If you're targeting rural Australia and you're not optimising email campaigns (and websites) for mobile devices then you're probably failing to engage with at least 30% of your target audience. 

An analysis of the past 12 months of email campaigns that we've been managing on behalf of clients has shown that mobile device use is strong in rural Australia. 

We've been optimising our clients campaigns and websites for mobile for years. For most of our clients targeting a metro audience, it's a foregone conclusion that we need to. But I'm still surprised at the number of organisations targeting rural Australia that are ignoring the rise of handheld devices among that audience.

When we analysed our email campaign results for clients targeting the rural audience, here's what we found:

Now, we appreciate that we're not talking about a statistically valid sample here but the results are interesting. Mobile devices - specifically iPhones and iPads - account for 29% of email viewing. Yes, technically users could actually view emails on mobile devices using Hotmail, Outlook.com and AppleMail but we're keeping this analysis simple.

The Upshot

Do not consider rural Australia stuck in the old days or relics of old technology. They're using new technology and it's on the increase. This means businesses endeavouring to communicate with this group need to make sure their online campaigns and websites are optimised for mobile devices or they risk falling short of engaging with this group. 

The reality is however that regardless of who you're targeting, if you're not optimising for mobile devices, you're being left behind.