When you are checking your inbox in the native iPhone email app, Gmail or Yahoo Mail you will only see the subject – or a fraction of it – and a short preheader text, which should give more details for your subscribers about the content of your email. Since this is the second thing which people see before opening your emails, you should care! But according to Exacttarget53% of email marketers – or at least B2C brands – forget about it!
image source: Exacttarget
How should you optimize your preheader texts?
A good preheader text has to support or extend the subject line and make your email more attractive to your subscribers. If they are reading this part, you successfully grabbed their attention with your subject line, but don’t waste it. Make the preheader catchy and provide relevant information which extends your subject line and sums up your email in one sentence.
For example if your subject line is about a discount, you could list the brands or product types which are included in your offer. Choose whichever is more attractive for your clientele. If you are not sure what they like, dig deeper into your website data or simply ask them through your social channels or email.
Always test your preheaders!
image source: Litmus.com
Since the email market is really segmented your preheaders will show up differently for your customers. Everything depends on the device and email client they use. For example iPhone 6 Plus owners will see an extra line from your preheader compared to regular iPhone 6 or 5 users.
Always check your emails on as many devices and email clients as you can. Unfortunately a Litmus account won’t be enough in this case, since the subject line checker they offer only includes Outlooks, BlackBerry 4 OS, Gmail.com, Outlook.com and Yahoo! Mail.
The guys at Litmus innovate a lot, so hopefully they will improve this functionality shortly and we can get rid of manual email testing.
