Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't use HTML newsletters?

Asked by Grabbins (87

) June 11th, 2009

I am just wondering why some people don’t use HTML newsletters? I am aware that some email clients don’t particularly like them but is that enough of a reason to give up on them all together?

I mean all the big boys use them (Apple, Nike, Ebay, Twitter etc etc) so surely they can’t be that ‘unfriendly’... can they?

Observing members: 0

Composing members: 0

5 Answers

It’s just an option for people with clients that can’t read HTML, so that they don’t need to get all the HTML code.

For example, below is a newsletter i recently received form Microsoft. This is how it will look in a client that doesn’t support HTML

i could probably have proven my point with a much shorter answer

</head>
<body>

<tr>
<td style=“padding-left: 20px;padding-right: 20px;”>
<p>Bing™ Nå er det blitt enklere å søke, enten du befinner deg i MSN®, Windows® Internet Explorer® 8, Messenger, Windows Live™ Hotmail® eller et annet sted online. Finn det du leter etter, der du
er.</p>
</td>
</tr>

<p style=“margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 10px”>Microsoft respekterer personvernet. Les vår <a href=http://microsoft.discoverbing.com/Key=31554.JMv.D.J9.KlySy8 style=“color:#006dd4;text-decoration:none;”>personvernerklæring</a> på Internett hvis du vil vite mer om dette.</p>

<p style=“margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 10px”>Hvis du ikke lenger ønsker å motta kampanjetilbud eller e-post om undersøkelser fra Bing, MSN og Windows Live, klikker du <a href=http://microsoft.discoverbing.com/Key=31554.JMv.F.J9.CKh9yk style=“color:#006dd4;text-decoration:none;”>her</a> for å stoppe abonnementet. Hvis du vil angi kontaktinnstillinger for andre typer meldinger og informasjon fra Microsoft, ser du i delen om kommunikasjonspreferanser i Microsofts <a href=http://microsoft.discoverbing.com/Key=31554.JMv.G.J9.KMYhVP style=“color:#006dd4;text-decoration:none;”>personvernerklæring</a>.</p>
<br><p style=“margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 10px”>Microsoft Corporation<br> One Microsoft Way<br> Redmond, WA 98052, USA</p>
<br>
</td>
</tr>

</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

</body></html>

..Message-Id: <20090610161223.F17D.16739-31554@microsoft.discoverbing.com>

———=_NextPart_25FC_1950_C705C24A.01C9EA20
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859–1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

</head>
<body>

<tr>
<td style=“padding-left: 20px;padding-right: 20px;”>
<p>Bing™ Nå er det blitt enklere å
søke, enten du befinner deg i MSN®, Windows® Internet
Explorer® 8, Messenger, Windows Live™ Hotmail® eller et
annet sted online. Finn det du leter etter, der du
er.</p>
</td>
</tr>

<p style=“margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top:
10px”>Microsoft respekterer personvernet. Les vår <a
href=http://microsoft.discoverbing.com/Key=31554.JMv.D.J9.KlySy8
style=“color:#006dd4;text-decoration:none;”>personvernerklæring</a>
på Internett hvis du vil vite mer om dette.</p>

<p style=“margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 10px”>Hvis
du ikke lenger ønsker å motta kampanjetilbud eller e-post om
undersøkelser fra Bing, MSN og Windows Live, klikker du <a
href=http://microsoft.discoverbing.com/Key=31554.JMv.F.J9.CKh9yk
style=“color:#006dd4;text-decoration:none;”>her</a> for å stoppe
abonnementet. Hvis du vil angi kontaktinnstillinger for andre typer
meldinger og informasjon fra Microsoft, ser du i delen om
kommunikasjonspreferanser i Microsofts <a
href=http://microsoft.discoverbing.com/Key=31554.JMv.G.J9.KMYhVP
style=“color:#006dd4;text-decoration:none;”>personvernerklæring</a>.</p>
<br><p style=“margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top:
10px”>Microsoft Corporation<br> One Microsoft Way<br> Redmond, WA
98052, USA</p>
<br>
</td>
</tr>

</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

</body><br>..<br><font size=“1” face=“arial,helvetica”>Message-Id:
<20090610161223.F17D.16739–31554@microsoft.discoverbing.com></font>
<br>
<img
src=“http://microsoft.discoverbing.com/images/blankpixel.gif/Key=31554.JMv..J9.Nf68h8”></html>

———=_NextPart_25FC_1950_C705C24A.01C9EA20—

wilhel1812 (2882

)“Great Answer” (0

) Flag as…

HTML emails are pretty hard to get working correctly. HTML support in Email clients is roughly equivalent to like the web in 1997. There are a few good ones out there, but its the minority.

If you have to make HTML emails, remember, using Tables is the right thing todo, unlike in web design. Also keeping CSS to a minimum would be a good idea. Then you have the fun time of trying to test them in all the popular email clients such as: Outlook (similar rendering to IE5), Thunderbird (most Gecko features obviously), Mail.app (most Webkit features) and such, then you have to try it on web based email clients such as Gmail, Yahoo, MobileMe, Hotmail and such. Most web mail clients remove the HTML completely. Some just completely butcher it.

If you keep designs down to a minimum it isnt too hard, but doing crazy stuff requires a lot of patients and time.

philo23 (193

)“Great Answer” (1

) Flag as…

You have to make sure that the benefits you’re getting from sending HTML are worth the risks and costs—that you’re annoying and alienating some part of your customer base, and that your beautifully crafted message won’t appear correctly in their mail clients.

It’s a lot harder to get right than it seems like it should be, and if you don’t know about how to validate HTML and how to send correctly-formatted MIME multipart messages, you’re better off sending plain text. It’s not as simple as saving a page in Dreamweaver and pressing Send in your email client.

cwilbur (14236

)“Great Answer” (0

) Flag as…

Some people choose to disable HTML emails. They’re also a pain to get displaying right over different clients, @philo23‘s example of it being like web browsers were 10 years ago is spot on. But what really matters in your case is to talk to the people who would be getting the emails and see what they want you to do. Or, do a great combination of a text email with a link to your hosted newsletter, that way you have more control over the visual appearance of it.

dynamicduo (14397

)“Great Answer” (0

) Flag as…

The company I work for uses a service called Icontact. We use HTML newsletters but there is also a field for those who can not view HTML newsletters so they still see the newsletter. So far the website that provides the service has helped out sales greatly by making sure the newsletter is delivered and managing over 40,000 contacts. I realize this might be overkill for someone with a small client or user base but it’s an option. I am not sure about pricing but they have a free trial and I think you can get a smaller plan for a fair price.

johnny0313x (1860

)“Great Answer” (0

) Flag as…