Decoding Retina: Why It's Important For Email Marketing

What is a “retina display” and what does it have to do with your email marketing campaign? You may have heard the term thrown around by tech-enthusiasts or someone listing their new smartphones’ capabilities, but what makes a “retina display” any different from the visuals you’re used to looking at?

High-DPI displays (or Retina displays) use higher dots-per-inch to produce detailed images on a screen. Similar to your high definition television, manufacturers can produce stunningly crisp photos across many devices by increasing the pixel count. The key: using so many pixels that the human eye can no longer see the individual dots.

In 2010, Apple was the first manufacturer to begin mass-producing high-DPI displays – today, most manufacturers make their devices with this technology, ensuring the highest-quality viewing experience for consumers.

So why is this important to email marketers?

Most email marketers have started optimizing visuals within their campaigns to properly display on retina devices. Normal images that ignore high-DPI displays often look blurry or grainy on screens, so accounting for devices with Retina display is incredibly important to the overall clean appearance of your email. A recent Litmus article explains how to optimize your images for retina screens by altering the image’s pixels.

Are you applying these practices all the time?

Images optimized for retina display tend to be on the bulkier side when it comes to file size, so readers often find opening these emails to be slow – and sometimes expensive, depending on their cellular data plan. Fortunately, a little meddling in image editing software allows users to decrease image size but not resolution.

Retina images are powerful visual stimulants for readers. Bright, crisp visuals are enticing to the eyes, and further drives to corresponding copy. By following simple steps, email marketers can easily optimize images for retina display.

Naturally, when using ResponseGenius software, our clients can utilize the built-in Litmus checklist to test their image file-size and load time for cleaner campaigns. Let us share more about optimization for retina images and other important benefits to make you the best digital marketer you can be. Reach out at hello@responsegenius.com.