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When you send a ConvertKit email, sometimes you want to add a little preview text (that shows after the subject line, but before the ‘main’ email. Like so:
(You would be amazed at the number of people who reply to my emails to tell me that they love this little quirky bit about them!)
Anyway, I digress.
There’s no ‘official’ way to do this in ConvertKit, so I’ve got 3 nice workarounds for you.
Option 1: Alt Text in Your Banner/Header
If you have a banner/header image in your email template, you can give the banner a title (aka ‘alt text’).
e.g.
<img src="https://convertkit.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/pictures/4583/1474107/content_ConvertKit_Club_banner.png" alt="ConvertKit Club">
This would show ‘ConvertKit Club’ as the preview text, instead of the banner url.
This works for both banners in email templates and when you upload an image at the start of an email.
Option 2: Add some code to your custom email template
(The limitation of this is that you’ll have the same preview text for every email).
Add the following into the <style> </style> section of your email template:
.preheader { display: none !important; visibility: hidden; opacity: 0; color: transparent; height: 0; width: 0; }
And then this at the very top of the body bit of the email (above the {{ message_content }} bit):
<span class="preheader" style="color: transparent; display: none !important; width: 0; height: 0; visibility: hidden;">PREVIEW TEXT GOES HERE</span>
So they would see PREVIEW TEXT GOES HERE as… the preview text!
Option 3: Add some hidden text to individual emails
Firstly, switch to the html view of your email.
Then, right at the very top, paste in this code:
<div style="display:none;font-size:0;line-height:0;max-height:0;mso-hide:all">PREVIEW TEXT GOES HERE</div>
So again, they would see PREVIEW TEXT GOES HERE as… the preview text!
Important Notes
Whatever you have in a custom email template will take precedence over what you have in the email. e.g. If you use Option 2 and Option 3. Both will show in the preview text, but Option 2 text will show first.
Unless you’re super particular, I would recommend setting something up and then forgetting about it (like I have with the ‘This email is really good!’). Life is too short to fiddle about with preview text every time you send an email!
Please do let me know in the comments how you get on and if you think up any fun things to write!
Thank you so much Elizabeth! You always have great tips and workarounds and I appreciate that you share them with us…
…and that I understand them!
Hi Elizabeth! Once again you’re a lifesaver. I looked high and low for an “official” way to do this in CK.
That being said, your option 3 did not work for me, I inserted the hidden at the top of my message HTML code, but it didn’t appear in the preview. Is it working for you?
Option 1 +2 in the email template both worked.
Thanks and keep up the good work! Love XM
Ah, sorry for the delay replying to this! Are you using the new email editor for broadcasts? I’ll re-test it.
Hi Lizzy, no I’m still using the old editor. Actually it DOES work, but only with officially sent emails – oddly it doesn’t work with the test emails.
Thank you. I was able to add the hidden text to an individual email in ConvertKit and it really helped. I’m a big fan of the short get to the point blog posts, just found your blog now and I’ll be looking around.
This was EXTREMELY helpful and clear, thank you!
This was exactly what I was looking for! THANK YOU!!