Preview the Preheader (A Marketing Moment)

Email continues to be a huge driver for businesses in almost every industry, and it’s getting easier and easier to access every year. In the last five years, email opens on mobile devices have grown over 30%. While there are many positive aspects to this newfound access, like the ability to reach a customer any time, any place, this can pose a problem too. How often have you checked your phone after a buzz in your pocket only to find a generic email, leading you to put your phone back in your pocket as the email drops lower and lower in your inbox never to be opened? If this hasn’t happened to you, it has probably happened to someone you know. How can this be fixed?

There are three main components to an email when it hits someone’s inbox: the sender’s name, the subject line, and the preheader text. Now, most people know the importance of a good subject line, and it’s quite a process to change your name, so that leaves one specific component that often gets overlooked when creating a great, attention-grabbing email. The preheader text is the short preview you see under the subject line of an email in your inbox. This preview contains a specified number of characters from the beginning of your email, which is dependent on the email client you are using. Let’s take a look at some numbers to illuminate the benefits of preheader awareness. The following list is composed of a few email clients, and the average number of characters displayed in the preheader:

Outlook 2013 – 35 characters

Android Native App – 40 characters

Android Yahoo! App – 45 characters

Outlook for Mac 2015 – 55 characters

iOS Native App – 90 characters

Apple Mail – 140 characters

Of course, there is a large range presented here, but at the extreme end, some of your recipients are receiving a 140 character preview of your email. That’s as many characters as a Tweet on Twitter, and we have seen how effective those short messages have been for businesses across the board.

Thus, the importance of Previewing your Preheader. What kind of message does your customer get when they pull their phone out of their pocket on the way to their next meeting, or when they receive your email in the middle of their busy day? Is it another run of the mill email? Or is it your next opportunity? Send your email to your own inbox and see how you can improve your emails, and your business endeavors overall.

Source: Campaign Monitor