Hi Richard, Back in 2005 and 2006 our company spent two years sending monthly email promotions. After much debate on whether to send plain text or HTML email promotions we decided to try both. We alternated each month between plain text and HTML so we could measure which was more effective for our company in generating sales.
Our clientele consists primarily of females 30-45 working in government agencies and schools. We sent our monthly campaigns via an email marketing service called Constant Contact. The service has worked really well for us. (We are not affiliated with them in any way.) You can read more about them here: http://www.constantcontact.com Each month we would send each customer a discount code so we could precisely track which emails led to direct sales. In 2005 our HTML emails generated 73% more orders than the the plain text emails. In 2006 the HTML emails response rate increased to 112% more orders than the plain text emails. In 2007 we started sending emails that are each embedded with both plain text and HTML. If I had to choose just one I would say for our customer demographic the HTML marketing approach is clearly a better strategy. If you were trying to sell Office 2008 upgrades to members of this mailing list I would probably recommend a plain text strategy. :) Regarding ISP's blocking HTML emails, I would be surprised if anyone could actually name one ISP that actually does this. It sounds quite ridiculous. The arguments in this thread about plain text versus HTML is more like arguing over what color wine you should drink with cheese, rather than how to most effectively market wine. Best of luck to you! -- Mike on 12/24/07 10:12 AM, Richard Shane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Two questions, numbered below. > > I'm working with a marketer who says to stick to plaintext email because spam > filters have an even more difficult time dealing with HTML emails and so a lot > of ISP don't allow them through. > > 1. Do you folks agree or disagree? > > He also said that HTML emails do not display exactly the same in all email > programs. However, for this limitation, he said if you hard-break at around 60 > characters, there's a 99.999% chance your email will look exactly how you > intend it to. > > 2. So if I choose to send HTML email, is there a way to set Entourage to > hard-break at around 60 characters? >
