9 Preheader Text Mistakes that Nosedive Your Email Open Rates
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:36 am
Getting your business emails opened is like threading a needle.
You fail more times than you succeed.
Inboxes are jammed as brands jostle for people’s attention on the most profitable channel of all— email. In such a highly competitive environment you have to go an extra mile to succeed with your email marketing campaigns.
Success starts with subscribers opening your emails; otherwise your campaign’s dead in the water.
But how do you get your nose in front in the Phone number library tight race for the inbox?
Stretch every element of your campaign, by, among other things, optimizing the preheader. Sidestepping common preheader text mistakes will put you ahead of the pack and hike your open rates.
First, let’s get the basics out of the way.
Related:
1. How to increase your email open rates – 12 tips
2. Guide to email marketing KPIs and metrics
3. Email marketing best practices and tips
What is email preheader text?
The preheader is the bit of text that appears under the subject line when an email is viewed in the inbox.
Here’s an example from my inbox.
Preheader example.
In the above screenshot, the line ‘Everybody’s doing something. We’ll do nothing!’ is the preheader.
Sometimes it’s called the Johnson Box. This refers to a snippet of copy found at the top of direct mail letters, containing the key message of the letter. Other terms used to describe it are:
Preview Text.
Second Subject Line.
Snippet Text.
Why bother with a preheader in the first place?
5 reasons why you need a preheader
1. The design of the preview pane demands it
The preview pane is structured in a way that affords subscribers a chance to get a foretaste of what a message is about.
It seeks to quickly address three crucial questions your audience might have about an email:
Who is this message from? ( Sender) Is it from a trusted sender?
What is it about? (Subject) Is the subject catchy enough?
Why are they writing? (Preheader) Is the message worthwhile?
If you are like most small business owners, your main focus is the subject line. You probably know that research shows up to 50% subscribers decide to open an email based on the subject line alone.
But what happens to the other 50%?
They linger and then look at the next component that falls within the eyeline of their reading path—the preheader. This gives you a second chance to tease users to open your email.
2. The mobile-first world reality requires it
These days most people read emails on mobile devices.
Not only do mobile users read on the move, but they also check their email 3x more than desktop users according to research conducted by Google.
Preheaders are more pronounced on mobile devices.
That’s good news.
A longish snippet text line gives you a great opportunity to expand your subject line and boost your open rates.
3. The number of preheader characters warrants it
Depending on the email client you are using, your preheader can be anything from 40-100 characters long.
That’s between 8-20 more words to support your subject line or say more about your business.
In fact, preheader text dominates your inbox.
preheaders in the inbox
As you can see, the preheader uses up to twice as much space than the subject line in some cases.
Surprising, hey!
Don’t let all this precious space go to waste. Use it to bolster your subject line and market better.
4. The position it occupies encourages it
Mobile users tend to do a lot of scrolling.
The preview text is visible without having to scroll.
Its strategic above-the-fold position makes it a powerful tool for engaging subscribers right off the bat before they are tempted to leave.
5. The role it plays in avoiding the spam folder
If users mark your email as spam, your emails won’t see the light of day.
Good preview text reduces spam alerts.
How?
It sums up what the newsletter is about. Once recipients appreciate the content, they won’t mark your email as spam. You’ll avoid the dreaded spam folder and increase deliverability rates.
Now that you’ve got a good handle on preheader fundamentals, let’s move on to blunders SMB marketers typically make with them.
Mistake #1: Omitting the preheader
What’s the biggest mistake can you make with the preheader?
Underestimating its power and totally excluding it.
By doing so, you miss an awesome opportunity to get more people clicking on your email campaigns. Research shows including a well-crafted preheader can boost opens by almost 7%.
Imagine the difference such a margin can make to your bottom line.
If your email doesn’t have a specially composed preheader:
Your email’s first few words may be displayed in the designated preheader space.
A default phrases like “This email was sent in HTML only, to view it please copy it into your browser” may appear.
An image’s alt-text may appear if your message contains an image.
Your code might be dragged into the preview text place.
The preheader space will showcase placeholder gibberish text like ‘Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetuer’.
Talk about blowing a great chance to craft a well thought out preview text and entice more newsletter subscribers to click on your email.
Still think having a preheader isn’t a big deal?
Well, think again.
Marketing Experiments did a test to see the impact of having a preheader in an email. One email had no preheader. It simply displayed the URL of the first image in the email. Meanwhile, the treatment displayed a specific type of text.
The results were impressive: the treatment saw a huge 104% increase in clicks.
Mistake #2: Duplicating the subject line
Repeating your subject line verbatim in the preheader is a bad idea.
First, it’s just being a lazy marketer. Second, it demonstrates a lack of creativity—not a good attribute for a marketer. Importantly, readers might think you are a spammer and ban you from their inboxes forever.
Your preheader should complement the subject line, not copy it.
It should add more valuable info not contained in the subject line. Combined, your subject line and preheader should tell one complete story. Below are some quick tips on how to nail it:
Use figures to concretize the subject line.
Inject a sense of urgency by adding a deadline to your offer.
Ask a loaded question that piques your audience’s interest.
Highlight your offer’s second benefit.
Personalize the preheader if you haven’t personalized the subject.
Captivate through visually appealing emoji.
Weave fear of missing out (FOMO) into your copy.
In essence, treat your preheader like your second subject line.
Here are a couple of examples of some of the above strategies in use.
