails looking perfect on every screen — unless they use a tool built for it. This is where Mailmodo outshines the rest.
How to create responsive emails using Mailmodo
With Mailmodo, responsive email design isn’t an extra feature — it’s baked inside the tool. This makes it easy for you to make your emails responsive. Here’s how you can build responsive emails in Mailmodo.
Check responsiveness in the drag-and-drop builder
Mailmodo’s drag-and-drop email builder makes it easy to make your emails responsive. The builder blocks offered by Mailmodo automatically adjust to mobile size and you can view it easily within the editor.
If something is breaking in the mobile view, you can easily make changes directly to specific blocks or elemewnFor example, if you use a three-column layout on desktop, it will automatically stack into a single column on mobile — no extra coding or setup required. If it doesn’t, you can do it manually by going to the mobile display option in the editor.
This ensures that your message remains legible and well-structured regardless of the screen size.
Optimize your images for responsiveness
Mailmodo also helps you handle images. Here’s what you can do to ensure your images scale properly in emails.
- Set your image width to 100% so it scales down gracefully on smaller screens.
- Upload images around 600px wide and under 500KB to balance clarity and loading speed.
- Ensure that your images maintain their aspect ratio to avoid awkward stretching or clipping.
Preview and test across devices
While not exactly a step in building the email but a crucial one when you’ve created it. Before you send anything, do the following:
- Preview your email in mobile, tablet, and desktop views
- Send test emails to check how they look in real inboxes
By testing early, you can catch layout, spacing, or image issues before they affect your audience and you can go back to the drawing board and make the changes.
Takeaways
Creating responsive emails doesn’t have to be a technical headache. With the right tool you can ensure every subscriber sees your message the way you intended — clear, compelling, and optimized for their device. Whether you're focused on design, deliverability, or user experience, responsive design is the foundation of modern email marketing.
By using a platform like Mailmodo that prioritizes responsiveness at every step, you're not just keeping up — you're setting a new standard for what great email should look like. Try it out today.
