Here’s your chance to decide are you an old schooler who cut your teeth on plain text emails or are you a young whipper snapper is goes all the way with HTML.
HTML has some definite advantages. You can add tracking links to determine if your email campaign is working. You can include graphics and colors that make the look and feel of your email more attractive. You can show pictures of what you’re selling or videos of yourself talking up your product.
On the flip side Plain Text email has some advantages. You will get a higher delivery rate with plain text email. Spam filters defiantly prefer plain text email over HTML email. Plain text emails are easy to format and send out. Some readers simply prefer plain text email.
Now that you have the benefits of each type of email here is what I suggest. Do a split test. Try out both types of emails on your list and see what works best. You may find that some lists respond well to HTML while other lists really prefer plain text. The old adage goes try and try again, if at first you don’t succeed try again.
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There are two very key points to emails if you are going to make email campaigns part of your over all SEO plan. First is personalizing your subject line. Second is who your email comes from.
There are three options here.
One: the worst choice…show only an email address as who the email comes from. People don’t know email address unless it is someone they are emailing on a regular basis. This is a definite sign of a novice and you’re not a novice. You’re an SEO machine.
Two: the second best choice…show your company name. This works great for companies that are recognizable. For me I always open emails from 48days.com. I love their website and I know who they are. However I often delete emails from Net Savings Rewards, I don’t know who they are and somehow ended up on their mailing list. So the simple rule here is only use a company name if it is recognizable.
Three: my personal preference…your name. After all you are always you and most likely people who are buying from you trust you. Now sometimes in the online world people use pen names and this is fine. Just be sure that your pen name stays the same for whichever list you are sending too.
A final note here is be consistent. Your email recipients will begin to know and recognize the sender so don’t go changing every time you send an email. Make a quality choice in the beginning and stick with it.
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