It's tempting to go straight for the HTML, but let's look at a few facts first.
Reach More Mailboxes
HTML may get caught in more spam filters. Many companies limit the size of the email messages their employees can receive. If yours is too big, it may be blocked. Using images can also get you stuck in the spam folder.
Get More Clicks
Clicks, of course, is what email marketing is about. No clicks no response and no return. So, the more clicks the better. A study by e-mail marketer Silverpop found that b -to-b e-mail recipients were far more likely to respond to text emails.
Text emails, according to the study, had a click rate (the percentage of the total recipients who clicked on a link in the email) of 5.4%, while emails with equal text and images had only a 3.5% click rate.
(The opposite was true for b-to-c emails. In that case, more images meant more clicks).
The Best Layout
If you do use HTML, use a postcard layout. The Silverpop study found that those emails had a 7.9% click rate, compared with a newsletter style, which had 5.4%.
These differences may seem rather small, but with only three or four seconds to get someone's attention, tiny changes can have a big effect on the final response.
Track Your Clicks
HTML allows you to track both opens (how many people opened and looked at your email), as well as clicks. Text can only track clicks on the URLs in your email. Also, HTML lets you use clickable text as a URL, such as Register Now, while text will generate a long, messy tracking URL like http://t.lt01.net/c.asp?ZbXzwPRXuZFIdOs1.
Tip: You can get around the long URL problem by going to http://www.tinyurl.com. Copy and paste the long URL and they will give you a short one.
Test, Test, Test
The best thing to do is see what your subscribers prefer. Try testing both an HTML and a text version. See how many of each get filtered, opened, and clicked on.
Jodi Kaplan fixes "broken" marketing. If your marketing is costing more money than it's making and people leave your Web site without buying, your marketing is broken. If you'd like to fix it, visit http://www.kaplancopy.com for free articles, marketing resources, and information on marketing services.
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