Overview
This article outlines the difference between plain text and HTML emails and why plain text is the recommended option.
Plain Text & HTML
Plain text is text that is not computationally tagged, specially formatted, or written in code. HTML emails are image-heavy emails with formatting that is not available with plain text. HTML emails have their place, but if you can send a more personalized plain text email, do it. Plain text outperforms HTML emails in almost all cases.
We still suggest your emails include links and possibly an image in the signature, but the idea is an email that is similar to what you'd send from your Outlook or Gmail account.
Although people say they prefer HTML emails, that doesn't pan out in reality. Numerous internal tests found that messages with fewer images performed much better. Emails with less HTML were also opened at a higher rate. Emails with a lot of HTML are more likely to be flagged as spam or a promotion.
What people are actually saying is "I don't want to read a lot." vs "I want a bunch of images in emails."
Clicks
Plain text wins there too! People perceive email as personal interaction, unlike billboards, commercials, social media or any other medium.
When you send an email to your candidates about a great new job, do you include an image? Or when you send an email to your colleague, do you have a picture of a stack of resumes to show how many you've received recently?
You don't, right? You are likely to just send timely and interesting information. Your marketing emails should be no different.
Less is More
We suggest you deploy concise messages focused on the recipient's needs. This means putting their needs first, leveraging triggers based on actions taken by the contact, their current status in the job hunting lifecycle, and keeping it short and sweet.
A simple recipe for success is to keep a message:
- Unique
- About the recipient
- Under four to five sentences
- Timely
This is often easier said than done, but the good news is that it takes the sales and interpersonal skills you already have, rather than design skills that are needed for a big pretty HTML message!
With all that being said, you can A/B Test any email. Your audience could be unique or your message could take better with HTML, so if you are ever in doubt, just run a quick test.