HTML Email vs Plain Text

[mantawebsolutions]

Which is the best preferred option when sending out a newsletter.

Plain text is quick to download
HTML is slower but more affective

What is the standard or norm ?

[John Glube]

Originally Posted by divesouthafrica

Which is the best preferred option when sending out a newsletter.

Plain text is quick to download
HTML is slower but more affective

What is the standard or norm ?

I don't think there is a standard or norm. It depends on a number of factors, including:

* your target market, meaning the type of people on your subscriber list;

* the "spamminess" factor;

* the quality of the product you produce; and,

* what you have taught your list to expect.

Personally, I keep the message short and sweet, while providing links over to my web site.

Ultimately the answer is in the testing and reader response.

Trusting this helps.

Kind regards,

John Glube
Toronto, Canada

[KarenDawn]

I use a mail service that provides both html and text emails. Not everyone can read html mail.

[Bobkeithjr]

Karen is right

[Robert Warren]

Another option for image-conscious businesses is to go PDF, host the file on a website and then send out a short teaser email in ASCII format that points to the PDF file. There's all sorts of things you can do with that.

[badmix]

are there any programs that send emails as html and if the recipient can't view html, then alternate text view is shown?

[clasione]

I'd recommend using only plain text - when I get an email that says "loading" or anything like that I quickly just delete it and move on....

I definetly hate email marketing...

[mantawebsolutions]

thanks, i appreciate all your posts.
I have changed my subscribtion options to include both formats, so i am giving my subscribers the power to decide, after all, it is they who will receive the email anyway

[redcircle]

A note about HTML Email's If the ratio of text to html is too small in a message, spam filtering may reject the messages. ex. spam assasin

[mantawebsolutions]

thanks Redcircle,

I was thinking the same thing

[DarrenC]

So the general consensus is send a plain text email, keep it short and snappy, with links to your website?

[mantawebsolutions]

So the general consensus is send a plain text email, keep it short and snappy, with links to your website?

wwhhomes: i would think so. Send out a plain text e-mail with a link back to your full newsletter that you have somewhere on your site.

I'd still like to keep the HTML e-mail version as well, but i guess SPAM is changing the future for us.