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The
Problem with HTML E-Mail Newsletters
By: Linda Anderson
The
recent trend towards HTML email really disturbs me. I, for one,
do not like HTML email. If I want to see the glitz and color, I
will go to your website, but send me plain text in your email.
Do I receive HTML emails? Sure. But the delete key is right
there and I use it. And so do a lot of other people. HTML
belongs in web pages.
One major concern is bandwidth. HTML email files are much larger
than plain text. I resent the fact that it takes longer to
download the HTML email from my server. It also takes longer to
load it into the email window. Then I have to scroll back and
forth. Forget it. Deleting is easier.
Regular email done in HTML is rather pointless. My biggest
concern are newsletters done in HTML. These are large emails
anyway, and doing them in HTML is only compounding the problem.
One must consider the recipient. Are we so egotistical to
believe that ALL the people on the 'net are in the USA?? What
about the millions of people in other
countries who pay by the minute to download these extra large
files of HTML emails? Some of these people prefer to download
their email, and then go offline while they read them. This
makes the images in HTML email rather useless. For the images to
work, you must stay online.
Then there is the problem of some email programs that do not
support HTML. Just because yours does, doesn't mean that mine
does. DO NOT assume that everyone can read HTML e-mail just
because you can. Consider, too, that not all email readers will
display your HTML in the same way. It may not look the way you
think it does.
Some newsletter publishers give their subscribers the option of
receiving plain text or HTML. This is all well and good,
however, it seems to me that it would be twice the work for the
already overworked editor to format the same newsletter twice.
Maintaining two lists of subscribers would also become a burden.
Whats the point in making your newsletter look just like your
website? Why bother with the newsletter? Just send 'em to your
website and be done with it.
What makes a newsletter good? Simplicity, readability, full of
content that the reader wants, and a lack of flashing glitz.
Keep it simple, and keep your subscribers.
Copyright © 2001, windsong
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
windsong is the editor/publisher of six newsletters.
One of them is All About E-Zines:
http://marketing-resources.com/EZzine.html
Download a free ebook, "Online Stealth Marketing"
here:
http://marketing-resources.com/stealth.exe
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