What are Plain Text Emails and When to Use Them

Plain text emails are emails with just text message, no images, HTML, CSS, designs or custom fonts. They are written as if you were to write a letter in a plain word document.

In contrast, emails sent with custom branding, GIFs, fancy images or graphics are all HTML emails.

Plain text emails are great when you don't have resources to spend on designing your emails. Creating HTML, designing graphics and putting together an email with hyperlinks etc. will take time and effort. You can get pre-built templates and customise according to your needs but those will also cost depending on the kind of complexity of template you are buying.

But yes, there are both pros & cons of plain-text emails. Let's find out in next section.

Advantages and Limitations of Plain Text Emails Compared to HTML Emails

Advantages:

• Support on email clients: Plain text emails are supported by all the email clients. You don't have to worry about fonts or style not being supported.
• Accessibility: Plain text emails are easy to parse by a text-reader and hence can be accessed even by a blind person.
• Easy & Quick: Plain text emails are easy & quick to create. You just need to put down your thoughts in email. No designer or HTML coder involved. This reduces dependency on other people as well as your cost

Disadvantages:

• Not attractive: Plain text emails might not catch people's attention as there are no bold images, highlighting or any kind of interactive material.
• Mistaken for spam: Your plain text email might be considered as spam because it will not have the visual cue that it's coming from a brand (of a person or product). Certain visual cues such as logo or branded signature are usually helpful.
• Lower conversion: In a plain text email, it's hard to highlight the CTA as you are not using any buttons or specific visual cues to direct people's attention to link where you want readers to go.

Even with certain disadvantages, if plain texts work well with your audience, we would encourage you to use those. But you should keep in mind a few best practices while doing so. Let's look at those in the next section.

3 Best Practices to Follow While Creating Plain Text Emails

Include a logo:

Since there is no distinct characteristic to your email that will instantly tell the reader that it is coming from you, you should consider including a logo of your brand at the top or write your email headline in a way that it signals your signature style.

If these don't suit you, you can include a logo in your signature. This will help readers judge quickly that it's coming from legit sources.

Format for readability:

Plain text emails can seem too overwhelming to read with blobs of text.

The trick to counter this is to provide short paragraphs of information. Make them simple to read and comprehend with short sentences.

Use a font that is easy on the eyes and readable on any device. Keep ample space between paragraphs or sections. Use capital letters or special characters in your email body to draw readers' attention.

Create an effective Call-to-Action:

CTA (call-to-action) is an important element of any kind of email. That is what takes the readers to the next step and helps fulfil the goal of email (whether it is blog visits, sales of an item, connect on social media etc.).

In plain text emails, focus on the copy of the CTA since there is no design to make it stand out. Make the copy benefit driven or curiosity driven that makes it compelling for the reader to click it. Make it stand out from the rest of the text with capital letters or just putting it in a paragraph of its own.

How to Send Plain Text Email Using SendX

Step by step guide to send plain text email using SendX email editor.

SendX allows you to send a plain text email to your subscribers with no HTML formatting present. It will appear as if you have created the email via gmail or outlook or yahoo mail.

In order to do so you have to follow the following steps:

• Go to Settings > Preferences section and ensure that plain text editor option has been selected. If Drag & Drop Editor is selected then kindly toggle it to Plain Text Editor option.

• Once done, go to Campaign > New > Content Tab.

• Click on Email Templates button present on the email text editor. You should see a popup of templates as shown below.

• Select the Plain Text template out of the pre-created email templates. Once you have done that your entire email text editor will be set clean. You are now all set to create your plain text email using SendX. To your audience it will appear as if mail was created on gmail or outlook or yahoo mail.

And you are all set to send great plain text emails using SendX!