Text Emails have a better chance of getting delivered. But....
An html email (an email with images) has a much higher chance of going to a users spam folder then a simple text email. Consider that almost all spam including email marketing and newsletters, are html emails. Most emails between normal users are text. Therefore basic logic dictates that spam detection software gives text emails a much higher chance of not being flagged as spam. We recommend that whenever possible, send personalized text emails as opposed to html.
The problem with text emails is that it isn't graphical and as a result have a lower click through rate.
Therefore, we recommend to alternate between the two types with your mailings. Test, Test and Test, it is the only way to know how your user list will respond.
Content Requirements for HTML Emails
See this page to view all the types of things
spam software does not like
- Test your email's look and feel with image placeholders. Many users won't see images in your email by default.
- Link to domains, not IP addresses. Many providers warn users that IP address links are dangerous.
- Use standard ports. Many email clients warn users that links containing ports are dangerous.
- Don't include HTML forms in emails. Email clients warn users that submitting forms in email can be dangerous.
- Don't include Javascript in emails. The javascript is usually stripped out and will not run.
- Don't include embedded objects in emails (like flash or ActiveX). The objects are typically stripped and will not run.
- Do not have any red text
- Every html tag adds to your spam score, so use minimal html. Create one simple table. Do not make complicated tables with rounded corners, css classes for each cell, etc.
- Ideally do not have more than 4 images total
- Use bold, headings and any text formatting sparingly
- Put your large text, bold statements, etc into the images, not the text.
- Make sure the email is balanced between images and text. Have at least 100 words of text with as few images as possible.
- The text of the email should not contain any blatant marketing text that is typical in spam
- Do not use the word "Click Here" in any text
- Your main message should be visible in the vertical space of 150 pixels.
- Every image should have descriptive alt tags
- Images should not total more than 50K in file size. You have 1-2 seconds and if the images load slower, you have lost them.
- No Iframes
- No background images
- No animated gifs
- No Flash
- No Javascript
- No CSS Positioning or floats
- No Images as bullet points
- Use old formatting standards over CSS. Only 50% of css is supported with Outlook 07. Write code like it was 1999.
- Don't cut and paste from Word
- You have subject and 3 lines to get their attention. Focus on this space.
- Don't link to external CSS files
- Don't put anything in the header tag. Embed all inline css in the body.
- No Image maps
- Entire html code should not exceed 24K in file size
- Table width should not exceed 420 pixels
Remove Text and CAN SPAM
- Put all the text for your remove into one of the images
- The link to remove should not be something obvious like /unsubscribe. Here are some suggestions. /lostlove or /missingyou
- Your remove image must contain your company name, address and phone number in order to be CAN SPAM compliant
Subject
- Do not use all capital letters
- Do not use any typical marketing terms like "Free, Guarantee, Credit Card, As Seen, Security, Cost, Deal, Bargain, Special, Offer, Buy Now, Act Now, etc.)
- Do not use any special characters like an ampersand or explanation marks (&, - _ !!!, @, *, =, ? etc)
- Do not copy paste text from a word processor into the subject field. Type them all directly into the subject field.
- Do not use more than 50 characters in the subject