Email preview text is one of the most underrated parts of an email. People tend to disregard it or forget about it entirely.

Preview text (also known as preheader text) appears directly after a subject line, and is another opportunity to draw readers into opening your email. This is particularly important for mobile users, where the preview text often takes up more space than the actual subject line.

While everyone obsesses over subject lines that grab attention in a crowded inbox, preview text is the quiet nudge that convinces readers to click by injecting curiosity and intrigue.

Once I realized this and started intentionally writing and testing my preview text, I noticed my open rates increased significantly. Tools like beehiiv’s built-in editor helped me to A/B test preview text, allowing me to experiment with different tones and see which text worked best with different subject lines.

This article will break down exactly what I’ve tried and tested when it comes to email marketing preview text, from email preview text best practices to real preview text in email examples that helped me boost the engagement and open rates of my real campaigns.

Some preview texts instantly grab attention, even when you weren’t planning on opening an email in the first place.

Here are a few styles that consistently stop me in my tracks, whether in my inbox or my own campaigns.

You can use preview text to imply that a user is missing out on something and must open the email to find out what it is.

Examples include:

These examples create intrigue and an open loop that will be closed by opening the email. They strike a balance between curiosity and intent, making it easy for readers to act without feeling confused.

Humor can be particularly useful for creators and newsletters that want their emails to reflect their brand’s personality.

Preview text in email examples that work include:

Making readers smile can go a long way in a crowded inbox, and can even earn you an open when done well.

While humor and intrigue can be powerful, there’s no doubting the success of a direct, benefit-led preview text to tell users exactly what they can expect from your email, particularly in a welcome email, for example.

You could use:

These examples don’t rely on mystery, but instead promise clear value. This can perform particularly well for B2B and educational newsletters, where readers prioritize efficiency.

Sometimes your preview text will be driven by the category you’re working in.

Here are some examples for different industries and reasons why they work.

eCommerce

These examples work well because they combine urgency and relevance, emphasizing to the reader why they need to open your email–and why they should do it now.

Creators and Personal Brands

Human preview text can evoke emotion with your readers, sounding like a real person starting a conversation rather than a brand pushing promotions.

Newsletters and Media

For newsletters and media sites, preview text should reassure readers that opening your email will reward their attention. The examples above drive curiosity, encouraging them to read and not miss out on the next big thing.

Companies and SaaS

These examples focus on giving companies insightful data and information that they can use in their own campaigns, offering a direct message while still creating curiosity.

What made the biggest difference for me was testing my preview text instead of making decisions based on guesswork.

Inside beehiiv, I can A/B test preview text alongside subject lines to find winning combinations, without needing a separate tool.

What surprised me was that the highest performing preview text wasn’t the funniest or the cleverest, but was the one that was the clearest and most impactful for my industry.

When I write email preview text now, I follow a simple checklist:

The best preview text perfectly combines curiosity with your own brand voice. It shouldn’t feel like clickbait, but instead an honest invitation to something exciting.

The following sections provide further detail, helping you understand the key elements of writing successful email preview text.

Curiosity can be a powerful technique for writing email preview text, but it’s also easy to overdo.

These examples work:

While these don’t:

The difference between the above examples is clarity. 

An effective curiosity strategy will always hint at a payoff, explaining why opening your email matters. Vague teaser content can feel manipulative, and won’t be great for customer trust moving forward.

In my experience, it’s best to make sure curiosity feels natural and not forced. The preview text should prompt the reader to work to understand what’s inside, rather than vaguely teasing.

This is where testing comes in. I enjoy using beehiiv to experiment freely with preview text until I’ve found the perfect balance. I can test curiosity-driven text against more direct examples to see which performs best for specific campaigns.

Your subject line and preview text should feel like a conversation, not duplicates of each other.

For example:

Or:

The key here is ensuring the two lines work together, making the opening feel inevitable. The preview text should almost respond to the subject line, adding context, emotion, or intrigue.

beehiiv’s live inbox preview makes this process highly intuitive by showing exactly how the pairing will appear before clicking the send button. 

This prevents awkward repetition and can help you to fine-tune the overall tone of your email, while ensuring neither line is competing with the other for attention.

With 55% of all emails being opened on mobile devices (Genesis Growth Ltd), ensuring preview text appears correctly on smaller screens is more important than ever.

Most mobile inboxes typically show between 35 -50 characters of preview text.Anything longer risking being cut off mid-sentence.

Some mobile-friendly preview text examples include:

Make sure that you scan for awkward cutoffs when testing your campaigns, and check how your preview text looks in both light and dark mode. A line that reads well in one mode may not work well in another, and a quick tweak can do wonders for readability.

Sincemost readers open emails on their phones, shorter email marketing preview text usually performs better.

Try using examples that fit perfectly within 35 to 50 characters (Campaign Monitor) for optimum email preview text length.

You might want to include a quick tip on checking how messages look in both dark and light mode.

Some of my best-performing preview text has worked because it sounds like they’re coming directly from me.

Authenticity builds trust and beats cleverness, particularly if you’re writing a newsletter or running a creator-led brand. If it sounds like something you would personally say out loud, you’re probably on the right track.

My favorite examples include:

These preview texts in email examples work because they feel honest and aren’t trying to be too clever. I’ve learned to write preview text the way I’d start a conversation with a friend: casually, clearly, and consistently.

When your preview text sounds like a real person, they’re far more likely to open it than if it’s generic or lacking personality.

Consistency is super important too. When preview text matches your overall tone, readers will start recognizing you before they’ve even opened the email, as your brand voice is consistent across every send.

Why Listen to Me? I have been working in the digital marketing space for nearly 10 years, predominantly helping brands with their email marketing and online presence. I now specialize in creating great content for beehiiv to help people nail their email strategies!

