Better Email Marketing Pt 4. The First Line Or Preview Line

Jun 13, 2020

Part 1

Is Email Marketing Still Relevent

Part 5

The From Name and Address

Part 2

Putting The Customer First

Part 6

The Style & Body of the Email

Part 3

Writing A Great Email Subject Line

Part 7

Segmenting Your Mailing List

Part 4

The First Line or Preview Line

Part 8

Building Your Email Marketing List

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Part 4 of the Better Email Marketing blog series looks at the preview or first line.

It’s one part of an email that doesn’t get talked about a lot but it can help increase your open rates.

The first line or preview line or pre-header

All email software, be it on a mobile phone, laptop or desktop computer, will always show you a few words from the first line or pre-header of the email and this gives you a great opportunity to say a little more about the email you’ve sent and to encourage the person to open it.

You can think of it as almost a second subject line.

In the example above, the first line is highlighted in Yellow.

Most Email Service Providers will provide you with an area/box to fill in your first line which is also known as the pre-header or preview line.

If you leave this pre-header/first line box blank then you may find that the first words of the email show as the first line; which could be something irrelevant like “View this email in a browser.” This is why it’s important to create a proper first line that’s both interesting and engaging.

If, when you are writing your subject line, you find it to be a little too long you may want to include some of the words in the first line of the email.

Here are a few subject lines followed by first line ideas:

  • Celebrate 10 years with us. Win £100 to spend online.
  • New season styles in store & exclusive discount voucher.
  • 5 ways to wear our new season dresses.
  • Personal invite to our new Manchester store opening.
  • 6 bookkeeping tips to save you time and effort.

Here are some first lines that you could use:

  • It’s our 10th birthday this week! Enter our competition to win £100.
  • Take an exclusive look at our new styles & get 20% off for 1 week.
  • Evenings out or relaxing in. We pick the perfect styles.
  • The grand opening is 14th March. Open your exclusive invite.
  • Top advice for keeping your business finances in order.

Make sure you use the first line effectively to encourage email opens by thinking of your customer and adding some value so that people want to open your email.

The first line will appear very close to the subject line so it can be a great way to re-enforce your message and get that email opened.

Move onto part 5

In part 5 we’re going to look at the From Name and Address. This is where and who the email is sent from.