Last updated on August 2nd, 2023
Think your email messaging is limited to a subject and a body? Think again. There is an often overlooked part of every email which can have a dramatic effect on your open rates. Enter Preview Text.
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What Is Preview Text?
Preview text is the first part of your email message, which is displayed in addition to your subject on your mobile phone email notifications, in each Gmail email row, and in the preview row for each email in Outlook. Here are is an example:
How Can You Make The Most Of Preview Text?
Creativity wins here and be sure to begin with the end in mind. Preview Text gives you an opportunity, in addition to your subject line, to entice your recipients to open your email. This is your chance to “hook” them. We’ve seen personalization as an effective option, as well as one-liner summaries. Of course, this is a great test area for your A/B tests as well. Try a couple options and compare the results. Let us know what works best for you!
It is important to note that different devices and views have different length limits for their Preview Text. The range is roughly from 30 characters on the short end to 140 characters on the long end.
What Is The “&ZQNJ; ” Hack?
This is an HTML hack that some marketers use to control what is shown in preview text by essentially forcing white space after their opening statement in the email. It allows the preview text to remain concise and not be followed by distracting incomplete messages.
There are a couple limitations here. Firstly, even if it’s basic code, it requires access to the HTML of your email prior to sending, and will carry a learning curve to some users. Additionally, it still limits your preview text to the first statement(s) of your email.
What if you want the preview text to entice your recipient to open the email, but you want the greeting of the email to be more cordial? There are many scenarios where it would be ideal for the preview text to be different from the greeting.
Thankfully, VipeCloud has you covered here. You can customize the preview text to say anything at all!
How To Use Preview Text In VipeCloud
When composing mass emails, single emails, or email templates there is a Preview Text button you can click to add your Preview Text. Note that all of our merge tags are compatible with the Preview Text. Easy as pie! Good luck!
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