There has been a strong uptick in the trend of text-based emails. The reason being is because they appear more personal and make the reader feel the email was meant only for them.
I seen them most often when the content is customer service related.
A text-based email isn’t the same as a plain text email. It might still contain some basic styling and formatting such as text color, varying heading sizes and bulleted lists (often unsupported in plain text emails).
When to Use Text-Based Emails
A great time to send a text-based email is when you are looking for a direct response to your email. Subscribers are more likely to respond directly to an email when it looks like one they’ve sent themselves. It also gives the impression there is someone on the other end to respond to their questions or concerns.
Benefits
- Looks More Personal
- Higher Direct Reply Rates
- Less Cost (typically) to Create
Image to Text Ratio
One of the additional benefits of using more text in your HTML emails is you lower your risk of being flagged as spam. Many SPAM emails you may receive (take a peek at your SPAM inbox) are short and don’t contain images. Email on Acid conducted a study on copy length and determined that an email with less than 500 characters and no images had a very high rate of being flagged as SPAM.
A good rule of thumb is to make sure your text-based email has at least 500 characters or considering including a graphic or two to provide balance and keep your marketing messages from being marked as SPAM.
Email Examples
Below are two examples of text-based emails:
Text-based emails can be a great way to connect with your audience on a personal level and increase direct replies to your messages. Be mindful of copy length and your next campaigns will be sure to reach the inbox.
Struggling with email marketing? Check out these solutions to common email struggles many marketers face.
Happy emailing!
