If you send out HTML emails to your list, you should know that most ISPs - and even email providers - now block your images, or even your entire message altogether. Although HTML improves readibility of email, ISP’s show a clear preference for text.

Major ISPs’ preference for text instead of html email is harming marketers, said Jay Schwedelson, corporate VP of list brokerage firm Worldata, at the Annual Catalog Conference in Florida yesterday, DM News reports. “We’re entering a text world, which is terrible for us as marketers,” he is quoted as saying.

Users increasingly cannot view part or all of their messages because images will not automatically display. In the case of Google’s Gmail, only relevant text ads from advertisers in its AdSense program do so. Graphics and information within emails - even if the recipient has opted in for the message - may not display.

While Gmail and MSN’s Hotmail are the biggest “culprits,” Yahoo is moving to a similar system, according to Schwedelson. Marketers should tell subscribers to choose “display images” in their Gmail accounts, he said, to allow viewing of email images from domains they designate.

However, there is one way to get around the GMail problem. Marketers should tell their subscribers to choose “display images” in their GMail accounts, allowing them to receive images in e-mails from certain domains they choose.

Schwedelson also reminded marketers to include a link with a message at the top of every e-mail along the lines of, “If you can’t see this message, please click here.” But do not just include the link. Track the number of clicks it receives.

The DM article also provides tips to avoid being blacklisted by ISPs by reducing their bouncbacks.

If an e-mail has bounced back after four times or more, the marketer should not send it again. The ISPs may view this as spam and put the company on their black lists.

Via Marketing VOX

More reasons to send Text email instead of HTML

The Marketplace Snapshot blog quotes Aweber, noting that

HTML emails got returned by ISPs on average of 2.3% while text based emails were returned 1.15%.

Ezine Tips quotes a report by eMarketer that found consumers not only prefer text, but also respond to text email better with high click-throughs.

A group of surveys shows that consumers might prefer text, while advertisers want to send in HTML. You might have thought that was a slam-dunk, but now there’s actual data to back up those comments.

A September 2001 survey by IMT Strategies shows text messages got higher click and conversion rates, while HTML email bounced more often and produced more unsubscribes. Stats at a glance:

18.5 percent clicked through on text messages, while HTML collected 15.6 percent CTR.

Text email got a 9 percent conversion rate, with 5.3 percent for HTML.

7.7 percent of HTML email bounced, compared with 7.4 percent for text.

3.2 percent of HTML email generated unsubscribes, compared with 1.2 percent.

More information on Text versus HTML email