SPECIAL LIMITED SERIES: ===> PRE-HEADER Has HUGE Impact on Email Marketing Performance! <=== | BATHROOM Break #6 (COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That)

Welcome to a new special series called the Bathroom break. That extra 10 minutes you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom. Or both. But I don't recommend both. But that's your choice.

This collab is going to be super fun.

We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schwedelson from the do this, not that podcast and subjectline.com each episode in the series we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics. And if you want to be in the bathroom, you fine. Just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out.

What's up, everybody? We're back with the Bathroom Break with the Jay Schwedelson from Subjectline.com and Guru Media House. Groom Media House in that house.

But I feel like his house actually fun fact. I'm actually at the Guru office. This is sweet. It feels like a party in here. Oh yeah, everybody, it's out of control. It's out of. Got nobody stopping.

But today we're going to talk about the next part of how to get your emails open. And that's the pre header. And it's one of the most important parts. We talked about two important parts, actually.

All these are important to just listen to all of them. This previous episode we talk about subject lines and then pre headers. But Jay, you want to kick it off with a pre editor.

Yeah. So in general, what is the pre header? Right. Some people call it the second subject line.

It is that lighter gray text that you see below the subject line and it is forgotten. It is a deciding factor of whether or not your emails get open. It is incredibly valuable real estate state. And a couple things to understand.

Number one, you always. It has to be less than 85 characters. That is basically the. The amount of space that you have.

Don't do it. All right?

And most of the time that's because you're not even putting in a preheader. You're just using the. So just think about the pre. Yeah. Be aware that it exists.

The first tip I'll give is I said this in a previous episode about subject lines, but I like to think of it as either the. The second sentence of the email. Not even in the email.

So either I think of it as putting it in as the first sentence of what my email actually reads. Because when you see a regular email on the blog, like if Jay emailed me right now, it'll be part of what he's saying in the email.

So I like to feel like it's an a natural email going out. If it's not that, I'll make it as the falling on that tip.

So if I said five tips for this, I'll be like, I'm giving you blah blah blah, blah, blah blah blah blah blah. And then make it a continuation of that subject line.

Yeah.

And just to build off that, there's three words that we have found that if you start your pre header with building off of the subject line, it will actually lift your open rate significantly. And the words are and, but or plus. Right.

So you write whatever you're going to write in the subject line and then the first word of the pre header is and comma blah blah blah or it says plus comma blah blah blah or but comma blah blah blah. You are literally taking the recipient on a journey with your email.

They read the subject line, they feel connected to the pre editor and they open it up. You know, in general, all these things that Daniel and I have been talking about, they feel like, are you serious?

This is what I have to do in my marketing to get it to perform. But that's the difference between email working for you and not working for you.

It's a series of little things that are all connected that if you don't take the time to do, just give up because it's not going to work. So Daniel, what's another pre header tip that you found?

I want to go a little deeper in that is because like you got to think about a 1 or 2 percentage bump or 3 percentage bump at an open rate. Could if you're in an offer email could be sales.

Yeah.

Like you could be selling especially if you have a huge list, like 1% is a huge amount of people that you're not getting open in that email. So you're losing out in sales if you're not doing this.

Even if a newsletter, you're losing out on potential people reading your great content and falling more and more deeper into liking what you put out. So another tip I'll give is and a shout out to Ari for doing this for the first time that I seen it is putting read time in the free header.

So brackets, three minute read. You see this all the Time in articles on websites, but you don't really see that in email. And it also just.

Just allows people to set expectations up front that hey, this is only 3 minutes of your time. So if you open it it's gonna take only three minutes. So I think that's a really good way to set it off.

For an email that's more like newsletter content, vibes or actually for any email, just try test it out and see how it works.

So what do you mean exactly by that? So in the pre header you would write like three minute read, dot, dot, dot, something like that?

No, I would put like brackets, three minutes read and then have a little extra past the subject line. So like I would just have that as like we talked about earlier having brackets in.

In yourself design but put brackets, three minute read and then continue whatever you're going to say. Alison, your pre header, I like to finish. I like to fill that pre header space.

So I know you're going to give a tip later about not even having pre header but like fill that space up so there isn't like extra gunk that could sneak into your pre header that makes your email look.

So that's an interesting test that I have to do is completely filling the pre header as opposed to trying to fit it in. Filling the pre header with content versus writing a shorter pre header, I think that's a cool test. I want to do that.

But along those lines, what we're really talking about is visually, right, if you look at your inbox and you see all the pre headers, there's something you could try that you can't do it every time. But having absolutely no pre header whatsoever by having no pre header. And I did learn this from Ari Murray, Daniel's better half.

Once in a while, if you try sending out an email with no pre header, it actually gives some air and some space around your email versus all the other emails. And we've actually seen that lift open rates because it stands out a little bit. And that's the game. How do we get the emails stand out?

So the pre header is a really valuable piece of real estate. How else can you use the pre header?

I think another way that I talked about filling the pre header up to the brim, but I don't think you have to do that every single time. I think that's just table stakes. If you just want to.

If you're like going through that pre header really fast, I think another thing to do is what you said is have something that piques the interest in like we're giving away something else or like something sneaky that you could say in that pre editor. That's like a tease that if you open this email, you'll get something, something I like to put like little, like drop little hints in there.

So it'd be like, hey, we're giving out like the three hints that we're giving away in this, like.

Or like three secret tips that we're giving away in this news that are like a continuation to make it feel like more of a peaking interest type thing.

Yeah. And in general, what really this episode is, we want to raise your thinking and time that you're spending on the pre header.

You know, if you look at the essential elements of how to get your email, open the from address, the subject line. The pre header is that third piece of real estate. So spend time on it. Test stuff. It's a variable. It's important.

And there's been another exciting episode of the the Bathroom Break. Daniel, how do you want to wrap this one up?

Actually, I need to go use the bathroom. Peace out, everybody.

Daniel, come on, man. I got to get back to work. Get out of there. All right, while he's still in there. This is Jay. Check out my podcast, do this, not that for Marketers.

Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing and hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Mark and Millennials this podcast, but also tune into the series. It's once a week. The Bathroom Break.

We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out. And it could be anything from email subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it.

Just give us a a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out.

Later.