What is Email Pre-header?

The email preheader is the summary text that follows a subject line when the email is viewed in an inbox. In many cases, it’s used to provide a short summary of the email.

Email preheader text is what many mobiles, desktop, and web email clients show readers to give them an idea of what’s inside the message before they actually open it. In many cases, this powerful line of text can be the difference between someone opening and not opening an email.

How to add an email Pre-Header?

In Saleshandy, you can change your preheader text in the same place you edit your subject line.

Email preheader appears differently in different email clients. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and the various mobile clients all have different ways of showing previews. Here’s an example in Gmail:

How long should an email preheader be?

Your email preheader text should be between 40-130 characters long. Character length depends on the email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc.) and device (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.).

Here are 3 things to keep in mind when you decide on the length of your preheader text:

1. On many desktop clients, the length of your email subject line determines how much of your preview text is displayed
2. Mobile email clients typically show less of your preheader text. Most mobile preheader text is between 30 and 55 characters long.
3. If your preview text is too short, email clients may pull in text from the beginning of your email

Even if you don’t need all of it, it can be a good idea to write a long email preheader (with the important points at the beginning) so that you don’t accidentally display a line of text from the rest of your email campaign.