Some of my biggest drops in open rates didn’t come from weak subject lines or content. Instead, they came from preview text mistakes that I didn’t notice.

This is what can make preview text so tricky. When it’s done well, it quietly boosts performance in the background, but when it’s done badly, it can sabotage your email before it’s even opened.

Here are some of the common mistakes I’ve made in my 10 years in digital marketing and what I’ve learned from each one.

This is the classic preview text error, and I’ve done it more times than I’d care to admit.

For example:

At best, this wastesvaluable opportunities to increase open rates with a winning subject line/preview text combination. At worst, it makes the email feel lazy and practically automated.

Preview text should add information, not repeat it. If the subject line grabs attention, your preview text should answer the reader’s next question.

Once I realized the two lines had different roles, my open rates became more consistent.

And for reference, a better preview text to the example above could be “You’ll never guess it”, or “Spoiler: We hit a new record”.

Early on in my digital marketing experience, I often left the preview text blank as I trusted that the email client could decide this for me.

I quickly realized that this usually resulted in preview text like:

Or worse, a random sentence pulled from my email content.

These were wasted opportunities for increasing open rate, and showed a clear lack of intention and strategy within my campaigns.

Once I began manually writing my preview text, my performance started to improve and stabilize. The lesson I learned from this was that if you don’t choose your preview text, your email client will, and likely, this will not be the best choice for email preview text best practices.

I love clever writing, but unfortunately, clever writing doesn’t always convert.

I used to test preview text like:

I thought these examples were super intriguing, but really, they just lacked context. For new subscribers or casual readers, these lines just sounded confusing and like they’d been automated.

Curiosity works best when it’s anchored to a specific topic or outcome. If your preview text is too vague, readers won’t feel curious. Instead, they’ll just be confused!

The lesson for me was to make sure that the preview text made sense without insider knowledge, bearing in mind that my readers were probably skimming their inbox for just a few seconds.

Some of my worst-performing campaigns had preview text that looked great on desktop, but ended mid-word on mobile.

For example:

Not only did this look unprofessional, but it also broke trust with my readers. Who was I to give advice when I was getting one of the fundamental elements of email marketing so wrong?

It made my email feel rushed and unpolished, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted.

Since most readers open emails on their phones, the preview text must be written with a mobile-first mentality. 

Now, I assume that anything past 40-45 characters is at risk, and I keep my campaigns disciplined with a shorter email preview text length that will fully show on all devices.

Another subtle mistake I made was writing a preview text that was technically accurate, but didn’t emotionally engage with my audience.

For example:

There’s nothing necessarily inaccurate about these examples, but they weren’t compelling or emotionally engaging with my audience.

Even information emails can benefit from emotional framing, such as:

Preview text is the perfect chance to show readers that you understand their world, rather than purely delivering information.

What really helped me improve my preview text consistently was removing friction from the process–and this is where beehiiv came in.

For a long time, preview text felt like a chore. I’d write a subject line, finalize the body content, and then rush through the preview text so that I could press send. 

beehiiv gives creators control over subject and preview text from one intuitive dashboard, without needing a separate tool, plugins, or workarounds. In practice, this completely changed how I write my content, as I was no longer guessing how my subject line and preview text would look. I could see it immediately before I published an email.

Instead of treating my preview text as a technical field to ‘fill in’, beehiiv makes itpart of the writing process. Here are just a few ways beehiiv makes writing preview text so much easier.

A/B testing is where preview text really clicked for me.

Instead of debating which preview text would perform best, beehiiv allows me to test variations alongside subject lines so that real data can decide which is better.

Some of my best-performing preview texts weren’t the cleverest or most polished, but were the versions that performed best on the A/B test. 

It wasn’t necessarily the one I would have personally chosen either, but seeing these results reinforced the value of experimentation over instinct alone.

beehiiv’s mobile-first approach makes it easier to preview text right. 

As most subscribers open emails on their phones, beehiiv makes it easy to catch cut-off words, awkward truncation, and preview text that is overwhelming the subject line.

You can preview how the subject line and preview text appear on smaller screens, encouraging you to create shorter, cleaner copy that will lead to better results.

Instead of treating preview text as an afterthought, beehiiv has cleverly integrated it within the creative flow. 

This makes it feel like more of a priority, making me treat it as the final line of persuasion where the email earns the open.

Email is about connection. The easier it is to refine your message, the more intentional your connection with your audience will become. 

And the more intentional it is, the more likely your readers are to open your email and trust what you send - one inbox preview at a time.

Hopefully, you’ve learned today that email preview text isn’t flashy, but it is powerful when following email preview text best practices.

It’s the difference between an interesting email and one that people can’t help but open.

Preview text deserves as much attention as your subject line, and they must work together to create intrigue and persuade someone to open. This is regardless of whether you’re running a newsletter, selling products, or building a personal brand.

To start getting your preview text right, start a free 14-day trial with beehiiv. You can experiment with A/B testing, automatic mobile-first optimization, and bring your preview text into your creative flow more easily.

A good preview text for an email will complement the subject line by adding clarity, curiosity, or urgency.

Powerful examples include:

To write a good email marketing preview text, you should focus on clarity first and intrigue second. Make sure your preview text is short, conversational, and well-aligned with your personal brand voice.

Most email platforms allow you to manually set preview text for individual email campaigns. In the beehiiv platform, you can add and edit your preview text within the email editor, alongside your subject line.

When writing your email preheader, you should think of it as a continuation of the subject line. It should complete the thought and answer your readers' next question, rather than simply repeating it.

Your email preview text length should be 35 - 50 characters max to ensure it appears correctly on both small and large devices. Shorter preview text will prevent any copy from being cut off, or allow your email browser to choose your preview text.