If you are involved in email marketing or building websites, you certainly know how important a good project is in achieving business goals. In the process of creating it, you may come across an important, though often ignored, element called ‘above the fold’. In the entry below, we decided to bring this term closer, pointing to the controversy associated with it.
What do you need to know?
The term “Above the fold” in digital marketing jargon is used to refer to the part of the website that is visible in the user’s browser window when the website is loaded for the first time. Any part of the site that users would have to scroll down is considered “Under the tab“. The beginnings of this term go back centuries since the invention of the printing press. Newspapers are printed on paper larger than standard, so they should be folded in half before they appear in kiosks, which means that only the upper half of the paper was visible to everyone at a glance. For this reason, the most important stories, images and headers were placed on the first page, “Above the fold”, so that a simple skimmer will get the most important information without having to unfold the paper.
This placement strategy has translated from traditional publishing to the world of digital publications. Just as newspaper publishers have learned that they need to put the most important information in the most valuable real estate to attract the reader’s attention, just like digital marketers. To keep bounce rates low and keep visitors on your site, it’s crucial to place the most Striking headers, images and information “above the fold” without the need to scroll by readers.
How does ATF affect messages?
Following the lead initiated by newspaper publishers, many developers have been promoting for years the belief that the most important information about the offer or content of the site should be in the ATF section. Thanks to that, you can Convince users to scroll and read the rest of the content of an email or page.
Following this idea, in the ATF section for emails should include:
- a company logo that will help users evoke positive emotions and experiences related to your brand,
- headline containing information about the offer and its Benefits,
- links for quick navigation and going to selected landing pages,
- a text in the preheader supplementing the subject of the message,
- CTA call-to-action button,
- “lead”, which will convince subscribers that it is worth scrolling it and Familiarizing with the entire content of the message.
