Our blog

A “pre”header element comes before anything else in the email, immediately before the nav bar (for information on nav bars, see previous post Marketing automation tip: do email navigation bars help or hurt?). Its key purpose is to summarize the main point of the email, so that if the images are not displayed, customers know what your email is trying to say.
 

Since preheaders are more of an informational than a design element, they should be in plain text, but just because they are plain doesn’t mean they need to be boring. As with subject lines, you’re going to have to work for your conversions. Preheaders are a great place to get creative!

Preheaders + open rates

It’s important to remember that preheaders may also have an impact on your open rates. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, many email clients now pull the first text they “see” into the subject line. In most cases, that’s the preheader text:

This additional text may help or hurt your open rates. You will want to make sure it entices users to open the email. Read your copy again. Does your preheader encourage opens? Does it hint at something that you’d want to explore further?

The second reason preheaders may have an impact on open rates is that if images are disabled then the only thing a reader will see is your preheader. Since most emails opens are tracked via an invisible image, then images need to be enabled to count as an open. Assess your emails honestly. Does your preheader text encourage users to enable images?

How to write a preheader

In the short space you have, keep your text simple – less is more. After all, you don’t want the preheader to push the main calls to action or key pieces of information in your email below the fold.

For this reason, you should write your preheader with four elements in mind:

• Summarize the main message of your email (e.g., “all chairs on sale through Saturday!”)
• Include any coupon codes (giving customers an incentive to click through even if they can’t see the images)
• Include a call to action (e.g., “click here to save!”)
• Offer a ‘view in browser’ option in case of disabled images (e.g., “can’t see images? Click here”)

With all of that said, you may not even need a preheader. Do you have plain text in your email that is visible in the preview pane, without the preheader there? If the answer is yes, then you can probably do away with the preheader. After all, the main point of using one is to include important information that may not be visible when images are turned off.

Ultimately, any choice to use preheaders, plain text, or even images comes down to just one question: which combination of elements will make mailings most accessible to your customers? Make the emails simple to read, interesting to look at, and easy to navigate, and you’ll see your click rates rise. After all, remember that copy and creative should have a sole focus: the customer. Design with them in mind, and they’ll doubtless reward you with conversions.

Have any questions? For more information on nav bars, email headers, and other design elements, see our presentation on Cracking the Code: Keys to Email Creative Success.