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Hub You - Newsletters in Plain Text or HTML - Which Work Better?
Most business opportunity specialists and practitioners are indeed legitimate. Most business opportunity sellers really do care about their customers and the buyer. However, it is a wide known fact that many Biz Op companies are fraudulent and will lie just to make the sale.The Federal Trade Commission is now onto this and has proposed new rules to prevent this from harming consumers. Below is a copy of the proposed rules that would prevent business opportunities salesman from lying about the amount of money that a potential buyer will make;Proposed section 437.5(d): False earnings claims“As noted throughout this NPR, the making of false earnings claims is the most prevalent problem in the offer and sale of business opportunities. Proposed section 437.5(d) would prohibit sellers from misrepresenting, directly or through a third party, the amount of sales, or gross or net income or profits a prospective purchaser may earn or that prior purchasers have earned. This prohibition would complement the Rule’s proposed earnings substantiation requirements detailed in proposed section 437.4. Thus, both unsubstantiated and false earnings claims would be prohibited by the Rule.”The Federal Trade Commission has done a whole series of studies on business opportunities and taken all the data in their d
A plain text email is more likely to reach a larger amount of people than a HTML email simply because plain text is more compliant to standards. Plain text emails are less likely to be blocked by SPAM filters. Plain text emails will display immediately, there are no download times waiting for graphics to finish loading. Plain text emails are more likely to display properly regardless of what email client your subscribers use. All this adds up to plain text emails being read more often...better numbers...see a pattern here?
Words Sell
Bells and whistles are nice. Interactive toys and flashy lights and sounds are great. But ultimately it's words that sell. If you write compelling newsletter copy aimed at your target audience that have been carefully selected by the methods used to acq
Have you bee searching around the net trying to make a decent income or maybe to supplement your current income?Sometimes it?s really hard to find "real" information, and I am talking about down to earth information that gives you exact steps or resources to make money online. So without taking much more of your time, let?s take a look at one simple but very powerful tactic, of course, like with everything you need to plan a make a commitment to make things work, but if you are ready to get you hands dirty you will be just ok!But, yes, the Internet have really leveled the play for anyone who want?s to start a business online these days.When you are trying to make money online, even if it has to do with affiliate programs you still need to know some basic principles to succeed.What do I mean?Well, anyone can sign up for an affiliate program....But if you really want to make money with affiliate programs, I recommend you the following steps, steps that I also use in my daily marketing tasks, and believe me they might sound simple, but don?t get fooled they are really powerful:First if you sign up for an affiliate program, always create a specific web page for that.If you want to make things simpler, easier and cheaper you can have one main domain and then if you wan
HTML Emails
THE GOOD
- Interactive - active elements can be inserted into emails limited only by what email clients can handle. May include movies, games, surveys or any active content.
- Metrics - Code can be placed into emails to provide detailed statistics on whether your email newsletters are read, for how long and which links are clicked and followed.
- Formatting can be controlled to the finest details including fonts, spacing, and design.
THE BAD
- Creating HTML emails take a lot of time and technical proficiency.
- Not everyone has an HTML capable email client in which case you will be excluding some people.
- Your basic message may be lost by the excessive content and "eye candy".
- The range of options available in HTML are extensive and can lead to what I call "TMOS" - Too Many Options Syndrome, which is the antithesis of the concept "KISS" - Keep It Simple Stupid. TMOS can stop you from functioning efficiently because you are bogged down with how many things you could do, you end up doing nothing.
Plain Text Emails
THE GOOD
- Easier to create - just type words.
- Less chance of formatting problems making the email display incorrectly.
- Less chance of a SPAM filter blocking the mail.
- Message will be easily digested by the reader provided you write it well.
- No distractions from graphics or over stimulation from too much content competing for attention.
- You sell with words, the most powerful sales tool available on the web if used correctly.
THE BAD
- Harder to capture statistics.
