It has been a busy Christmas and New year for us at BulkResponse, and resulted in some quietness on blog. Looks like everybody is mailing from BulkResponse like crazy and we had to add some extra horse power to our server fleet in order to meet exceptionally high server loads. Luckily all mails went out without any delays and people received greetings well in time. That makes our day to serve you better.
Today, I decided I should address this simple yet very important question every new email marketer wants to know answer of.
We get asked this question a LOT by our customers who send bulk emails every day and it rightfully is the most important question for any email marketer.
“Should I send Text or HTML emails?”
Simple answer is , It depends!
It depends on situation.
It depends on type of promotion you are doing.
It depends on your target audience and what industry you are targeting.
In this post, I will try to cover all the pros and cons of both Text and HTML emails. I personally like both for the various reasons.
Difference between HTML and Text
This might sound like a very old analogy, but think about difference between a color TV and a black and white one.
While Color TVs are more attractive to watch, they come at a much higher price too. Black & White TV’s do the job on a much cheaper price (I know no body uses them any more), but they lack the colors , screen resolution etc.
What are Text Emails
Text emails are simple text messages that you edit on a notepad or a Wordpad, then copy and paste inside your email campaign editor. No technical skills are required in order to create text emails. If you are skilled enough to use any word processor, that is all you need to create a text message.
Have you ever noticed that you create text emails every day? When you send a email using your favorite email client, you are basically creating text email message. So it is kind of more familiar to you than an HTML campaign.
Pros of Text Emails
- It is faster to create a Text email campaign. If you don’t have luxury of time to go back and forth with your designer to fix HTML issues, go for a text campaign. All you need is a notepad and a spell checker. You copy paste into your campaign manager and you are done.
- No coding experience needed. You don’t have to be a technical pro to make text campaigns.
- No image hosting required, since your text email is.
- Email Deliverability for text campaigns is usually higher than HTML campaigns because text campaigns bypass many spam filter rules by default.
Cons of Text Emails
- Lacks the color and images.
- Can’t use branding options like logo or product images.
- Can’t turn words like “Click Here” into Links – must type out URL.
- Can’t track email campaign opens because it depends on a hidden image, and you cant use an image inside a Text campaign.
What are HTML Emails
In simplest words, HTML emails come with all the colors, images linking features that come by default with any web page coded with html. Use HTML emails when:
Pros of HTML emails
- You can show images inside your email message
- You can use fonts, style and colors inside your message
- You can Create more attractive email campaigns with all colorful options
- You can track how many people are Opening your email campaign
- You can create multiple column email messages. Have a side bar or have a footer inside your message
Cons of HTML emails
- Most email clients Block images by default, and users have to unblock images to see your logo or pictures of your products
- All the images have to be hosted on some websites or some photo sharing service like photobucket. This is required in order to display your images inside your email message.
- This is a bit technical, but your designer must make sure they use only In-line CSS and not externally hosted CSS. This means all your messages must have all CSS rules coded inside the message.
- HTML emails have to pass through more spam filter rules in order to get approved for Inbox delivery. You need a smart designer who understands how to not to make spam filters angry by using right HTML coding rules.
Can I use HTML ONLY and Vice Versa?
NO, we do not recommend that. We recommend that you create both versions of your emails drafted inside your campaigns whether you like either one or not.
There is a good reason to have both type of campaigns drafted. If you use HTML only or Text only campaign , you hit a big SPAM score on a spam assassin rule that requires you to have similar versions of text and email campaigns going out to each subscriber at the same time.
So whether you like a format or not, you must always send mails in both formt
BulkResponse edit email campaign screen asks you to provide both formats of your email campaign at the same time. Take a look here..
Conclusion
Both HTML and Text campaigns have their own pros and cons. The decision of choosing an email campaign format depends on situation. In short, if branding is more important for your campaigns then you must go for HTML campaigns, otherwise, text emails can do the job by getting your message across to your subscribers.
About BulkResponse.com
BulkResponse is a reliable and flexible bulk email service provider with hundrads of customers and growing every day. For more information on bulkresponse Click Here.