HTML vs. Text

One debate that never seems to die within the email marketing industry is HTML vs. Text emails.

What is the right answer?

The answer is...

This is the wrong question.

Mass personalization, not intrusion
Email marketing is about using the mass personalization capabilities of software to market differently to customers and potential customers. It is not a different way to use intrusion marketing like tv commercials, billboards, and banner ads. As marketers we need to spend more time (much more time) on segmenting our customers and figuring out ways to learn more about what they want and less time on the display of the message.

Relevancy is key
If an email is incredibly relevant, format and design do not matter. Think about it. If you were in the market for a green widget and some company sent you an email about a sale they were having on widgets at the store 4 blocks from your house and they have the exact color widget you are looking for, would you care if the email was in text or HTML?

Most likely, you'd be amazed at the great service you received from this company for letting you know about this special? Instead of being marketed to, you would consider them to have done you a favor.

Emails that are not relevant to the person can be the best designed HTML email ever and it won't matter - relevancy is key because people simply don't have the time for noise, even if that noise is pretty.

Focus your energy
If you are in the beginning stages of email marketing, spend your time working on building relationships with your subscribers. Create a plan for gathering as much data about them as possible. What they want, what they value. More on how to do this in future articles.

-phil