The Money Is Above The Fold By Chuck Mathews | Posted November 15th, 2007

You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again:

The "first fold" of every sales web page is the most important part of your web site because your visitors will spend no more than 10 seconds deciding whether your page is what they’re looking for…

That’s why you need to pack in the benefits of your product or service and get straight to the point without wasting any space! And that’s something you’ve probably heard before…

But did you know that this doesn’t just apply to your web site?

It also applies to your e-mail marketing…

Many e-mail programs have a "preview pane" that allows recipients to view the top two to four inches of your e-mail without actually opening it.

Business e-mail programs like Outlook have used these for years… but two of the most popular free e-mail providers — Gmail and Hotmail — offer a preview pane feature.

(I actually just received an invitation to test the beta version of Windows Live Mail — Microsoft’s Hotmail replacement — and have been playing around with it.)

That means that now it’s more important than ever to treat the preview pane of your e-mail messages like the first fold on your web pages. You need to get your reader’s attention quickly — and convince them to keep reading!

With that said, here are five tips you can follow to make sure that you make the most of that critical top two to four inches of every e-mail you send:

1. Avoid placing a large image or banner ad at the top of your e-mail. Banners and images take up far too much space that should be spent getting your message across and encouraging readers to read the rest of your e-mail!
2. Include a table of contents or a brief contents summary. If your e-mail talks about more than one topic, include a break down of what you plan to cover. For example, if you’re sending a newsletter, you may want to include an "In this issue…" section at the top of your e-mail.
3. Write a "teaser" paragraph or attention-grabbing headline at the top of your e-mail that compels recipients to continue reading it.
4. Include the benefits that are most important to your target audience in the top section of your e-mail. Answer the question "What’s in it for me" as quickly as possible.
5. If you are including images, remember that some recipients may have their e-mail setting configured to block images… so include enough text that your message will make sense to them, too!

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