Designing Email Newsletters for the Preview Pane

While elements of design for web or print campaigns can be used across different mediums, there needs to be a clear distinction when designing for email marketing.

Email has many unique characteristics and you need to use specific email-centric design practices, such as creating a snippet is visible in the email client preview pane.

Newsletter recipients will initially see your email in a small preview pane, no more than a couple of centimeters in width and height. The email preview pane is your first impression, so it’s an important task to make sure it's a good one and that key content, such as your proposition and call to action, is easily visible to draw people's interest.

The Rule of 3rds: Divide your email newsletter space horizontally into thirds and put your most important content in the top two thirds of your email. These areas of your email are the most valuable because they are what the recipient sees first.

Effective Branding: A prominent logo in your email increases brand awareness and can reduce spam complaints if the recipients know that the email is coming from a company that they trust. Use fonts, colours and simple copy to make sure your email logo is unmissable and recognisable. If you embed the logo image, you can be certain that all recipients will see it. 

Preview Pane Text: The area of the newsletter templates that is visible to the viewer in the preview pane is usually restricted to the top third of your email. This makes it very valuable real estate. Make sure you include information that will sell your product or service (such as a special or a chance to win something) which will encourage the people to read the whole email. Once you've lured your subscribers to open the message, more information can be included using a click-through.

With GraphicMail's Advanced features you can make use of snippet texts, or "preheaders"; which is that small piece of real estate at the top of an email. It's your value proposition - a teaser for clients to read on. This is especially great for pulling readers from mobile devices since more and more read their email on a mobile phone.