Read any HubSpot “email marketing 101” article, and they’ll express the importance of the preview line: The line of copy that appears in a lighter font next to the subject line (on desktop) or below the subject line (on mobile).
According to the HubSpot article—which as a reminder are probably now written by AI, but were once written by interns with no real skin in the game—this gives you yet another chance to persuade, or better yet, tease, your audience about what they’ll get out of clicking on your email and opening it.
But this isn’t quite right… at least according to some of the direct response OG’s who, before email was even thought of let alone invented, had to pay actual money each time they mailed their ad to a household.
Now, it’s not a one-to-one comparison between direct mail from the 60s, 70s, and 80s as it is to email today. But it’s close. Instead of a preview line, it was a teaser line and went somewhere on the envelope they sent their ads in.
But why wouldn’t you want to write a few more words of copy to give you the best chance possible for your email, or your letter, to be opened?
Well, it comes down to what the late, great Gary Halbert called the “A pile” vs the “B pile.” And while he taught this in the context of direct mail, it also applies to email. Mayhap even more so.
What’s the “A pile” and “B pile?”
Lemme explain:
According to Gary, when folks opened their mailbox, they instantly scanned through the letters and mentally divided them:
Any promos, ads, or obvious marketing materials like flyers went into the “B pile,” and they were immediately discarded into the nearest trash can without so much as reading a single word on them.
Whereas mail that looked like bills, letters from a friend, or not obviously from a company trying to sell you something made it to the “A pile.” They’d open and read everything in the “A pile” even if they didn’t have time to physically do it when they collected their mail from their mailbox.
One of the thangs that Gary Halbert did to stand out and make it to the “A pile” so his ads would even stand a chance of being read is that he omitted any teaser lines on the envelope (and a whole bunch of other thangs I won’t get into here that made his letter seem more like it was from a friend than a company).
And so it is with preview lines in your emails:
Yes, there are exceptions. Sometimes I will add a preview line when it acts as a force multiplier for the subject line (which typically means hiking up the “teasing” aspect).
But each time you use a preview line in your emails, you appear in your audience’s inbox more like a company than like a personal friend or coworker. And this makes it less likely that they open and read your email. Even if you have a killer piece of copy in your preview line.
This is also the entire point of plain-text emails vs heavily designed HTML emails.
Heavily designed HTML emails look like flyers you get from your local company that, unless they have an absurd sale going on, get immediately discarded into the nearest trash bin. Plain-text emails, in comparison, are how your friends, family, and coworkers communicate with you over email.
You will almost always have a better chance at making someone open, read, and buy from your emails if you go out of your way to make it look more like it’s from a friend.
But this approach requires writing more copy, and thinking about your copy on a deeper level. That’s why most biz owners opt for the easier approach, even if it means sacrificing hundreds or even thousands of sales (depending on the size of your email list).
Anywho:
If you need help crafting “A pile” emails, hit reply, and let’s see if partnering together on your emails makes sense.
Capisce?
John