Comments on: What Do 73.9% of Email Newsletters Have in Common?

By: Mr.Dan

Mr.Dan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:55:57 +0000

HTML over text. That is obvious why its done. HTML looks beautiful compared to plain text. But most marketers still use text for a good reason. They want the message read for what they want to persuade not how good it looks.

By: » 20 Top Blog Posts on Email Marketing Spotlight Ideas

» 20 Top Blog Posts on Email Marketing Spotlight Ideas — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:20:34 +0000

[...] What Do 73.9% of Email Newsletters Have in Common? – Aweber – Sep ’09 – Article about HTML [...]

By: Nial Fuller

Nial Fuller — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:21:15 +0000

I prefer the HTML version because I can use keywords as anchor text for my links. It definitely helps with clickthroughs?

"Click here to?"

always looks better than

"Click on the link below to?

By: Mary Collier

Mary Collier — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:40:14 +0000

It may be interesting to track the statistics as more people do business through their iphone and blackberry. HTML designed emails can be annoying on such small screens.

By: Todd Heitner

Todd Heitner — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:48:46 +0000

Thanks for the great information! It definitely gave me a lot to think about. I’ve been leaning toward text only for a few reasons, but I’m rethinking that.

One reason was that I was under the impression e-mails containing HTML would be more likely to be classified as spam. I remember doing spam checks on e-mails before and getting points for HTML in the message. I haven’t tested that in a while and I’m not even sure specifically what HTML it was that I included in the messages before, so time for more testing. It seems apparent from this discussion that’s not the case, especially if you include both text and HTML versions.

The fact that most e-mail clients and mail services disable images by default was another reason I steered away from it. While it is important as Bob mentioned above to keep that in mind in your use of images, it doesn’t mean you should never use them or never use HTML e-mails. Just make sure users can get all the important information easily without enabling images.

To some extent I was also thinking that text e-mails will more closely resemble a personal e-mail you might get from a friend, which I thought might increase the chance of people reading them. However, there’s probably not much to that theory, especially since most e-mail clients like Outlook and web-based mail services send HTML e-mails.

So again, thanks for a great article! (Also, good use of curiosity in the article title to get me to read it!)

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:19:22 +0000

I prefer html over plain text. Having the option to use either is a big plus!

By: Jans

Jans — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:18:41 +0000

I have always used the HTML rather than plain text. Since all of my subscribers are opt in I have no problems with the HTML not being delivered (thank you Aweber). My readers love the photos in the newsletters along with the layout. I like having my newsletter look like a magazine and so do my readers.

By: Ted

Ted — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:40:37 +0000

For some reason I find I get about double the percentage of "opens" with HTML vs plain text – but I get a much higher click through rate with the plain text version – so I am leaning toward more plain text.

Those stats are for broadcast as I don’t know the data for the autoresponders -I guess I need to alternate them back and forth?

By: Tinu

Tinu — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:57:35 +0000

My one reason to move in that direction was US broadband adoption. Most people can still download my HTML emails no matter how fancy I get. Two years ago the chance was too high that it would download even a few seconds too slowly. I’ve just started testing higher end graphics in my sales letters as well – my plainer, faster-loading sales letters ALWAYS outsell the ones that look fancier, even with the exact same content.

By: Alex Sysoef

Alex Sysoef — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:03:15 +0000

I think HTML, when sent to targeted list that expects it – is also much more productive. People love HTML formatted emails as it helps them access information they subscribed to receive in format similar to what they see on my blog.

HTML helps us build recognition, not only deliver results