Changing the email preview 2nd line from 'to view this email as a web page'

Anonymous
Not applicable

Changing the email preview 2nd line from 'to view this email as a web page'

I'm preparing an html email with the 'to view this email as a web page' line at the top. When I view the test email in Outlook in preview mode, I see the sender's name, subject line and 'to view this email...' Is there a way to include the 'to view this email' line in the email itself but to modify the text that appears in the preview in Outlook? We'd prefer to say something more enticing to get users to open the email. 

Thanks,

David

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5 REPLIES 5
Scott_McKeighe2
Level 5

Re: Changing the email preview 2nd line from 'to view this email as a web page'

Hey David,

What you're referring to is the pre-header/preview text, and there are a bunch of methods for tackling the idea of being intentional with that part of your email.

The easiest way I've found to tackle this is to create a Marketo-editable section of your template right after the opening <BODY> tag, insert a <SPAN> tag and name it something like 'pre-header,' and then modify that particular span in the CSS rules (inline and otherwise) to make it invisible. You can then right-click the section in the Email Editor and make changes to the copy.

Here's a link to a blog post from Campaign Monitor that deals with CSS and Pre-header:  https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/post/3628/a-practical-guide-to-email-preheaders/

Hope this helps!
 
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Changing the email preview 2nd line from 'to view this email as a web page'

Thanks Scott. This may be a little over my head. We're using a blank template right now. We probably should take the design of our email and save it as a template but we haven't done so yet.

So, how would I go about this? Would I want to create a Marketo-editable section in our blank template? Or better to create our new template first? 


 
Scott_McKeighe2
Level 5

Re: Changing the email preview 2nd line from 'to view this email as a web page'

Making a new template vs. editing an existing one is more a personal preferences thing I'd say. If it were me, I'd test it out in a new template first, see how it works/get a feel for it, and then make changes to your real template after that.

Here's a community article on adding Marketo Editable (mktEditable) sections to templates: ​https://community.marketo.com/MarketoTutorial?id=kA250000000Kz3bCAC

 
Edward_Unthank_
Level 10

Re: Changing the email preview 2nd line from 'to view this email as a web page'

Exactly what Scott said! We don't usually hide the preview line, but gray it out a little bit and make it hierarchically-less important. Lots of companies are doing it, so once you notice it once you can see it in lots of marketing emails:

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The "Preview line" and previews aren't any special code for Outlook or iOS, it's really just the first readable-text on the email. So really all you'd need to do to modify the Preview Line is see what's currently showing as the preview and then make sure you have a place to add text that's before that in the template. Like all email coding, just pretend you're making websites in 1995. 
 

Best,

Edward Unthank | Founder, Etumos
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Changing the email preview 2nd line from 'to view this email as a web page'

Thanks Edward. The 'to view this email' text that appears at the top of our emails is coming from our standard admin Email settings. It's not in the code for our emails, at least I can't see it myself. So, is the only way to go about adding other text above it to create a new editable container in the template itself? Was hoping for an easier solution, pressed for time... 

David