Philips Chrysler used personalization to good effect.
You fail more times than you succeed.
Inboxes are jammed as brands jostle for people’s attention on the most profitable channel of all— email. In such a highly competitive environment you have to go an extra mile to succeed with your email marketing campaigns.
Success starts with subscribers opening your emails; otherwise your campaign’s dead in the water.
But how do you get your nose in front in the Phone number library tight race for the inbox?
Stretch every element of your campaign, by, among other things, optimizing the preheader. Sidestepping common preheader text mistakes will put you ahead of the pack and hike your open rates.
First, let’s get the basics out of the way.
Related:
1. How to increase your email open rates – 12 tips
2. Guide to email marketing KPIs and metrics
3. Email marketing best practices and tips
What is email preheader text?
The preheader is the bit of text that appears under the subject line when an email is viewed in the inbox.
Here’s an example from my inbox.
Preheader example.
In the above screenshot, the line ‘Everybody’s doing something. We’ll do nothing!’ is the preheader.
Sometimes it’s called the Johnson Box. This refers to a snippet of copy found at the top of direct mail letters, containing the key message of the letter. Other terms used to describe it are:
Preview Text.
Second Subject Line.
Snippet Text.
Why bother with a preheader in the first place?
5 reasons why you need a preheader
1. The design of the preview pane demands it
The preview pane is structured in a way that affords subscribers a chance to get a foretaste of what a message is about.
It seeks to quickly address three crucial questions your audience might have about an email:
Who is this message from? ( Sender) Is it from a trusted sender?
What is it about? (Subject) Is the subject catchy enough?
Why are they writing? (Preheader) Is the message worthwhile?
If you are like most small business owners, your main focus is the subject line. You probably know that research shows up to 50% subscribers decide to open an email based on the subject line alone.
But what happens to the other 50%?
They linger and then look at the next component that falls within the eyeline of their reading path—the preheader. This gives you a second chance to tease users to open your email.
2. The mobile-first world reality requires it
These days most people read emails on mobile devices.
Not only do mobile users read on the move, but they also check their email 3x more than desktop users according to research conducted by Google.
Preheaders are more pronounced on mobile devices.
That’s good news.
A longish snippet text line gives you a great opportunity to expand your subject line and boost your open rates.
3. The number of preheader characters warrants it
Depending on the email client you are using, your preheader can be anything from 40-100 characters long.
That’s between 8-20 more words to support your subject line or say more about your business.
In fact, preheader text dominates your inbox.
preheaders in the inbox
As you can see, the preheader uses up to twice as much space than the subject line in some cases.
Surprising, hey!
Don’t let all this precious space go to waste. Use it to bolster your subject line and market better.
4. The position it occupies encourages it
Mobile users tend to do a lot of scrolling.
The preview text is visible without having to scroll.
Its strategic above-the-fold position makes it a powerful tool for engaging subscribers right off the bat before they are tempted to leave.
5. The role it plays in avoiding the spam folder
If users mark your email as spam, your emails won’t see the light of day.
Good preview text reduces spam alerts.
How?
It sums up what the newsletter is about. Once recipients appreciate the content, they won’t mark your email as spam. You’ll avoid the dreaded spam folder and increase deliverability rates.
Now that you’ve got a good handle on preheader fundamentals, let’s move on to blunders SMB marketers typically make with them.
Mistake #1: Omitting the preheader
What’s the biggest mistake can you make with the preheader?
Underestimating its power and totally excluding it.
By doing so, you miss an awesome opportunity to get more people clicking on your email campaigns. Research shows including a well-crafted preheader can boost opens by almost 7%.
Imagine the difference such a margin can make to your bottom line.
If your email doesn’t have a specially composed preheader:
Your email’s first few words may be displayed in the designated preheader space.
A default phrases like “This email was sent in HTML only, to view it please copy it into your browser” may appear.
An image’s alt-text may appear if your message contains an image.
Your code might be dragged into the preview text place.
The preheader space will showcase placeholder gibberish text like ‘Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetuer’.
Talk about blowing a great chance to craft a well thought out preview text and entice more newsletter subscribers to click on your email.
Still think having a preheader isn’t a big deal?
Well, think again.
Marketing Experiments did a test to see the impact of having a preheader in an email. One email had no preheader. It simply displayed the URL of the first image in the email. Meanwhile, the treatment displayed a specific type of text.
The results were impressive: the treatment saw a huge 104% increase in clicks.
Mistake #2: Duplicating the subject line
Repeating your subject line verbatim in the preheader is a bad idea.
First, it’s just being a lazy marketer. Second, it demonstrates a lack of creativity—not a good attribute for a marketer. Importantly, readers might think you are a spammer and ban you from their inboxes forever.
Your preheader should complement the subject line, not copy it.
It should add more valuable info not contained in the subject line. Combined, your subject line and preheader should tell one complete story. Below are some quick tips on how to nail it:
Use figures to concretize the subject line.
Inject a sense of urgency by adding a deadline to your offer.
Ask a loaded question that piques your audience’s interest.
Highlight your offer’s second benefit.
Personalize the preheader if you haven’t personalized the subject.
Captivate through visually appealing emoji.
Weave fear of missing out (FOMO) into your copy.
In essence, treat your preheader like your second subject line.
Here are a couple of examples of some of the above strategies in use.
Philips Chrysler used personalization to good effect.