The Wrong Email Format Can Destroy Your Offer
By Rich Hamilton, Jr.
Which email format is more effective to use,
Text or HTML?
A good question, many experts have been debating
over for awhile now, is which email format
is more effective. It all depends on who you
ask, many people prefer the text format over
the HTML format. There are also many people
who would rather use HTML over the text format.
You can pretty much draw a line right down
the middle between the text users and the
HTML users, it's that close.
The truth of the matter is that the most
effective format to use for your email really
depends on the offer you're presenting.
Both text and HTML email formats have their
advantages and disadvantages. In this article
I am going to go over the advantages and disadvantages
of text and HTML email formats. Let's jump
right in and start with the format text.
Text
Obviously the real advantage to using a text
format is that you have a white background
with black font making it very easy to read.
The text format loads fast, no matter what
size the email is.
If the email loads fast and is easy to read
how can text formats have a disadvantage?
Easy!
The real disadvantage of using text format
is when you are using email as a source of
marketing. To effectively use email marketing
you need to use some sort of tracking software.
Without tracking you will never know if the
subject line and/or email offer needs work.
The point I am trying to make is that people
are very cautious about clicking on tracking
and affiliate links. As soon as they see a
lengthy url, they get the impression that
you are trying to sell them something and
immediately delete the email. With a text
formatted email you cannot hide long tracking
urls from the recipient. With an HTML format
you won't run into this problem, which brings
us to...
HTML
The biggest advantage of using HTML is that
you can hide your tracking urls from the viewer.
Instead of having a long url in your email
offer, you can use a simple "click here".
Not only can you hide your tracking url, but
you can also mask it from appearing in the
browser window.
Moreover, HTML has a lot of disadvantages.
For instance, some people can't view HTML
email, while others can view it with a limited
amount of space. HTML email files can be sizable
and take up a lot of space. Most people who
use HTML formatted email use a lot of images
and other graphics to make their email have
a professional appearence. But they don't
stop and think about the size of the email
that they are sending, and whether or not
their recipients may have limited space.
Sending large email files is a sure way to
get your recipients upset. You don't want
to strike out before you have the chance to
swing!
You can see that both email formats have
their advantages, as well as their disadvantages.
As for which format is the right one for you,
it all depends on your offer.
If you are sending an email offer that doesn't
require any lengthy tracking urls or has no
affiliate urls, then text should be your format
of choice.
Moreover, if you do have tracking or affiliate
urls in your email offer, then HTML is the
way to go. When using an HTML format be conservative,
not everyone has broadband, you'll find that
a lot of people are still using 28.8k modems
for their Internet connection.
When sending out an HTML email offer it should
have a solid white background with black text,
and absolutely no images or graphics. This
way the email offer appears to be text and
loads fast, when it's actually HTML. Your
viewer won't be able to see your long tracking
or affiliate url which will increase your
click through ratio and that means more sales.
Most autoresponders and email softwares have
the ability to send email in both formats,
but not all of them. There are still some
that don't.
