Is minimalism nonetheless in? Is it higher to maintain it easy, silly? Or must you attempt to stun your subscribers with animated photographs and colours galore? Plain textual content versus HTML emails: which one must you use on your subsequent electronic mail marketing campaign?
When electronic mail entrepreneurs and builders take a look at an interactive electronic mail marketing campaign with an eye-popping design, they might see a masterpiece. However the fact is, there are some individuals who take a look at emails like that and see nothing however slick advertising. And so they don’t actually belief it both.
So, what’s the suitable alternative on your advertising technique? Must you be sending plain textual content emails or are engaging HTML emails higher at getting folks to have interaction and convert?
First, let’s be sure we perceive the technical variations between these two kinds of emails. Then, let’s talk about an strategy that will provide you with and your checklist one of the best of each worlds.
What’s a plain textual content electronic mail?
Okay, this sounds a little bit self-explanatory, however bear with us. A plain textual content electronic mail is an electronic mail message that solely contains textual content. There aren’t any photographs, graphics, columns, layouts, or formatting. Your reader’s electronic mail shopper renders the font as their default electronic mail font. To not point out, hyperlinks aren’t hidden. As an alternative, they’re totally written out.
Right here’s an instance of a plain textual content model from considered one of our newsletters:
Seems to be fairly boring, proper? However generally, boring isn’t a nasty factor. Let’s take a detour to have a look at HTML emails earlier than we unpack their variations and undergo some execs and cons of each. Dangle tight. We’ll present you the place plain textual content emails shine!
What’s an HTML electronic mail?
Whereas a plain textual content electronic mail retains issues minimal and, nicely, plain… HTML emails are the precise reverse… a minimum of they actually have the potential to be rather more.
Whereas there are limits to what you are able to do with HTML and CSS in electronic mail growth, the large distinction between the 2 is using any code in any respect. HTML emails will embrace parts like headings, totally different fonts, photographs, hyperlinks, buttons, animations, carousels, and even interactivity.
Check out this HTML model of an Electronic mail on Acid publication:
Much less boring than the plain textual content model, proper? However with nice energy comes nice duty. When utilizing HTML, you’ll need to concentrate on a brand new batch of points, like making your emails accessible to all of your readers and creating responsive designs to accommodate subscribers who open your emails on cell gadgets.
Plus, the largest problem with creating HTML emails is inconsistent rendering amongst electronic mail purchasers. The HTML and CSS code that works in Apple Mail, could look totally different in Gmail, and horrible in Outlook inboxes. Fact be informed that’s why an electronic mail testing and optimization platform like ours exists.
Plain textual content vs HTML emails: What are the variations?
Visible variations apart, what makes an HTML electronic mail higher (or worse) than sending plain textual content messages to your subscribers?
Alright, brace your self. This isn’t a plain textual content electronic mail:
What? It’s nothing however textual content and hyperlinks, proper? Aha! However there are hyperlinks with anchor textual content on this message. Which means there needs to be some HTML code making it occur. In our authentic instance of a plain textual content publication, the reside hyperlinks had been all full URLs.
HTML emails aren’t only for advertising. In case you composed an electronic mail in Gmail and also you added an emoji, bolded some textual content, or included a hyperlink – it wasn’t plain textual content in any respect. Listed here are three key variations between plain textual content and HTML emails:
| HTML electronic mails | Plain textual content electronic mails | |
|---|---|---|
| Hyperlinks | You possibly can set the anchor textual content for hyperlinks. | The anchor textual content is the URL itself. |
| Columns and sections | You possibly can design as many or as few columns and sections as you want. HTML creates a good way to visually break up the textual content. | You possibly can’t create columns or sections. However you may create areas between traces of textual content – apart from that, there’s no different strategy to create layouts. |
| Fonts and styling | Utilizing HTML and CSS, you may specify font kind, shade, and measurement. Use font stacks for unsupported fonts. | Your textual content all the time renders with the e-mail shopper’s default font. |
Let’s break issues down a little bit additional. What are a number of the particular benefits or disadvantages of sending your checklist plain textual content emails versus these with a lot of design and performance?
