Best practices for your email preheaders

When you view an email in your inbox, the brief text that appears below the sender details and the subject line is known as the "preheader." Although the preheader of your emails may not seem important, it is one of the first things recipients see when your email lands in their inboxes. A strong preheader can persuade someone to open your email but a weak preheader can result in your emails being ignored.

Because preheaders in emails are among the first things your readers will see, it's important to get them right. To increase conversions through your preheaders, consider our tips in this article.

The importance of a preheader in email marketing

Before opening an email, people check the preheader to determine whether it is worthwhile to click on it or not. People may not even open your emails to notice the effort you put into your email marketing campaign if your preheader is bland and boring.

This is how you should use a preheader:

If you want to create the best preheaders, it's vital to adhere to best practices. If you're prepared to put in the time and effort, staying current with trends can help you produce attention-grabbing headers that give your emails a boost. Following these recommended best practices can help you produce better email preheaders.

1. Keep it clear and concise

Because you don't have space for lengthy words or complex terminology, the preheader's goal is to inform customers of what they can expect to read in your email in a few words.

If you want to ensure that your email preheaders are tailored to fit a wide range of devices, you should limit their length to between 30 and 80 characters. A brief preheader is perfect as long as it effectively communicates your message.

2. Elaborate on your subject line

It's not always possible to provide information that will draw attention in the subject line. To close that gap, use preheader text.

By integrating the preheader's content with the subject line, you can produce something that can pique the recipients' attention. This can potentially make them more eager to open your email.

3. Personalise it

When it comes to email marketing, personalisation is a best practice from beginning to end. The objective is to provide something worthwhile that encourages recipients of your emails to open them, increasing the size of the audience you can market to.

Consider adding the recipient's name to the preheader for a personal touch. People are more likely to connect with information when it seems to be tailored just for them and when you address them by name.

4. Have a CTA

You might believe that a call to action(CTA) should only be used at the end of emails, but they can also work wonders in preheader content. You can use your preheader to explain to recipients why you are emailing them and what they should do after receiving it. This is a crucial initial step since it encourages readers to continue reading.

Your call to action could be anything, in terms of content. You might entice recipients to benefit from a sale you're having or try your newest product.

5. Create a sense of urgency using FOMO

Decisions are made by people using certain thought patterns. One such thought pattern is the fear of missing out (FOMO), which motivates people to act fast and seize opportunities.

You can create this sense by making your emails appear exclusive and time-sensitive.

When announcing your holiday sale, for example, you can use the phrase "limited time" to capitalise on FOMO.

Because emails are common in our daily communications, email marketing has tremendous power. This is a challenge, though, as your emails must stand out in a congested inbox. That is why your emails will be well on their way to success if you use each email preheader tip we've covered above.

What tip are you planning to use first? Let us know in the comments section below.