8 Embarrassing

Preview Text

Mistakes

Plus, 4 Tips on How to

Avoid Making Them

While subject lines get all the attention,

preview text can have a big impact on

an email’s performance because:

• It’s widely supported.

• Often, twice as much preview text

is displayed than subject line copy.@LitmusApp

@LitmusApp

For example, the native iPhone email

app displays 35-40 characters of a

subject line and twice as many

characters of preview text.Sender name

Subject line

PREVIEW TEXT

@LitmusApp

You have only a few seconds to earn

a subscriber’s attention in the inbox,

so don’t ruin the moment by making a

distracting error. Here are 8 preview

text mistakes to avoid…

Having Unoptimized

ALT Text Pulled into

Your Preview Text

1

@LitmusApp

Your preview text is generated from

the first HTML text in your email,

which includes the ALT for images

such as logos or banners. So if your

ALT isn’t optimized, your preview text

may not be optimized. For example…

@LitmusApp

Having Your

Code Show

2

@LitmusApp

If your email isn’t coded properly,

then email clients may pull your code

into your preview text. That effectively

means that gibberish appears next to

your subject line, undermining your

credibility. For example…

@LitmusApp

@LitmusApp

@LitmusApp

Forgetting to

Replace Preheader

Placeholder Text

3

@LitmusApp

One of the best ways to control your

preview text is to create preheader

text. However, if you don’t have a

good QA process, placeholder text

can accidentally sneak through and

get sent out. For example…

@LitmusApp

@LitmusApp

3 Using Unsupported

Characters

4

@LitmusApp

Support for special characters

varies among email clients. So using

certain characters can mean that

strange character strings can appear

instead. For example…

@LitmusApp

Having Broken

Personalization

5

@LitmusApp

Wherever you use personalization,

you need to double-check that it’s

working properly and that you have

fallbacks in place. That includes your

preview text so you can avoid

embarrassing blanks. For example…

@LitmusApp

@LitmusApp

Having Your Preview Text

Get Truncated Awkwardly

6

@LitmusApp

Although rare, it’s possible for your

carefully planned preview text to be

unfortunately supplemented by the

next bit of HTML text in your email if

you’re not careful. For example…

@LitmusApp

Having Jarringly Poor

Subject Line-Preview Text

Alignment

7

@LitmusApp

Your preview text and your subject

line should make sense together. If

they are jarringly divergent, it can

confuse your subscribers or even

offend them. For example…

@LitmusApp

@LitmusApp

Not Even Trying to Optimize

Your Preview Text

8

@LitmusApp

All of that said, the most common

mistake is simply not taking the time

to optimize your preview text. You’d

never leave your subject line to

chance, so here are 4 ways to take

control of your preview text…

@LitmusApp

First, use visible and hidden

preheader text to control what

appears as your preview text to

extend your subject line and add

more details.

@LitmusApp

Second, use your preview text to

extend and strengthen your subject

line by adding additional details. For

example…

@LitmusApp

@LitmusApp

Third, use the ‌  preview

text hack to create white space at the

end of your desired preview text so

no other distracting text gets pulled

in. You can see this hack in action in

these examples…

White space

created by

preview text hack

@LitmusApp

And fourth, use Litmus Subject

Line Checker. One of the many

features of Litmus’ HTML editor,

Builder, it ensures that your subject

lines and preview text are both

optimized by giving you…

Real-time previews in 15+ email

apps and webmail clients and…

Alerts about

potential

problems, like

unsupported

emojis and

character counts.

To discover how Subject

Line Checker, Builder,

and Litmus’ other

features can improve

your email workflow…

Start a free trial