Plain Text Vs. HTML Email Template: Which is Better for Email Marketing?
By: Advanced Digital Media Services
Tags: Html Email, Email Marketing, Html Email Template

Incorporated in almost all digital marketing strategies today is email marketing. Because of its cheaper costs and wide reach, most businesses utilize this medium to reach their consumers and audiences for advertisements, promotions, new offers, and more. This helps promote brand awareness and increase loyalty, but one question remains to this day: which is the better template to use, the plain text email or the HTML email?

HTML Vs Plain Text Email: A Brief Overview

To help you understand how each of these templates works and choose which best suits your marketing campaign, we will briefly check the differences between an HTML vs plain text email.

As its name implies, plain text email involves simple text without any graphics or formatting. It is as simple and as plain as it can get.

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It is the language used to create a web page. It is a series of codes that describes the content so that the web browser can display them correctly.

Unlike a plain text email, an HTML email template contains graphics and formatting. It contains static images, gifs, and embedded links, and this is mostly suitable for big companies when sending advertisements or promotions to consumers.

Which Should You Use?

When deciding which email method to use, you have to consider the following:

1. Deliverability

Arguably, the most important factor in email marketing is that the message should reach the consumer. In this case, a plain text email has a greater advantage. Given its simplicity and lack of highly sensitive images, gifs, and codes, it is more likely to end up in a consumer’s inbox compared to an HTML email, which often lands in the spam folder. Therefore, if your number one priority is to make sure that the recipient gets the email perfectly, then you should consider using plain text email instead.

2. Appearance

How many emails on average does a person get in a day? 20, 50, or maybe more? With the number of emails a person receives, he most likely does not open all of them, or if he does, he doesn’t read most of them, especially if the email contains a boring chunk of text. This is where an HTML email would be useful. With all the clutter in a person’s email, an HTML email template would help your message stand out because it becomes more visually appealing, inviting the consumer to look further into the email.

With an HTML email, you can also use graphics to highlight the important parts of your message, making sure that it grabs the attention of the consumer. However, just because an email has been delivered does not mean that the recipient has seen or read it. If your priority is to make sure that the recipient will look through your email, you might want to use the HTML email template.

3. What Are Your Marketing Objectives?

After thinking about the physical and technical aspects, you should consider your company goals. Whether your goal is for the consumer to resonate with your brand or to have a personal connection with the consumer, one of the two templates should suit your needs.

If you want the consumer to resonate with your brand, then an HTML email would be the best way to go. In a world dominated by millennials and social media, being creative and using colors, images, gifs, memes, and other media suited to the target consumer pays off. It helps the consumer identify more with your brand, increasing both brand awareness and brand loyalty.

Think of an email or letter from a friend or a relative. It neither contains images nor graphics, and yet we read it because we feel that it is specifically meant for us. The same is true with email marketing. If your goal is to make more personal connections with your consumers, then plain text email would be the best way to go. The goal is to give an impression that the company wants to have a one-on-one, more personal, connection with the consumer.

There are a lot of considerations when choosing which template to use. It is not always a black and white choice. You have to think about your goals and objectives.