How to Optimize Your Email Preview Text
Your email copy is engaging and creative. The design is beautiful and it renders well in every email program. There’s even a bulletproof button. But the truth is that just a fraction of even the most beautiful emails ever get seen. The rest are left to languish in the inbox — basically a wall of text standing between your subscriber and your email.
While the inbox is the first thing a subscriber sees, it’s often the lastthing considered when creating an email. Every inbox shows the sender (or ‘from’) name and subject line for an email. Many also display some preview text. And optimizing preview text is one of the most effective ways to increase open rates — sometimes up to 45%.
What is preview text?
Preview text is a snippet of copy pulled in from the body of your email and typically displayed underneath the from name and subject line in a subscriber’s inbox. It is alternatively referred to as snippet text or a preheader.
The concept of preview text is reminiscent of the “Johnson Box” used on direct mail pieces to draw readers’ attention to key points of a message. The same goal applies to email — preview text can capture your subscriber’s attention, encouraging them to open. Preview text can also influence behavior — getting subscribers to scroll and click specific articles mentioned in the text.
While all inbox fields are fertile ground for optimization and A/B testing, optimizing preview text is frequently a quick win. The best part is that changing or testing preview text is easy — there’s no HTML or design required.
How to add preview text to your emails
Preview text is pulled from the first few lines of text found within an email. Preview text can either be displayed or hidden in the body of your campaign. If you’ve planned for the headline or first few lines of text in the body of your message to play off the subject line, adding separate preview text isn’t necessary.
Visible preview text
We often see preview text that contains small icons and social sharing links. Instructions to “View this email in web browser” or “Forward to a friend” are also common, as is ALT text pulled from the logo or hero image in an email. The worst is “Having trouble viewing this email?” or perhaps the brave souls that include their unsubscribe link at the top of their campaigns (which also shows up in the inbox).
These prompts may play an important role in your email, but they don’t exactly scream “OPEN ME!”
First, consider moving these ‘administrative’ elements elsewhere in your email. Or try adding a sentence or two of additional, more compelling text in front of these messages.
Rather than having your preview text picked up from the first bit of text in the email, another option is to specifically define which text you’d like displayed in the inbox. How do you do this? It’s simple! All you need to do is add a little code after the <body> tag in your HTML.
Hidden preview text
Including visible preview text isn’t always possible — or desired. For example, your retail client may require that you include navigation links to their website, or a link to the browser version of the email. Maybe you just prefer the top of your email to look clean and simple. Luckily, there’s a solution: hidden preview text.
Hidden preview text allows you to customize the text that is displayed in the inbox without displaying that text in the body of the email.
Without using hidden preview text HTML, the ALT text for the Litmus logo, as well as the text “The 2015 State of Email Report The email world is changing…” would have displayed in the inbox, rather than “Are your campaigns keeping up with changes in the industry?”
Hiding preview text using HTML and CSS requires some hacks, and there are a few different strategies you can use. Our solution includes CSS that instructs the text not to display. Since the ‘display: none’ property doesn’t work everywhere (we’re looking at you, Gmail), we’ve also included some fallbacks — like specifying that the text should match the background color and only be one pixel high.
Character counts for preview text
Browser size, email app, and subject line length can all play a factor in how much preview text is displayed in the inbox. For example, while the iOS Mail app can display ~90 characters of preview text, Windows Phone only displays ~40 characters before cutting off characters.
Since the amount of preview text displayed in Yahoo, Gmail, and the Android Gmail app varies based on the length of the subject line, you’ll see anywhere from zero to a couple dozen characters of preview text in these clients.
Email apps that don’t support preview text
BlackBerry, Outlook.com, Lotus Notes, and early versions of Outlook don’t display preview text. If these clients are popular with your audience, pay extra attention to testing and optimizing your from name and subject line.
How to optimize your preview text
Second subject line
Think of preview text as a ‘second subject line’ and use similar strategies to improve your campaigns. Be useful, specific, and if appropriate, have a sense of urgency. This is also an ideal place to experiment with humor, symbols, or other tactics that aren’t quite ready for subject line status.
Front load keywords
Keep character limitations in mind, and pack the beginning of your preview text with keywords and phrases that perform. You’ll want the “good stuff” to show up in clients that may cut characters. But don’t make it too short — you also want your preview text to fill the space displayed in iOS inboxes and Apple Mail. It’s a delicate balance.
Avoid repetition
It can be tempting to re-use existing subject and headline copy in your preview text. Get creative, using this extra space to play off of the subject line and further encourage your subscribers to open the email. And don’t forget to A/B test!
- Use personalization: If you’ve had success with using personalization in other parts of your campaigns, try personalizing preview text, too.
- Sum up the email: If your subject line includes a call-to-action (CTA), use preview text to include more details. For example, if your subject line is “50% off new arrivals,” use preview text to explain what type of clothing has arrived.
- Include a CTA, or secondary CTA: Does your email have a few CTAs? If they pair well with the subject line, consider showcasing them in your preview text.
- Be honest: As always, you should never trick your subscribers into opening your emails. The from name, subject line, and preview text should work together so subscribers know what to expect when they open the email.
- Encourage scrolling: Mention an article that’s located further down in the email to encourage your subscribers to scroll to find it.
- Don’t forget to update: If you’re using hidden preview text, it’s easy to overlook.
A/B test to increase performance
Learn what works — and what doesn’t — with continuous A/B testing. Add preview text to your A/B testing rotation. Test different preview text and subject line combinations — you might find that some strategies produce higher open rates while others generate more clicks.
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This post originally appeared on the Litmus blog.
