It is best to assume that the default position is that everyone reads their email on a mobile. In other words, you work back from that premise, personalising your segmented email marketing lists for the few who do not. The natural follow-on is that you should design your email marketing campaigns to ensure all aspects are mobile friendly. That means effective use of preheaders.
A preheader is that part of the email displayed after the From and Subject Lines. It gives a variable number of characters, upwards of 30, that you can use to convince your subscriber of the advantages of opening the email. The most remarkable aspect of them is that many companies, even the big internationals, do not exploit the rather obvious advantages of preheaders.
Let’s look at some real world examples of failure.
On my mobile, the rather narrow Moto G5S, the preheader gives a rather measly 36 extra characters, and on many of my emails the extra text is truncated. Even so, there is no excuse for the one, from my subscription to Kindle, which reads, ‘We have recommendations for you. You…’ This is one of the world’s biggest internet companies apparently not that enthusiastic about their email marketing campaigns.
I don’t want to pick on Amazon, but a couple of emails down there is a preheader starting, ‘Amazon.co.uk’. In other words, it is identical to the From Line. I already know who it is from. Why tell me again and make me waste my time? In email marketing every little advantage needs to be grabbed.
I have an email, trying to encourage me to open a newsletter, which states: ‘Mem No. 03-11 *****17’. I’m being told my date of birth and the year I joined the discount club. The asterisks hide the rest of my number, which I have on my membership card. In the past I’ve actually been told ‘It is your birthday next week’. The company isn’t even trying to use the space effectively.
These are all from my current inbox on my mobile. Those companies, and many others, don’t seem willing to put any effort into email marketing. Could this be you?
