For all the eye-catching and cutting edge design that HTML email is, offers (and mostly) delivers, anybody that has tried to create one knows that when it comes to rendering, it takes time and skill to ensure that it looks great on the subscriber's end. Even with thorough testing however, there is no guarantee that it will.
For this reason (as well as helping increase your chances of bypassing spam filters), the majority of marketers send both HTML and plain text versions to their subscribers, giving them the option to view it however they prefer.
While there is much information available regarding HTML email design, the same can't be said for plain text emails, which sadly seem to have become more of an afterthought in email marketing. The truth is though that even plain text emails need careful consideration. And with HTML emails being severely affected by image blocking, and spam filters that target non-standard format or message size, many marketers report that their plain text emails are performing better than their HTML counterparts.
With that in mind, here's what you can do to help optimise yours so that they look as good as a plain text email possibly can.
- If any of your messages should be plain text, it's your transactional ones. These often contain very important information, such as billing information, purchase confirmation, shipping details etc. so you don't want to risk losing any of that through rendering problems. Using plain text ensures the whole message gets through hassle free.
- Simple text editors such as NotePad (Windows) and TextWranger (Mac) might seem like they're taking you back to the Dark Ages, but it's what you need if you want to copy in any additional text without the risk of certain characters, such as apostrophes, corrupting. Microsoft Word won't work here as it adds its own tag-based formatting.
- Because formatting options are seriously limited, and because plain text emails are harder to read, you need to use special characters, such as *, or CAPS to highlight content. You also want to make sure that you break down content so that it's easier to skim and here it's common to find ====== used as a line separator.
- Plain text emails mean no hyperlinks, so you need to type out URL's in full (e.g. http://www.mailblaze.com/blog). Most email programmes will automatically make the link clickable, but not all of them. Also be careful not to put full stops or any punctuation marks immediately after the link, as that may affect its redirection. The most important links you need to include in a plain text email are the landing page of the offer, home page, contact details and unsubscribe link. Each link should be in its own line, to make it more readable and very importantly, it shouldn't run over one line, as this increases the chances of it being broken. The unsubscribe link and contact details can be at the end of the message, so that it doesn't interfere with the rest of the content, but it still needs to be clearly visible.
- Lastly, keep line length to a maximum of 60 characters and make sure there is plenty of white space in and around the paragraphs, which makes it easier to focus on the content.
That's it, by following these simple steps, not only will you see a marked improvement in how your email looks, but you'll also make it easier to read, which in turn increases the chances of your subscriber clicking through and converting.
