Text Email Format when sending to your list

15 replies
How long should each line of text be when sending emails to the members of your list?

I have seen the length of the line as long as 72 chars and as short as 40 chars. What is the suggested length?
#email #format #list #sending #text
  • Profile picture of the author Sleaklight
    hmmm 5 inches of your screen perhaps?
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Kennedy
      65 characters max to compensate for different email programmes.

      Best

      Cliff
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by softstor View Post

    I have seen the length of the line as long as 72 chars and as short as 40 chars. What is the suggested length?
    There are two different kinds of email clients: two-column and three-column.

    40 characters is the max for three-column users on 800 by 600 screens. That's effectively "nobody" these days.

    64 characters is the max for two-column on 800 by 600 and three-column on 1024 by 768. There are enough of these out there to matter.

    72 characters is fine if nobody on your list uses three-column at less than 1280 by 1024. This is generally business, technical, and artistic users.
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    I use 65 cpl but I've seen some marketers use even
    shorter lines. The shorter the lines are the less
    intimidating the email will APPEAR to read. So
    keep that rule of thumb in mind.

    Also the quicker you get the readers SCROLLING to
    read your email the more physically engaged
    you'll get the subscribers.

    As you can see, I also try to keep my forum
    post at about the same width as well.

    -Ray Edwards
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    The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Helps
    Ray said it, keep it at about 65 characters.

    Also, keep your paragraphs short. I usually write about 2 sentences per paragraph. That way, it's easier to read and easier on the eyes.

    make sure you separate your paragraphs as well. You need to have some white space.

    One last thing, just because you are sending out text, doesn't mean you shouldn't send out and html based email. Why?

    Because it allows you to track the open rate and you can bold the important points, customize your link, etc. But I wouldn't do more than that.

    Peter
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    • Profile picture of the author Maddi
      Originally Posted by Peter Helps View Post

      Ray said it, keep it at about 65 characters.

      Also, keep your paragraphs short. I usually write about 2 sentences per paragraph. That way, it's easier to read and easier on the eyes.

      make sure you separate your paragraphs as well. You need to have some white space.

      One last thing, just because you are sending out text, doesn't mean you shouldn't send out and html based email. Why?

      Because it allows you to track the open rate and you can bold the important points, customize your link, etc. But I wouldn't do more than that.

      Peter
      Hey Peter, so does that mean we only get the open rate of html based email and the subs with non-html emails who open and read them don't count in the analytics?

      Sorry for a weird question if it sounds like one and also didn't mean to hijack the thread.

      Maddi
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  • Profile picture of the author Bongoshaq1
    I would keep 65 at the most . Aweber has a thing which does wraps long lines automatically for you.

    Originally Posted by softstor View Post

    How long should each line of text be when sending emails to the members of your list?

    I have seen the length of the line as long as 72 chars and as short as 40 chars. What is the suggested length?
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  • Profile picture of the author senderbot
    Hi,

    Regarding the open rate statistics. Your email provider sends a "web bug" - basically an image. When the email is opened and the image is displays the email provider counts that as an "open". Unfortunately the majority of email providers these days (Gmail Hotmail etc) block all images automatically so your open rates will be skewed downwards big time.

    To accurately gauge your email campaigns use click through rates instead.

    As for line length, has anyone considered what the required line length would be for Blackberries and iPhones. So many people use those these days.

    As such I would keep your emails line widths as short as looks good.

    Cheers

    Max
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  • Profile picture of the author MarkWrites
    Good point about viewing emails on smart phones.

    I'll agree with the shorter paragraphs point too. It keeps the progression of the message going and makes the newsletter flow at a better rate for the reader too.
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  • Profile picture of the author activetrader
    64 characters is the max length that can be viewed on all computers, screen resolutions, etc.
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    Me

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  • Profile picture of the author rts2271
    Gotta account for mobile now too.

    I would make a suggestion but I have forsworn all text email.
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