- Hyperlinks may not be active (most text based email clients convert HTTP links to clickable but some still don't).
- Limited to text to convey your message.
- No multimedia can be included.
Why Do You Have a Newsletter?
Let's cut to the chase here. Why do you have a newsletter? If you are running an Internet business your newsletter functions as a customer retention tool, sending out periodic reminders to pull your prospects/customers back to your site. Newsletters themselves also function as a direct sales tool. It doesn't matter if you are selling affiliate products, your own products, a service or information, your newsletter is meant to do one thing - illicit a response from its audience.
In order for your newsletter readers to feel compelled enough to take action your newsletter must clearly state it's message AND create enough of a pull, usually via emotional tugging, to get the reader to do something. The same rules that apply to websites and copywriting apply to newsletters except you have even less time to convince your reader to do something.
Newsletters fall into the domain of email, the most popular web activity. Email is mainstream, it has penetration and people of all ages and backgrounds know how to use it. Consequently the learning curve is a little higher and your readership knows how to at least complete the basic functions with email. This means that they are quite capable of giving each email about 1 seconds worth of attention before clicking that delete button. That's not a lot of time to convince them that your email is worth reading.
Should I use Plain Text or HTML Newsletters?
In my opinion, plain text should be your choice for email newsletter format. Why? Because of the numbers. Email newsletters are a form of direct response marketing and in direct response marketing the numbers matter.
From the point of view of a small business owner with limited time and resources you want to maximise the results you get from your newsletters. You want a lot of responses to whatever your newsletter is trying to do. You should be able to easily test different copy and see which works best so you can maximise the numbers. It's all about the numbers...
Your newsletter must hit the reader quickly and compel them to read on. Any delays or presentation errors are going kill your chance of capturing the attention of the reader. While plain text emails are not immune to display errors (more on this later) they are a lot more likely to be digested by the reader even if things don't format exactly how you want them to.
A plain text email is more likely to reach a larger amount of people than a HTML email simply because plain text is more compliant to standards. Plain text emails are less likely to be blocked by SPAM filters. Plain text emails will display immediately, there are no download times waiting for graphics to finish loading. Plain text emails are more likely to display properly regardless of what email client your subscribers use. All this adds up to plain text emails being read more often...better numbers...see a pattern here?
Words Sell
Bells and whistles are nice. Interactive toys and flashy lights and sounds are great. But ultimately it's words that sell. If you write compelling newsletter copy aimed at your target audience that have been carefully selected by the methods used to acqu
In the longest of our series on electronic billing of medical claims, we have finally come to the end of our review of the FA0 record, which just happens to be the longest record in the NSF 3.01 specifications. This last installment will cover fields 56 through 66. After this, we will move on to the FB0 record, which is more line item detail.FA0 field 56, positions 274 - 283, is the provider phone. This may seem simple enough but it is anything but. The phone number entered here must be the number where the actual provider can be reached. Some providers have home offices in one location and operating facilities in other locations. Unless the procedure took place at the home office, the number entered here must be the number at the facility where the patient was treated. This is in case the provider has to be reached for whatever reason.FA0 field 57, position 284, is the performing provider tax type. This is a one character code that designates the tax status of the physician. This is important because should the physician work at a clinic that is tax exempt, then his status would be the same as the clinic's is.FA0 field 58, positions 285 - 293, is the performing provider tax ID number. If the physician does have tax-exempt status, this number will verify that. It must be transmitted so t
Plain Text Emails
THE GOOD
- Easier to create - just type words.
- Less chance of formatting problems making the email display incorrectly.
- Less chance of a SPAM filter blocking the mail.
- Message will be easily digested by the reader provided you write it well.
- No distractions from graphics or over stimulation from too much content competing for attention.
- You sell with words, the most powerful sales tool available on the web if used correctly.
THE BAD
- Harder to capture statistics.
- Hyperlinks may not be active (most text based email clients convert HTTP links to clickable but some still don't).
