Another common practice is to include a CTA in the email preheader. Tell subscribers right away what they might want to do after reading the email. Like subject line CTAs, preheader CTAs help grab your reader’s attention and drive conversions.
Preheader CTAS can:
Entice subscribers to take on a specific action, such as complete a survey or take advantage of a sale.
Be product-specific: “10% Off Shoes
Offer Ends Today!” Add further impact to ecommerce email marketing campaigns: “Don’t miss this special Chinese Overseas Africa Phone Number Data Fourth of July offer! ”
6. Use emojis to stand out in a crowded inbox
Don’t be afraid to add emojis to the email preheader. This will catch the reader’s eye and break up the many lines of text in an inbox.
Beyond their visual impact, emojis let you add a splash of personality to your message while keeping the preheader brief. Sometimes, they can help reduce the number of characters in your preheader text.
Be sure to use emojis sparingly. Similar to excessive exclamation points and text in all caps, too many emojis can be perceived as spam, putting your email deliverability at risk.
7. Preview the preheader across different formats
Email preheader lengths may vary depending on whether the subscriber is viewing the campaign on desktop or mobile. The character limit for preheader text might also differ according to the email service provider (ESP).
r before sending out your campaign. This will ensure that the right text appears no matter the format.
Some email marketing tools allow you to see how the preheader will appear on both desktop and mobile and on different email clients such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.
8. Optimize the preheader for varying character limits
Email clients cut off preheader text at different spots due to varying character limits, and you can’t necessarily choose how the text is cropped.
One way to accommodate for these differences in preheader length is to write in bite-sized chunks. You can separate the chunks using symbols (e.g. | or -), as pictured in the example below.
Inserting blank space after the preheader is another way to catch the reader’s eye while accommodating for varying character limits. This is a common trick called the preview text hack, which uses HTML or Unicode to add blank space after the preheader text.
In many cases, the blank space pushes down any text you don’t want to appear in the preheader. The additional padding also breaks up the inbox’s lines of text, drawing the reader’s eye to your preheader message.
preheader example in bite-sized chunks
Preheader text written in chunks can be cut off easily by an email client.
9. Use A/B testing
There are several ways to optimize preheaders — A/B test your email preheader text to see what resonates with your subscribers. Try experimenting with the best practices listed above, then track your campaigns’ metrics to see which preheader delivers the best results.
