A short snippet of text displayed in an inbox alongside the subject line, typically pulled automatically from the beginning of an email's body content unless a sender manually specifies different text for this purpose.
Why it matters
Preview text is prime, easily overlooked real estate — many senders leave it to default automatically to the email's first line (often "view this email in your browser," which wastes the space), when a deliberately written preview can work alongside the subject line to significantly improve open rate.
In a sentence
"We stopped letting preview text default automatically and started writing it deliberately, as a second chance to earn the open the subject line didn't fully close."
Related terms
- Often confused with: Subject line (the subject line is the primary headline of the email; preview text is the secondary supporting snippet shown alongside it).
- Synonyms: Preheader text.