- Limited to text to convey your message.
- No multimedia can be included.
Why Do You Have a Newsletter?
Let's cut to the chase here. Why do you have a newsletter? If you are running an Internet business your newsletter functions as a customer retention tool, sending out periodic reminders to pull your prospects/customers back to your site. Newsletters themselves also function as a direct sales tool. It doesn't matter if you are selling affiliate products, your own products, a service or information, your newsletter is meant to do one thing - illicit a response from its audience.
In order for your newsletter readers to feel compelled enough to take action your newsletter must clearly state it's message AND create enough of a pull, usually via emotional tugging, to get the reader to do something. The same rules that apply to websites and copywriting apply to newsletters except you have even less time to convince your reader to do something.
Newsletters fall into the domain of email, the most popular web activity. Email is mainstream, it has penetration and people of all ages and backgrounds know how to use it. Consequently the learning curve is a little higher and your readership knows how to at least complete the basic functions with email. This means that they are quite capable of giving each email about 1 seconds worth of attention before clicking that delete button. That's not a lot of time to convince them that your email is worth reading.
Should I use Plain Text or HTML Newsletters?
In my opinion, plain text should be your choice for email newsletter format. Why? Because of the numbers. Email newsletters are a form of direct response marketing and in direct response marketing the numbers matter.
From the point of view of a small business owner with limited time and resources you want to maximise the results you get from your newsletters. You want a lot of responses to whatever your newsletter is trying to do. You should be able to easily test different copy and see which works best so you can maximise the numbers. It's all about the numbers...
Your newsletter must hit the reader quickly and compel them to read on. Any delays or presentation errors are going kill your chance of capturing the attention of the reader. While plain text emails are not immune to display errors (more on this later) they are a lot more likely to be digested by the reader even if things don't format exactly how you want them to.
A plain text email is more likely to reach a larger amount of people than a HTML email simply because plain text is more compliant to standards. Plain text emails are less likely to be blocked by SPAM filters. Plain text emails will display immediately, there are no download times waiting for graphics to finish loading. Plain text emails are more likely to display properly regardless of what email client your subscribers use. All this adds up to plain text emails being read more often...better numbers...see a pattern here?
Words Sell
Bells and whistles are nice. Interactive toys and flashy lights and sounds are great. But ultimately it's words that sell. If you write compelling newsletter copy aimed at your target audience that have been carefully selected by the methods used to acq
In the last week I have met two coaching clients who both have 3 years old businesses yet their approaches to business are like chalk and cheese.John enjoys a comfortable job, his company has a regular clientele and he makes steady money - not brilliant but enough.Poles apart, Paula has created her market, overcoming many barriers and her current income is marginal. In my assessment, her company is on course to make a $million because I see her innovating in three distinct stages.Be creative in redefining your market and your productsWhen I work with Paula to help her grow her market, her creativity starts with "quantity before quality". She lets her ideas pour out unselectively as we explore the different profiles of customer that she might sell to, dig into new ways of using and benefiting from her current products and brainstorm the services and complementary products that she could add on to her current sales.Although the ideas are prolific, Paula is effective in capturing them on paper without rejection. Then as we re-work the list, she plays with each idea: creating an inversion (or two), mixing and matching several ideas, and cross-fertilising diverse ideas to multiply the new ones. Our time goes quickly and working with her so creatively invigorates me!
Why Do You Have a Newsletter?
Let's cut to the chase here. Why do you have a newsletter? If you are running an Internet business your newsletter functions as a customer retention tool, sending out periodic reminders to pull your prospects/customers back to your site. Newsletters themselves also function as a direct sales tool. It doesn't matter if you are selling affiliate products, your own products, a service or information, your newsletter is meant to do one thing - illicit a response from its audience.
In order for your newsletter readers to feel compelled enough to take action your newsletter must clearly state it's message AND create enough of a pull, usually via emotional tugging, to get the reader to do something. The same rules that apply to websites and copywriting apply to newsletters except you have even less time to convince your reader to do something.
