Subject Lines & Preheaders

To make your email compelling enough to open, you have to catch your constituent’s attention in their crowded inbox. Success starts with the email’s subject line and preheader.

Inside the Inbox

Let’s breakdown an email’s components as they appear in an inbox:

1. From name. The identity of the sender, such as a person or department, indicating who is sending the email. This is controlled by the brand configuration.
2. Subject line. The main line of text people see when they receive your email. Quickly offers a compelling reason to open the email. 5-7 words, 40-50 characters (with spaces) or less. (This example is 5 words and 36 characters with spaces.)
3. Preheader. Text below the subject line. Provides additional context to support the subject line. Offers additional compelling reason(s) to open the email and read the message inside. 40-130 characters (with spaces). (This example is 7 words and 46 characters.)

Subject Line Recommendations

• Keep it short. Subject lines must be quick to scan and understand. Aim for 40-50 characters (with spaces) or fewer, around 5 to 7 words or fewer.
• Front-load the most important content. Quickly grab attention by putting the most important keywords or ideas at the beginning. This way, the most compelling information stays visible in case the end of the subject line is cut off on a narrow screen.
• Avoid re-stating your identity. Your “from name” should already identify who is sending the email so there’s no need to use valuable space in your subject line to repeat that. Avoid doing something like this:
  • From name: IU CX Marketing Team
  • Subject line: IU CX Marketing Team announces IU indianapolis Marketing Cloud branding changes
  • Preheader: IU CX Marketing Team will make changes July 1
• Choose an approach that would best suit your email’s audience, topic and tone, such as these common ones:
  • Recipient-Focused. Make it about your recipient, not you. Place the topic in terms of the person and/or communicate a direct benefit for them. You could use language such as “you” or “your” in this approach.
  • Instructional. Express how the email will explain or teach something of value to the recipient.
  • Urgent or scarce. Clearly state a time-sensitive action or limited availability so recipients understand they must take action now.
  • News or announcements. Instead of “February newsletter” or “A special announcement,” write a specific but short line that previews what the newsletter or announcement contains.

Subject Line Examples

Preheader Recommendations

• Always opt to use a preheader in Marketing Cloud. If you don’t have one, it will automatically begin with the text of your email. Instead, write an intentional preheader.
• Make it different from the subject line. Always write different content for the preheader. Use this extra space wisely and don’t make people read the same thing twice.
• Support the subject line. The preheader lets you add more detail and context to expand on and support your subject line—all to further convince your reader to open the email.
• Front-load the most important content. Because preheaders are longer, a chunk of it will likely be cut off when viewing the email on different devices or email clients. As you would with subject lines, add the most compelling information at the beginning.
• Keep it to 40-130 characters.

Preheader Examples