CONVERTcan take lots of time and if not done correctly, may look weird in some email
programs. Also, many email programs have HTML and images turned off by
default, so your HTML messages really look bad for many of your subscribers.
The great thing about plain text email, besides the ease of using it, is that every
email reader on every device, no matter how basic or sophisticated, can display
the message in a way that's easy to read and looks good.
This is a decision you'll have to make for yourself. Most one-person businesses I
know use plain text, because it's faster and easier. HTML messages tend to be
used by most bigger companies. A company like Amazon, Best Buy, or Walmart
almost always use HTML emails. Of course they can also afford to have full-
time employees who do nothing but design and write their email messages.
Use a Clean Layout
If you do decide to go with HTML, my advice is to keep it simple. A three-
column design with fancy sidebars can look beautiful on a web page, but in
email can be hard to read. More and more people are using their mobile phones
to read their email, and your fancy, multi-column design might be barely
readable on those smaller screens.
I would stick with a one-column design so the body of your message uses the
full width of the email program. This makes it easier on the reader regardless of
which device they are using.
Images in Your Emails
Although it's nice to put images in your blog posts, you generally don't need to
use them in the body of your emails, unless there's something really essential in
the graphic that you can't easily state in words. For example, a photo of your
physical product.
If you have fancy charts, graphs, or infographics, those would be more suited for
use in blog posts than in your emails. Use the email message to promote the blog
post rather than cramming the graphic into the email itself.
The two graphics you might want to use in your HTML emails are the header
and footer. The header can include the name of your newsletter or company, and
the footer can include your signature, photo or logo (if not already in the
header), and contact information.
The same goes for elements like fancy fonts. I've seen a few people use
complicated or elegant fonts like cursive in their emails. These fonts might look
great on a wedding invitation or fancy restaurant menu, but in an email message,
they are annoying and hard to read. You want to make the text in your emails as
easy to read as possible. Your words are what are going to get people to take
action (make a purchase, click a link, etc.), much more so than a pretty-looking