Newsletters fall into the domain of email, the most popular web activity. Email is mainstream, it has penetration and people of all ages and backgrounds know how to use it. Consequently the learning curve is a little higher and your readership knows how to at least complete the basic functions with email. This means that they are quite capable of giving each email about 1 seconds worth of attention before clicking that delete button. That's not a lot of time to convince them that your email is worth reading.
Should I use Plain Text or HTML Newsletters?
In my opinion, plain text should be your choice for email newsletter format. Why? Because of the numbers. Email newsletters are a form of direct response marketing and in direct response marketing the numbers matter.
From the point of view of a small business owner with limited time and resources you want to maximise the results you get from your newsletters. You want a lot of responses to whatever your newsletter is trying to do. You should be able to easily test different copy and see which works best so you can maximise the numbers. It's all about the numbers...
Your newsletter must hit the reader quickly and compel them to read on. Any delays or presentation errors are going kill your chance of capturing the attention of the reader. While plain text emails are not immune to display errors (more on this later) they are a lot more likely to be digested by the reader even if things don't format exactly how you want them to.
A plain text email is more likely to reach a larger amount of people than a HTML email simply because plain text is more compliant to standards. Plain text emails are less likely to be blocked by SPAM filters. Plain text emails will display immediately, there are no download times waiting for graphics to finish loading. Plain text emails are more likely to display properly regardless of what email client your subscribers use. All this adds up to plain text emails being read more often...better numbers...see a pattern here?
Words Sell
Bells and whistles are nice. Interactive toys and flashy lights and sounds are great. But ultimately it's words that sell. If you write compelling newsletter copy aimed at your target audience that have been carefully selected by the methods used to acq
The way in which we work has changed dramatically over the last 50 years or so, with some authorities going as far as to say that the job is dead, while others are predicting that anyone over the age of 40 and out of work will never work again.Are these gloomy predictions true? The situation is not quite as grim as many would suggest, but nonetheless points to a growing trend in job insecurity. How can older workers and indeed, those just starting out, hope to deal with the changing job market?With so many people facing redundancy, the prevalence of short-term contracts and the trend in businesses to outsource not only peripheral tasks, but also core activities, the job market has become a scary place. However, as long as we are aware of the situation and prepare accordingly, we can overcome the majority of difficult circumstances thrown up by the current economy. Career planning at regular intervals throughout our working lives has become a necessity.What can you do to plan effectively? Instead of simply deciding on a specific career, you should look at the wider range of possibilities open to you with your existing set of skills. Many of your current skills and previous experience could prove useful in other areas of work.As we live in a knowledge-led society, keeping up-to-date within yo
Should I use Plain Text or HTML Newsletters?
In my opinion, plain text should be your choice for email newsletter format. Why? Because of the numbers. Email newsletters are a form of direct response marketing and in direct response marketing the numbers matter.
From the point of view of a small business owner with limited time and resources you want to maximise the results you get from your newsletters. You want a lot of responses to whatever your newsletter is trying to do. You should be able to easily test different copy and see which works best so you can maximise the numbers. It's all about the numbers...
Your newsletter must hit the reader quickly and compel them to read on. Any delays or presentation errors are going kill your chance of capturing the attention of the reader. While plain text emails are not immune to display errors (more on this later) they are a lot more likely to be digested by the reader even if things don't format exactly how you want them to.
A plain text email is more likely to reach a larger amount of people than a HTML email simply because plain text is more compliant to standards. Plain text emails are less likely to be blocked by SPAM filters. Plain text emails will display immediately, there are no download times waiting for graphics to finish loading. Plain text emails are more likely to display properly regardless of what email client your subscribers use. All this adds up to plain text emails being read more often...better numbers...see a pattern here?
