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 text format over HTML format. There are also many people who would rather use HTML over text format. You can pretty much draw a line right down middle between text users and HTML users, it's that close.
The truth of matter is that most effective format to use for your email really depends on offer you're presenting.
Both text and HTML email formats have their advantages and disadvantages. In this article I am going to go over advantages and disadvantages of text and HTML email formats. Let's jump right in and start with format text.
Text
Obviously 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 email is.
If 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 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 impression that you are trying to sell them something and immediately delete email. With a text formatted email you cannot hide long tracking urls from 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 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 browser window.