HTML electronic mail execs and cons
| HTML electronic mail benefits | HTML electronic mail challenges |
|---|---|
| Design flexibility: Code emails to be colourful, partaking, multimedia experiences. | Inconsistent electronic mail shopper help: Your electronic mail designs could not render as desired in some mailboxes. Which means it received’t look or operate as anticipated. |
| Thrilling inbox experiences: Add personalization with dynamic content material, graphics, variable mapping, and extra. | Accessibility: Additional steps have to be taken to verify subscribers of all talents can view and have interaction with HTML emails. |
| Efficiency monitoring: HTML emails present a number of metrics to assist entrepreneurs measure success | Mail Privateness Safety: New security measures forestall monitoring pixels from precisely reporting metrics equivalent to electronic mail opens. |
Plain textual content electronic mail execs and cons
| Plain textual content electronic mail benefits | Plain textual content electronic mail challenges |
|---|---|
| Constant show: You received’t want to check how plain textual content emails render. The one distinction would be the electronic mail shopper’s default font. | Low engagement: It’s robust to persuade folks to learn and click on with nothing however boring textual content. |
| Look private: These messages typically seem like easy emails from as a substitute of fancy advertising. They’re additionally accessible for folks utilizing display studying software program. | Lack of branding: Your emails received’t have the ability to embrace your model’s emblem or comply with any of your most popular model pointers. |
| Deliverability: Plain textual content emails are barely much less more likely to be filtered into spam folders. | Lack of monitoring: With out the power so as to add monitoring pixels or UTMs, you received’t get any data on open charges or different electronic mail metrics. |
Plain textual content vs HTML emails: Do I’ve to decide on one?
Right here’s the factor – you don’t actually have to decide on. HTML and plain textual content emails shine elsewhere, they usually complement one another very nicely. So why not ship each on the similar time?
This is called Multipurpose Web Mail Extensions (MIME). Most electronic mail service suppliers (ESPs) can convert HTML to plain textual content so you may ship each on the similar time. Then, your reader’s electronic mail shopper can select what model to put in your readers’ inboxes primarily based on their specs.
Minimalist electronic mail design: A contented medium
Guess what? There’s a strategy to get a number of the better of each worlds. By that, we clearly imply you may ship HTML emails which have the appear and feel of a plain textual content electronic mail.
The fantastic thing about HTML electronic mail design is you get to determine how a lot branding, imagery, shade, and interactivity goes into it. Because it seems, anti-branding and minimalism are two highly regarded electronic mail design traits.
Minimalist graphic design methods make use of unpolluted traces, loads of white house, and restricted or monochromatic shade palettes. Consider a minimalist electronic mail as being a plain textual content electronic mail with just some important thrives. Anti-branding is a motion wherein shoppers attempt to keep away from massive, company manufacturers. It’s a type of model aversion, which is mainly the other of name loyalty. Right here’s how Envato describes the anti-branding design development:
“The anti-branding development typically options monochromatic packaging, barely-there branding, and minimalist messaging…”
Kelsie Rimmer, Envato Author
With a minimalist electronic mail design, you may make the marketing campaign really feel extra like a private message. Right here’s an instance from Electronic mail on Acid. We requested our prospects to participate in a survey.
The e-mail above positively isn’t plain textual content solely. It features a emblem, headings, a button, textual content formatting, and hyperlinks. So we clearly used HTML and CSS to construct it. However when mixed with the message, it feels much less like pushy advertising. As an alternative, it has the extra private feel and appear of a plain textual content electronic mail.
When to make use of minimalist electronic mail designs
There are some conditions wherein mimicking a plain textual content electronic mail may very well be a greater strategy than designing one thing flashy and complicated. Let’s check out the kinds of emails wherein minimalism might assist maximize your outcomes.
Gross sales outreach emails
We’ve all in all probability acquired a number of emails from gross sales reps trying to arrange a demo. They appear private, they usually often look pretty plain. However there’s a excessive probability they’re truly automated HTML emails.
