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Plain And White Emails Or Html Newsletters With Pictures

by amuro
16 replies
Just want to check with you guys.

When receiving emails as subscribers, will you be more attracted to read plain black and white text or html newsletters with pictures and text?

Just found some great Xmas newsletters templates in Aweber. If you are using Getresponse, you might find that as well.
#emails #html #newsletters #pictures #plain #white
  • Profile picture of the author aleksbogata
    I've recently changed to plain minimalistic emails. I found those were the emails I preferred receiving from other marketers and the ones I actually read and engaged with more often.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      Amuro,

      The debate used to suggest that plain text was best since not all email providers allowed the use of HTML. I think those days are pretty much gone but I still get plain text from many big-name marketers.

      I'm not sure I would say always use one of the other. You decision might be based on your need for linking and graphics in an email.

      I have a graphics site (among many others) and so it only makes sense for me to be able to put my graphics in the emails. I like the idea of being able to link directly to offers and specific pages on my site.

      I think it would be appropriate to ask your subscribers what they personally prefer. You know you can send both without repetition.

      Good luck to you,

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author amuro
    Thanks for your feedback, guys

    If I have an ecommerce affiliate site say for Amazon and want to build a list, should I still send plain emails or html newsletters with product images?

    In this case, I am building a Christmas shopping site.

    Am currently send half in plain text and the other half in html newsletters for testing.
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  • Profile picture of the author jessegilbert
    Banned
    I like minimalist text with spacing between chunks of text. It also seems that email providers are getting pickier about what they display/let through some maybe text is a better bet.
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  • Profile picture of the author rmolina88
    Plain white because not everyone's email client will show html.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
      I use an html template that the nice folks at Aweber created for me. Its really just a background and a header and that suits me just fine. For myself i don't like emails full of graphics that look like webpages. I really just want to read.
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  • Profile picture of the author Coby
    You should send both HTML and plain text emails. This will ensure you get the maximum deliverability.

    Take into consideration that most "plain black and white" emails are still actually HTML, just minus any fancy images. And consider that the person may be required to "enable images" to actually view the email correctly.

    Good luck.

    Cheers,
    Coby

    P.S. Be careful about sending Amazon affiliate links via email. Last time I checked, this was against their TOS (as is sending traffic from a PDF). So be sure to send them to your review site and not the direct Amazon affiliate link.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Hi Guys,

    I am going with Steve on this one.

    Ask your readers what they prefer. I like sending out plain emails but my readers love my travel pics. If I am pressed for time I do bare bones stuff.

    Later today I will publish my newsletter. Big time one since I took a few weeks off from my emails.....so I will post plenty of my travel pics and beef it up some.

    All the best!
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  • Profile picture of the author jonleuty
    Hey guys, I tend to agree with Coby here, I have noticed when analysing my open rates with Aweber, that emails sent in both text and html format get the higher open rates. I personally prefer to receive emails in html as I think it makes then look better and easier to read.

    Cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author Stefan Shields
    It doesn't matter how an email newsletter looks and feels.

    If it is something that has been sent by somebody I know is sending me something worth my time, I will read it.

    Giving people quality content trumps the style of a newsletter any day.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I like plain text better personally. Simple, fast, and easy. If you want to do some selling via HTML but you want to stick with plain text... simply send out a super short email, and have your list click on your blog link where you can properly pre-sell/pitch/sell your product(s).
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    I use plain text, but seen other be successful with MTML. I think with billions of cellphones out there, more and more people read their emails from their phones. And because of that, maybe we should make our emails easy to load on cellphones.

    I personally use my cellphone to read me emails all day long, and noticed the html ones never load unless I allow them to load, and even if you do allow them to load, you are at the mercy of the cell phone towers
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  • Profile picture of the author Perfect Sidekick
    I'd like to chime in here,

    As someone who sends quite a bit of email through Aweber (with a great ctr) I stand by plain email and here's why:

    A jazzed up email with plenty of attractive items is very similar to the type of email most readers find in their inbox from major retail companies and other providers that want to sell them something.

    Essentially, if it looks beautiful in your inbox it's probably a ploy to get money from you and that's not where you want to be.

    On the other side, a plain looking email with a little personality can build rapport with your readers very easily. It tends to look like it was written just for them, even though it clearly wasn't.

    I hope that helps you make a decision, there will be proponents of both styles and that's simply my perspective on the subject.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Trujillo
    I know plain emails generally have a higher deliverability rate.

    With pictures they can be just as deliverable. The trick is to not use too many pictures.

    If you use too many pictures, it may be picked up as spam and not be delivered.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    The answer is - TEST.

    My opinion....

    1. Plain text. It gets through. There's no BS.
    2. If you want to show HTML, show it ON YOUR OWN SITE. I've never understood why people send me big fancy emails built in HTML. Id rather just click on a link and view it on a webpage.
    3. Do you want traffic to your site or do you want your subscribers to say "Oh look, that's a pretty email"
    4. Track and measure.
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