• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 26, 2021

Dark mode — a capability that allows the consumer to switch to dark mode on their devices at night or any other time — is catching on in the email channel, judging by Email At Night, a study by Pathwire and Ascend2.

Of the marketers polled, 44% at least consider dark mode during email production, 11% always consider it and 33% consider it some of the time. Another 28% aren’t doing this yet, but have plans to. And 28% have no such plans.  

B2C brands are more likely to design emails for dark mode: 

• B2C — 48%
• B2B — 39%
• Mixed — 33%

So are (those with 50 to 500 staffers): 63% optimize for dark mode, with 16% who always do so.

Enterprise firms (those with 500 or more employees) are almost as likely: 55% optimize email for dark mode, 14% all of the time. And 27% have plans to start. 

Only 23% of SMBs now follow suit, with 6% who do so always and 23% planning to. The remainder do not plan to.

The biggest challenges are:

• Optimizing logos and images — 43%
• Optimizing code to render correctly —34%
• Keeping email design on brand — 33%
• Unsightly or unreasonable color inversion — 31% 
• Gauging its usage/popularity among subscribers — 29% 
• Reduced email engagement from a poor experience — 28%
• Increased workload for designers and developers — 23% 
• Inconsistent rendering and support among clients — 23%
  
• Other — 8%

Of course, the obstacles vary with the size and resources of the company. The top three enterprise challenges are:

• Optimizing logos and images — 50%
• Gauging usage/popularity among subscribers — 50%
• Reduced email engagement from a poor experience — 41% 

The top-three mid-market issues vary slightly;

• Optimizing logos and images — 49%
• Optimizing code to render correctly — 47%
• Keeping email design on brand — 32%

SMBs have another set of problems:

• Unsightly or unreadable color inversion — 38%
• Optimizing logos and images — 36%
• Keeping email design on brand — 32% 

But here is the key marketing question: do brands test or preview emails in dark mode prior to launching a campaign? 

For 36%, the answer is yes — always. Another 23% test some of the time, and 20% have not started yet but have plans to. And 21% answer with a flat no. 

However, 62% of those who design dark mode emails always test before sending, and 33% do so some of the time. A mere 5% do not. 

Ascend2 surveyed 120 marketers in August 2021. Of that sample, 15% were B2B, 65% B2C and 20% an equal mixture of both. In addition, 18% were from firms with more than 500 employees, 38% from companies with 50 to 500 and 44% from small businesses with fewer than 50.