Use Plain Format - Substance Over Style

"Pretty" is not the same as "Effective"

The fact is, "pretty" is often at odds with "effective".

I frequently get email that's full of in-line pictures, borders, a busy background, highlighting, font changes, bouncing smiley faces and occasionally even music and animation. The problem is that somewhere in all that there's a message I'm supposed to be able to find and read. Quite often everything that went into making the email "pretty" or "fun" gets in the way of making the message "readable".

That's the usual objection to plain text email: It's plain. It's boring. It's not pretty.

And you know what? That's all absolutely true. And it's also all totally irrelevant.

All that has absolutely nothing to do with what you are attempting to do with email, and that is to get your email read and to get your message across.

Using plain text forces you and your reader to focus on the content of the message, not the look of the message.

There are many technical issues with rich text email, which I'll enumerate shortly, but this whole "substance over style" issue is something that many people seem to miss. Everything you add to an email that isn't about what you're trying to say detracts from what you're trying to say.

Many people spend so much time worrying about the look and style of the message that they forget (or run out of time) to work on the substance. Ultimately it's the words of your email, not the look, that gets your message across.

Think about the fun and pretty things you can add to HTML email; I mentioned some of them above: in-line pictures, backgrounds, highlighting, font changes and even music and animation. Does using any of these actually add value to your message? Do they somehow add something that your words won't convey? In my opinion, most of the time they do exactly the opposite: the distract your reader, and they detract from whatever it is you're attempting to say.

EMail is, fundamentally, about writing, not drawing.

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Technical Reasons to Prefer Plain Text

There are several technical issues that make plain text email preferable to HTML:

• HTML email is more likely to be classified as spam. Put another way, your email is somewhat more likely to trigger a false-positive "this is spam" analysis if it's HTML than if it were plain text. The "why" is easy: most spam is HTML.

• HTML email is more likely to look different to different people. You can spend hours crafting the look and feel of your HTML email, and you know what? It'll still look like a mess to someone. There is almost no consistency of HTML support across email programs. In fact, the recent release of Outlook 2007 has apparently taken HTML email a giant step backwards, as support for many HTML constructs was removed. (Folks like myself who send email newsletters in HTML format were seriously impacted. More on that below.)

• Some people can't or won't read HTML email. Some email programs just don't support HTML email, and some recipients choose to turn HTML email off. What you so carefully crafted as "John: you must see this!" might well look like this: "<span style="font-weight:bold">John</span>: you <span style="font-style: italics">must</span> see this!" - or worse.

• Rich Text /HTML email is bigger and slower. An HTML formatted message can easily be twice as big as "just the message" it contains. Some email programs are notorious for generating horrible HTML email, and do even worse. Start adding fancy graphics and backgrounds, and it suddenly balloons to tens or hundreds of times as big. That size costs you in upload speed and disk space, of course, but you're also forcing that on your recipients, regardless of whether they even want or can view your HTML email. Particularly those folks still on dialup (something like 30% to 50%, depending on who you believe, and where in the world you're looking) can be extremely sensitive to the size of incoming email.

On the other hand, plain text email is universally accepted, it's as small as your message, and it's as fast as an email message can be.

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HTML In Its Place

OK, so after all that, what about poor, beleaguered HTML email? I mean, I'm sure that some of you are already saying "Hey! You said you publish your newsletter in HTML! Are you a hypocrite, or what?"

I'll choose "what".

I'll absolutely concede that HTML has its place. It's just that your day-to-day email is not that place.

I chose HTML for my newsletter for two reasons:

• I asked my subscribers first. Not wanting to produce two newsletters, I simply asked my subscribers at the time I started which they would prefer: HTML or plain text, and the majority selected HTML.

• My newsletter is a formal, periodic, publication. It's not a person to person email. As such, there is a certain expectation that it'll look a little more polished. Yes, a little "pretty" even. In fact, it's that expectation that I believe drove a lot of the preference towards HTML when I asked.

The newsletter is also simultaneously published and archived on my website, in HTML.

And even with my newsletter, I take care to hand code the HTML, and use it fairly sparingly, so as to minimize the dependence on lots of different HTML "features", as well as to keep the size of the email from bloating.

Similarly, my expectation is that email from certain sources will be in HTML. This applies mostly to businesses, though. When I get my order confirmation from Amazon.com, for example, it makes sense that it look like the web page that I just left. (Though even then Amazon's email, like my newsletter, uses a technique called "multi-part mime" that provides a plain text message in addition to the HTML formatted message for those recipients who cannot view HTML.)

So when should you use HTML mail?

Rarely.

First focus on your message. Focus on your writing. Focus on what you're saying and how it all gets your ideas and thoughts across to your reader.

That's what's important. That's what truly effective email is all about.

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Common Objections

But plain text is so boring! Email's only as boring as the message. Focus on writing email that's engaging no mater how it's presented.

Plain Text is harder to read. Actually I get the opposite just as often, if not more often: "HTML email is hard to read." The good news about plain text email is that it puts the control over look and feel into the hands of whomever is looking. With most email programs you, as the sender, can select how you want plain text to look on your machine without affecting others. Similarly, every recipient can choose how they want plain text email to look on their machine. Most email programs will let you choose what font and what font size should be used to display plain text email. If you don't like the default, change it.

Size doesn't matter. It sure does. Slower machines and slower connections are much more common than you think.

I only use a little HTML for emphasis. Then why use HTML at all? You're paying (and possibly forcing your recipients to pay) a high cost just to be able to bold a word or two. There are plenty of ways to achieve the same effect in plain text emails.

HTML is the default, so that must be the preferred format. Nope. Many email programs choose defaults that show off their features, which is not always the same as being effective. They may default to making email look pretty, but we know better - the message is more important. Change the default.

I want to include a picture. Attach it to your plain text email. It's rare that a picture must be in-line with the text for it to have value. On top of that many email programs disable in-line and remote images by default as a spam-fighting technique.

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Write Email for Your Recipients, Not You

One of the challenges, responsibilities even, of taming the beast that is email is not to create a another beast for the people you send email to. You should be writing your email in ways that make it more effective for them. That often means ignoring your own preferences and thinking about theirs.

• Don't distract or annoy your reader with unneeded formatting.

• Use plain text to keep the message smaller, faster and less likely to be filtered.

• Focus on the message, not the style.