Important Tips to Remember On Preview Panes

Though distinctly different approaches exist for marketers communicating with consumers, versus those who reach a business audience, it's a consistently held premise that HTML email must present a compelling design for the preview pane (that portion of the email interface that lets email readers partially scan their messages).

The reason is simple. Most readers use the preview pane to review their email before making a decision to open. If it ain't happening in the preview pane, you may as well anticipate a much lower open rate, not to mention click throughs to your site.

According to Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald in their Seven Steps to a Better Template, the issue comes down to a central question: "Does the email message deliver its punch in a space roughly 4 inches wide by 2 inches deep?'

The preview pane has been compared to newspapers, where the portion "above the fold" creates the impact for a newstand sale. If you're a publisher or an advertising agency, you're familiar with the idea of getting a compelling message across in limited space. For emails, this means packing as much information as possible up top, where the eye will see it quickly. Build interest and impact. Get them to click on anchor links to the text which follows, or simply use the upper left hand corner for a list of what's to follow.

Yet, or course, creativity doesn't stop on this point. Many designers now look at the top 200 by 300 pixels of an HTML newsletter or message, as a virtual banner. But this can lead to a uneven looking product for the reader, the experience of opening and reading an email can become so top heavy that there's not much flow to the content, or breathing room for the story that follows.

So as in everything else, the question of balance comes into play. Popov and McDonald suggest that you redesign your template for a more horizontal format and pack as much information up top. Yet, that leaves me wondering how conditioned readers will become to the repetitive stimulus. Will it be too much of a good thing? What about the newsletter or message that simply unfolds in an interesting way? What happens then?

As in everything, sometimes the exception proves the rule. Here's a quote from David Baker from the Email Insider (8/21/06) that says, "You e-mail should flow smoothly and be evenly distributed if your intent is for the reader to flow through content."

We think, that if you have an interesting story, you should tell it in an interesting way. This may mean toping up on flags, teasers, interesting link names, and anchor lists... or simply letting a great headling unfold into the story.

You'll want to use images carefully (with alt tags), especially if your are doing a business to business communication, since many email clients turn off the images by defalt.

Always think about what you're doing with care. Follow general trends carefully, but follow your instincts most of all.