Which Is Better, Text Or HTML Email?…

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By Terrance Charles | New Here? Subscribe To Blog RSS...

I’ve been often asked, what is the best format for sending email. Which one get’s more open and deliverability rates, and which one overal is better to use, because afterall it has a dramatic impact on your email marketing if you are using the wrong one…

Which is better, text or HTML email?

From experience, I have to say it definitely depends, but I’ll tell you why below. But first, let me explain which one have produced better results. The one that has produced the best results have been text email, and it’s because text email is the standard.

All email services allow text email, it’s the standard email format. Text email has better deliverability rates than html email. Before, it was a lot easier to send a email, now with so much spam and junk email, it’s making harder and harder to send legitimate emails to your subscribers, even sending personal emails to your family can get blocked by the spam filters.

If that is the case, since text is the standard, it still get’s blocked. But, it’s not always the choice here, some people prefer html email because it displays images and text links that makes it seem like it’s a website when they open they’re email.

So that’s where HTML comes in. Since there is demand for html and it can be used a lot more freely than regular text email such as include pictures, video, audio and other website related tools that make it more personal for your subscribers, it’s definitely a must have.

Html email has a worse deliverability rate than text email. The reason being, some email services do not allow html, only text email, and the ones that do, you have to switch that option on manually, so html tends to get more filtered out. It’s mostly because of the codes that are in html that are mistaken as spam email, and the size of the html that can get it blocked.

With that being the case, it’s BETTER to always send text emails first. Make sure that you ask your subscriber list, which email format do they prefer most.

Having these stats will enable you to know what the real demand is for html email with your subscriber list, therefore they can prepare there email option to receive html if it already isn’t turned on. Then you will know which one has the better demand. Let’s say you get a close split decision, what can you do about it?

Use both standard text email and html together…

Now, this is where I said it depends, I personally prefer text, it’s shown me the best results, but mixing the two together is a powerful combination, why? Because your able to still send pictures, videos, and even audio to your subscribers if you personally prefer html and know more about creating html emails.

The ones that can’t accept html will still get your text email, and the ones that does accept html will get your full featured html email, so you are winning both ways. The autoresponder service that I use allows both formats to be used at the same time, so it’s simple to use and easy to track your open and deliverability rates, even check if your email may be considered spam before you send it.

The real key here is to get feedback from your subscriber list. You will then see what the demand for each format is, and therefore save you a lot of time and money. Because no one likes to send out emails that produce no results, or get’s blocked by email filters especially when it’s a legitimate email to your subscriber list.

Make sure you test and track your results, that will give you a better understanding of which one you should be using, because it depends, some may send a large html email with pictures, videos, or audio, and some may just send a rich html text format with highlights and bold etc, that doesn’t take up as much size.

The size of your email also reflects the deliverability, if it is to big, then it will more than likely be blocked by the spam filters, so continue testing and implementing and you will know exactly which one really increases your bottom line.