on3 Blog

What’s in your preview pane?

It’s a critical question that can make or break the effectiveness of your email campaigns. Click Z Experts have an interesting article about ensuring that the real estate at the top of your newsletter or other communication (i.e. the info that people will see in their email preview pane) is enticing and motivates them to scroll down or open the email to see the rest of your content.

Large banners, graphics and advertisements can eat up valuable space and earn you a “Delete” before they ever get to the content that is most important. You can read the full article here, but here are some interesting highlights:

•  In 2005, EmailLabs released a study reporting that 69 percent of business people use a preview pane when viewing e-mail. Another 33 percent of the group said they often read entire messages this way.
• The vast majority of people use a horizontal rather than a vertical preview pane. Of these users, roughly half configure their preview pane to be about 2 inches tall, while the other half prefer a taller view of about 4 inches.
• Snippets are becoming another important tool for engaging readers. In the case study I mentioned earlier, we also saw a 41 percent lift in open rates, thanks to the copy that appeared in the snippet.
• Paying just a little attention to the preview pane can return a significant lift in performance. Earlier this year, I generated a 76 percent increase in clicks and a 220 percent increase in leads generated for one client by adding a strong headline to the preview pane of the control e-mail.