Let's explore how email preheader text can specifically increase your open and click-through rates, which in turn will dramatically increase the effectiveness of your email marketing.
What is Email Preheader Text?
The first step to understanding why email preheaders are so effective is to understand what they are. Most businesses aren't even aware that they exist.
Email preheaders are much as they sound like; they're text that acts independent of the subject line to give the recipient a brief overview of what is contained within the email.
The part that makes them unique is the way they are presented to the recipient. They can be viewed before the message is opened on most modern email clients, which includes everything from web mail to mobile email programs.
Why Should You Avoid Automatic Preheader Text?
Some email clients will automatically generate preheader texts. These can be problematic and counter-intuitive to your marketing efforts in more than just one simple way.
These can appear ominous or even confusing when they are generated by machines due to the way feature-rich HTML emails work. These can create preheader text that looks like anything from garbled letters to short statements that are actually offensive to someone individuals.
While this is an extreme for automatic preheader text, there are still other reasons to avoid it. The most prominent of those reasons is the fact that it can dissuade potential customers from looking at the contents of your emails.
Increasing Your Open Rates with Smart Preheader Text
By using the right preheader text in your emails, you can drastically increase how many recipients open your emails.
Here's a few of the ways that FireDrum can be used to create the right preheader text for your next email marketing campaign:
1. Pique a Recipient's Interest
Though you may not know how many characters a preheader will contain, you can generate enough interest with it to make the recipient open your email. You can do so by making your recipient feel as if they will gain something by opening your email and reading it.
When they do open your email, then that is the time where you deliver upon what your preheader promises.
2. Provide a Direct and Strong Call-to-Action
Preheader text can be used to provide a clear and succinct statement as to what the recipient should do. This direct call can inform a customer about a sale, tell a former customer to come back, or request a review for a product that a customer has purchased in the past.
A simple, clear call-to-action in the preheader is often one of the best ways to make your emails more effective with FireDrum.
3. Incentivize Your Emails
People have historically been shown to be more likely to do something when they understand what the benefit is for them. Email preheaders allow you to give your recipients a reason to open your email, which in turn can dramatically boost your email open rates.
4. Unique Text
Unlike marketing as a whole, you generally want to avoid repeating yourself in your preheader. You want to notify the recipient of why they should open your email just one time.
Doing so makes your email significantly more attractive while giving it the ability to stand out from other emails from the competition your recipient may have received.
5. Easy Split Testing
Preheader text makes for easy A/B split test when you utilize FireDrum. You can have concrete numbers that back up more successful marketing tests, which in turn can be used in more than just your email marketing.
Making the Most Out of Preheader Text
When you leverage the full use of preheader text in your email marketing campaigns, you'll notice that your email open rates shoot through the roof. What was once a 10- to 20-percent rate of email opening may skyrocket to 30 to 50 percent.
Depending upon the scale of your business, even a few percent may be enough to net a considerable profit. Custom preheaders in your emails from FireDrum can provide you with the edge you need to stay competitive and profitable.
Try it today to see what preheader text can do to entice customers to open your emails more often.
