Text? HTML? Or something else for your email design?

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on August 31, 2007

(More cartoons)

The format debate is one of the oldest. What gets the best response? Text? Image-rich emails?

The answer, despite evangelists on either side, remains "it depends."

...on the nature of the email you're sending and the audience getting it.

The Email Experience Council's "Voices of email" have some new thoughts on all this.

My additional "thoughtlet" and an overview of the pros and cons of each (feel free to add yours or comment)...

Debates encourage the taking of sides. And this debate often gets reduced to "text only" versus "image-rich, beautiful HTML."

Important to remember that there are many stages in between, particularly the largely text-based email enhanced with a little color, nice fonts, good layout and small logos for branding/image purposes. For inspiration, try Campaign Monitor's gallery.

HTML email

lets you measure open rates.
offers creativity (color, fonts, images, animations, tighter control of layouts, etc.)
is great if your content is better presented as a picture, chart, or table.
lets you use logos and colors, and mimic website design, thus ensuring brand consistency and a more seamless transition between email and landing page when people click on your links.
...and some folk just like their email to be HTML.
but then some folk have an intense dislike of HTML emails.
email software, webmail services and different devices render HTML email in their own unique ways, making HTML email design more of a challenge.
if images are called from a server, the user must be online to see them when looking at the email after the initial download.
HTML emails convey a more commercial impression than text-based ones.
can pose more problems when it comes to avoiding anti-spam filters

(Many of the disadvantages are avoided simply through good, clean design and appropriate use of HTML code.)

Text email

simple.
comes across as more personal because of the association with one-on-one emails.
some people express a strong preference for them, especially in the tech world and among long-time Internet users who remember the good old days before HTML email and spam.
far fewer issues with rendering and display problems.
but far less creative flexibility when it comes to design, copywriting, layout, branding etc.
can't track open rates.
less challenging when it comes to deliverability hurdles like spam filters.

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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