Email Preview Text Hack

Gohar Shafique -

How does 33% increase in email open rates sounds ?
Sounds Good right.

Do subject lines matter for your email open rate?
Sure they do. It's obvious. 💁

But, besides the subject line, all the email services including Gmail and Hotmail also show a preview text along with your subject line [which is actually a bunch of text from the body of your email]
So, the preview text matters as much as the subject line!

Brands like Nike, HP and many more already using this hack. Yesware decided to test this hack by shortening their preview text.

Result: in all 3 cases the open rate increased by 16.5% ... 33.3% !

How did they do this ?
This is where the hacking parts kicks in.

Here's a secret code you need to place in the beginning of your email body (it will be hidden from the email body, but will be shown in the preview): 

<div style="display: none; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">INSERT YOUR SHORT HIDDEN PREVIEW TEXT HERE &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj; &nbsp; &zwnj;
</div>

"&zwnj; &nbsp;" - are actually encoded white spaces. You can also read the detailed version of this hack covered by Litmus

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