As we recently discussed, the number of people who access online information on their mobile devices has skyrocketed—which means so has the number of people who won’t be able to read your HTML e-mails on their text-only devices. Plain text e-mails surely don’t have the glitz and glamour of HTML e-mails. But they have a very important advantage: they are readable no matter what platform your readers are viewing them in.
Whenever possible, send your marketing emails as plain text. This will ensure your messages are much smaller than HTML, and readable in every e-mail platform. Here are four tips to ensure you’re sending effective plain text e-mails:
1. Get creative with punctuation
Without rich formatting found in HTML e-mails, it can be difficult to break up your plain text e-mails into digestible segments. But by getting creative with punctuation, you can easily create headlines and make important content stand out. Try CAPS in place of bold, and use spacing, dashes and asterisks to break up big chunks of text.
2. Use a menu
Unlike HTML e-mails, plain text e-mails cannot have several columns—which means they have a tendency to get very long. To avoid overwhelming your readers, use a menu or brief summary at the top of your plain text e-mail.
3. Include an HTML version
For your readers who are in fact opening your e-mail on their laptops, always include a link to a Web-based HTML version of your message. This is where you can get creative with images and rich formatting.
4. Send a test campaign
As with any e-mail marketing campaign, be sure to send a test campaign for proofing. This is especially important for plain text e-mails because they have a tendency to have abrupt line breaks. And since your audience will likely read your e-mails on a variety of platforms, make sure you open your test campaign on your computer, your mobile device and your MP3 player.
Be sure to check out our other tips for effective e-mail marketing campaigns.
