Written by Kristina Schott, Email Marketing Designer
One element of email design that has been receiving increased industry buzz lately is the preheader. The term preheader is used to refer to the area above the graphic header in an email. It may contain prompts to view the email “as a webpage,” add the from address to an address book, or provide a line of “teaser” text about the content of the message.
One element of the preheader that is often overlooked is the language used for the “view as a webpage” link. The use of this link is fairly universal by now, but do your subscribers know what "view as a webpage" means?
We partnered with Florida Power & Light to conduct a multi-variant test on their preheader strategy. We tested two preheaders with their monthly email newsletter subscribers.
Their original preheader:
Having trouble viewing this e-mail? Click here.
This is the preheader that Florida Power & Light had been using previously; keeping the language general covered not only image-blocking, but survey-blocking, and a limited view within an email client's preview pane.
The challenger:
View this e-mail with images.
It was our hope that by explicitly mentioning that there are supposed to be images in the email, subscribers viewing in an image-blocking inbox might realize that they're not seeing the email as intended.
The results:
The “view this email with images” language outperformed “Click here if you have trouble viewing this email” by 33%.
Our Conclusion:
Consumers can quickly understand the “view with images” benefit, while language such as “view in a web browser,” “view online,” and “having trouble” don’t provide that immediate understandable benefit.
As always, make sure to test this with your subscriber base before switching your preheader language. Your audience might respond to a different call-to-action.
Stay tuned for part two... we also tested “teaser” text in the preheader.
One element of email design that has been receiving increased industry buzz lately is the preheader. The term preheader is used to refer to the area above the graphic header in an email. It may contain prompts to view the email “as a webpage,” add the from address to an address book, or provide a line of “teaser” text about the content of the message.
One element of the preheader that is often overlooked is the language used for the “view as a webpage” link. The use of this link is fairly universal by now, but do your subscribers know what "view as a webpage" means?
We partnered with Florida Power & Light to conduct a multi-variant test on their preheader strategy. We tested two preheaders with their monthly email newsletter subscribers.
Their original preheader:
Having trouble viewing this e-mail? Click here.
This is the preheader that Florida Power & Light had been using previously; keeping the language general covered not only image-blocking, but survey-blocking, and a limited view within an email client's preview pane.
The challenger:
View this e-mail with images.
It was our hope that by explicitly mentioning that there are supposed to be images in the email, subscribers viewing in an image-blocking inbox might realize that they're not seeing the email as intended.
The results:
The “view this email with images” language outperformed “Click here if you have trouble viewing this email” by 33%.
Our Conclusion:
Consumers can quickly understand the “view with images” benefit, while language such as “view in a web browser,” “view online,” and “having trouble” don’t provide that immediate understandable benefit.
As always, make sure to test this with your subscriber base before switching your preheader language. Your audience might respond to a different call-to-action.
Stay tuned for part two... we also tested “teaser” text in the preheader.
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