The preview pane gives you only a few inches of visible content, so get to the point fast! Think of the upper-left corner as your prime real estate because that may be the only part of your message that recipients will see, unless you do such a great job of grabbing their interest that they scroll for more or open the message in a full window.

What's out? Putting large graphic mastheads that may get blocked anyway in the upper-left corner. What's in? Including an enticing value statement with a link to a browser-based version of your email so recipients can read the pretty version if their email client is rendering the clunky version.

Your main call to action and navigation links should still appear above the fold; in other words, above the line where the user will have to scroll down to see more. Thanks to the preview pane, the fold line has now moved further up in your message.

A general design tip is to create a shorter, narrower email template. I recommend a width of 600 pixels or less because many email clients now display ads on the right-hand side of the screen. This squeezes the viewable area and leaves less space for reading, and few recipients will be motivated enough to scroll back and forth horizontally in order to read your message.

Make the preview pane work for you