Preview panes present a new challenge to B2C marketers, but they also create a very real opportunity. EmailLabs' director of marketing explains.

Now that the email preview pane has made its way from corporate environments to consumer-friendly email programs, your B2C template just might be calling out for immediate assistance. The preview pane dramatically changes what users actually see, and if your email is poorly designed, what they'll see is almost nothing.

The good news is that it only takes a little bit of thought and a few hours to transform your template into one that renders well.

The 411 on preview panes
What exactly is a preview pane? It's that small, convenient reading space in Outlook 2003 and Lotus Notes where you can quickly scan messages before opening them. If you're like the majority of people EmailLabs surveyed in 2005, you always use the preview pane at work to read your emails.

For three out of four users, the preview pane is a horizontal box located at the bottom of the screen. It typically features only two to five inches of reading space before the user must scroll down, and it poses two rendering challenges:

1. It only shows a portion of your email.
2. In some email applications, it automatically blocks images, leaving a blank space or a red X where your beautifully designed pictures should be.

The newest releases of two popular consumer email tools, Yahoo! Mail Beta and Microsoft's Window Live Mail Beta, now enable preview panes by default, making the preview pane a B2C challenge for the first time.

When it comes to B2C graphics rendering, Gmail and Windows Live Beta automatically block all images by default. Users can either manually change their settings to enable images or manually click links to view graphics, depending on which application they use.

Eight easy design improvements
Effective email marketing in a preview-pane world is all about making your point fast; in the first few inches of your email. Here are eight best practices:

1. Put the most important call to action in the upper left-hand corner, so it can be seen in either horizontal or vertical preview panes. For promotional emails, the offer or "shop now" call to action goes here. For newsletters, the table of contents or "In this issue" teaser goes here.
   
2. Do not embed copy in images or use single, large images. What happens if your headline, call to action or even the entire email is encapsulated in a graphic? The reader can't see it at all if that image is blocked. Make your most important points in words, as well as in graphics, and place descriptive copy under each image. Also, always link to a web version of your email with all graphics intact.
   
3. Use HTML instead of graphics. Many of the issues with image-blocking can be avoided simply by using HTML design choices. HTML background colors, font colors, font tags and font sizes can give you a great look, without the headache.
   
4. Reduce the size of masthead images and logos and move them out of the upper-left corner. Those pretty images may brand your email, but they don't spur the consumer to click through or convert, and they may not even be seen if blocked images are a factor. Again, devote the upper-left corner to driving desired actions.
   
5. Add text-based email navigation in case images are automatically blocked. For example, instead of relying solely on a "Shop Now" button that may never be seen (or clicked), also add a "Shop Now" text link.
   
6. For big impact, design small. In the early days of email marketing, most templates were 800 pixels wide. Today, 600 pixels wide is a widely accepted standard, and smart marketers may do well to start designing even narrower. Even when the user opens an email and views it in a full window, shrinking real estate can still be a factor. Many email clients now serve display ads on the right-hand side of the screen, taking that space away from the message window.
   
7. Use a third-party rendering tool to avoid surprises. Rendering tools show you exactly what your message will look like in all of the most popular email clients so you can improve your design before you click "Send." It's smarter than scratching your head post-launch at puzzlingly low open rates.
   
8. Use Alt Tags as teaser copy in case images are blocked. A short, well-written Alt Tag that says something like "Strategies for improving ROI" where your newsletter banner would be, or "50% off Wonderful Widget" where a product photo would be can boost your metrics, but only for Gmail users. All of the other email providers that block images also block Alt Tags.

For a quick analysis of how well your current template might render in the preview pane, take EmailLabs' preview-pane rendering quiz. You can also visit EmailLabs' Resource Center for additional email marketing tools and tips.

Make preview panes work to your advantage
Preview panes do present a new challenge to B2C marketers, but they also present a very real opportunity.

Until now, consumers made decisions about which messages to open based on only two pieces of information: the "From" line and the "Subject" line. Preview panes supply a third piece -- the actual content -- by automatically displaying a portion of your email.

Take advantage by making sure your messages render properly.

Lena Waters is director of marketing at EmailLabs. Read full bio.