Preheader text and test sends

Draft — written from product facts + domain knowledge; UI labels to be verified before publishing.

The preheader is the snippet of text an inbox shows after the subject line. In cold email it is simply the first line of your body, so what you write first decides whether the email gets opened. A test send lets you see the subject, preheader and rendered body in a real inbox before the campaign goes to prospects. This article covers both.

Preheader: what it is and how to control it

Gmail shows roughly 40–90 characters of preview text, Outlook about 40 and mobile clients as few as 30. OutreachFox does not add hidden preheader text (hidden text is a spam signal), so the preview is your opening sentence.

Open the step in the editor.
Make the first line of the body a complete, specific sentence that continues the subject. Example: subject question about onboarding at Acme, first line Saw your team doubled the CS hiring page last month.
Do not start with "Hi {{first_name}}," on its own line followed by a blank line: the preview then reads "Hi Priya," and nothing else. Put the greeting and the first sentence on the same line, or drop the greeting.
Click Preview and read the first 60 characters as if they were the preview.
Click Save.

Test sends

In the sequence editor, click Send Test (next to Preview).
Choose the mailbox to send from and enter one or more test addresses. Use a Gmail, an Outlook and, if relevant, a Yahoo address.
Pick the contact whose data should fill the variables, or accept the sample contact.
Click Send. The test goes out immediately through the selected mailbox and does not count toward the campaign's contacts or reporting.
Open the test in each inbox. Check: subject and preview in the inbox list; variables filled correctly; unsubscribe line and header present if enabled; links working; signature correct; spacing and quoting in plain text mode.
Fix issues in the editor and resend the test until it is clean, then Save and Next.

Tips

Test with a real contact from your list, not the sample, so you see actual data quality.
Send at least one test from each mailbox provider you will use (Google, Microsoft, custom SMTP); signatures and formatting differ.
Tests count towards the mailbox's daily send limit at the provider, so keep them to a handful per mailbox.
Check the test on a phone. Most first opens of a cold email happen on mobile, where the preview is shortest.
Do not use spam-checker services that need you to email a random address; they consume reputation on a fresh mailbox. Use the built-in Spam Words check and a seed inbox instead.

Troubleshooting

Test landed in spam — on a new mailbox this is normal for the first weeks; check warm-up is on and give it 14 days before judging. Also check SPF/DKIM/DMARC on the domain.
Preview in Gmail shows part of the signature — the body is too short; Gmail continues the snippet into the signature. Add a second sentence or accept it.
Send Test is disabled — the step has unsaved changes, or no sender account is assigned to the campaign yet.

Personalise, check spam words and preview before you save
Send emails as plain text
Enable mailbox warm-up
Add a signature to a mailbox
Follow-ups in the same thread vs a new thread

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More in Campaigns: Sequences

Create an email campaign and write your first email→Personalise, check spam words and preview before you save→Personalisation variables: lead, sender and context fields→Spintext: randomise phrases so no two emails are identical→Add follow-up steps and delays to an email sequence→A/B test with multiple email variants→Send emails as plain text→Add an unsubscribe link to your emails→Enable the unsubscribe header (one-click List-Unsubscribe)→Custom variables and updating them mid-campaign→Sequence templates: save and reuse sequences→Follow-ups in the same thread vs a new thread→Subsequences: branch on reply intent→Images, GIFs and video links in cold emails (and why to avoid attachments)→