Gross sales outreach emails, particularly chilly gross sales emails, want that non-public angle. It’s extra necessary to start out an interesting, private dialog than to wow them along with your electronic mail design capabilities. For that reason, it’s in all probability higher to make use of a minimalist design strategy.
Necessary bulletins
Generally, electronic mail is used for disaster administration. In case you have crucial data to move alongside to your checklist, it’s possible you’ll not have time to develop an HTML electronic mail. And actually, it is probably not acceptable given the circumstances. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the precedence wasn’t having flashy emails, the objective was getting messages about security and availability out to the general public.
Nonetheless, a little bit little bit of branding makes these sorts of emails look skilled and makes it clear who they got here from.
Transactional emails
Transactional emails, like order confirmations or password reset emails, will be plain textual content emails. You don’t really want to trace these emails. Plus, it lowers the technical overhead of coding HTML electronic mail templates. Your readers are skimming these transactional emails for data, so it’s greatest to maintain them quick and to the purpose.
Nevertheless, a little bit little bit of design can enhance model recall and create a extra memorable and even pleasurable electronic mail expertise. Take a look at the best way Nike designed this order affirmation electronic mail. Get extra concepts for transactional electronic mail design.
What about advertising emails and publication design?
You actually can use minimalist electronic mail design for newsletters and promotions. Nevertheless, when you’ve acquired a colourful model, eye-catching merchandise, or partaking imagery in your content material, you would possibly need to do one thing greater than minimal. Plus, when you’ve acquired a gifted electronic mail staff, you’ll need them to get artistic, construct lovely HTML emails, and push the envelope of what’s attainable contained in the inbox.
In the end, what works greatest comes all the way down to what your audience (or on this case your checklist) responds to. For instance, the Sinch Electronic mail manufacturers have totally different personas that reply higher to sure issues.
- Mailgun by Sinch is for a technical viewers together with software program engineers and IT professionals. We’ve discovered they reply higher to messages and designs which can be much less pushy and flashy – extra like plain textual content emails.
- Electronic mail on Acid by Sinch tends to draw those that are critical about electronic mail growth and need to attempt new issues. So, we attempt to replicate a few of that in our campaigns and newsletters.
- Mailjet by Sinch has an viewers that features folks from all types of promoting roles, together with designers. So, they’re extra seemingly to reply to an electronic mail wherein it’s clear somebody frolicked contemplating design and technique.
There could even be sure segments of your checklist that desire one kind of electronic mail design to a different. However how are you aware what works?
Take the time to check your emails
There are two kinds of testing that may enable you perceive your viewers/subscribers and take your electronic mail program to the subsequent stage:
- A/B testing (aka break up testing): Take two totally different parts or designs and check the efficiency of 1 choice towards the opposite. You would begin by testing how an HTML electronic mail with a busier design performs in comparison with a plain model with a minimalist strategy. When you’ve acquired your reply, house in on particular design parts, like imagery and CTAs. Discover out extra about electronic mail A/B testing and get some guidelines for doing it proper.
- Electronic mail pre-send testing: This type of electronic mail testing is a part of high quality assurance. It ensures you ship campaigns that render persistently throughout totally different purchasers and gadgets. It’s extraordinarily necessary for every type of HTML emails and it helps A/B testing too. That’s since you’ll need to ship a constant design to get correct outcomes from a break up check.
Electronic mail on Acid gives limitless pre-send testing with all our plans. Which means you may good your HTML electronic mail designs and put your greatest electronic mail ahead with out worrying about working out of previews.
Writer: The Electronic mail on Acid Staff
The Electronic mail on Acid content material staff is made up of digital entrepreneurs, content material creators, and straight-up electronic mail geeks.
Join with us on LinkedIn, comply with us on Fb, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for extra candy stuff and nice convos on electronic mail advertising.
Writer: The Electronic mail on Acid Staff
The Electronic mail on Acid content material staff is made up of digital entrepreneurs, content material creators, and straight-up electronic mail geeks.
Join with us on LinkedIn, comply with us on Fb, and tweet at @EmailonAcid on Twitter for extra candy stuff and nice convos on electronic mail advertising.
