Unable to View this Email?

People! Why are so many email marketers still making the mistake of kicking off the text of each and every promotional email they send with the line "Unable to view this email? Click here to view..." or words to that effect?

What's wrong with this picture?

You're using the most premium real-estate in your email to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Okay, you're trying to give your customers an alternative to viewing your message in an email client that "breaks" your nice html layout, blocks its images, or both.

But let's face it: Today, everyone is viewing their emails in some sort of preview pane, making the split-second decision on whether to delete or open each message. In 2007 Marketing Sherpa found 69% of at-work web users viewed their emails in the preview pane. According to a recent email survey Merkle's View from the Inbox 2009 (pdf), about half of viewers have their preview panes set to block images.

So don't expect your gorgeous images to get your email opened. And don't expect subscribers to open up your email, see that it renders wrong, and click the "Unable to view" link.

That first line of text -- the one appearing in the preview pane -- is the most important element of your message. It's second only to the subject line. That's what gets your message opened today.

Having a 20% off sale? Offering free shipping? About to run out of a popular item? That's what your email subscribers should be seeing in the preview pane. This line of text ought to be elaborating upon the subject line in ways that generate interest and compel customers to open the message.

And what if they are, indeed, unable to view the message? A few things:

• The vast majority of web users (I've read 67%) are receiving HTML rather than text emails
• It's your responsibility to test that your html layouts behave without breaking in the various web-based and installed email clients
• Knowing that about 50% of us block images by default, it's your job to design HTML emails that "work" without images -- critical campaign content must appear as text (could be as image alt text, if need be)
• It's fine to display a "Can't read this?" link, but put it AFTER the key offer text, not before

It's not just that you're missing an important opportunity to pitch your audience with the particular offer. The whole "unable to view" thing sets up a subconscious atmosphere of negativity -- you're describing technical difficulties that haven't even occured yet. Don't go there!