Words Sell
Bells and whistles are nice. Interactive toys and flashy lights and sounds are great. But ultimately it's words that sell. If you write compelling newsletter copy aimed at your target audience that have been carefully selected by the methods used to acq
Franchising companies must be very specific with regards to manager training and requirements for their franchised outlets. It is ultra-important to maintain consistency, quality and customer service in a franchising company. The name brand depends on it.It is for this reason that I took the liberty of rewriting our franchise agreement and adding a clause to address this issue. Below you will find what I came up with in regards to manager training requirements in our company;4.2.3 Manager TrainingFranchisor requires that Franchisee submit to Franchisor their proposed manager training program prior to their sending a new manager or crew leader to this training program. If the proposed manager training program is not approved in its original form Franchisee must modify it and resubmit a new manager training proposal. This training is required of all managers, crew leaders and anyone who will be operating the car wash trucks/units unsupervised. Franchisee will bear all costs of the proposed manager training, including a reasonable training fee at the then current rates.Franchisor may evaluate any managers or crew leaders that Franchisee sends to their training and determine for Franchisee if they are capable of operating a car wash truck in the Marketing Area following Franchisor’s standards
A plain text email is more likely to reach a larger amount of people than a HTML email simply because plain text is more compliant to standards. Plain text emails are less likely to be blocked by SPAM filters. Plain text emails will display immediately, there are no download times waiting for graphics to finish loading. Plain text emails are more likely to display properly regardless of what email client your subscribers use. All this adds up to plain text emails being read more often...better numbers...see a pattern here?
Words Sell
Bells and whistles are nice. Interactive toys and flashy lights and sounds are great. But ultimately it's words that sell. If you write compelling newsletter copy aimed at your target audience that have been carefully selected by the methods used to acquire newsletter sign-ups, you have the perfect vehicle to illicit a response using words that sell. Why dilute your message by wrapping it within colours and images or overstimulating your readers by providing too much information when a few paragraphs can create your desired results more effectively.
Why Not Use Both Plain Text and HTML?
Good idea! If you have the resources and skills to produce a quality HTML and plain text newsletter then by all means offer both to your audience and let them nominate which they prefer, or better still have the email automatically display the appropriate format by detecting what type of email client they have. If you offer both be sure to test to make sure it's worthwhile. Are more people responding to plain text emails? Well in that case send everyone plain text.
In my case I'm a small business owner and I'm going to be writing the newsletters myself. I do not have time nor the skills to create a new HTML webpage for every newsletter I produce. I could perhaps have a nice standard template designed which I use for newsletters but as I wrote above, I believe that is a waste of time. Words sell, so I'll focus on creating emotionally compelling words for my newsletters rather than waste time trying to get a box to align right correctly.
Tips for Better Plain Text Newsletters
TELL A FRIEND
Remember how I talked about the numbers? Your efforts should be focused on ensuring the maximum number of people are exposed to your email so your emotionally compelling and convincing newsletter can work it's magic. This doesn't have to be limited to just your newsletter subscribers -- your subscribers can be turned into evangelists for your newsletter. Make it easy for your subscribers to forward your newsletter on to friends and associates - suggest it to them at the end of the newsletter. Of course for this work you better be creating a damn interesting newsletter.
WORD WRAPPING
Plain text can format incorrectly and one of the most common problems is line breaks. Either lines breaking too early causing your sentences to look disjointed and clumsy, or no line breaks at all, causing one of those nasty horizontal scrollbars to appear and your reader to read off the page to finish a sentence. The screen resolution of your subscribers computers can also impact how your text wraps causing these problems.
You can't control the monitor resolution of your readers or what email client they use, all you can do is try and account for as many variables as possible. To compensate for this problem you have to set a characters-per-line limitation. I've researched into newsletter formatting and different people give different suggestions, from 68 characters per line to 63. I've decided to recommend to you the round number of 60 characters per line. This will give you nice compact paragraphs made up of nice compact sentences that are likely to avoid most word wrapping (or lack thereof) problems your readers might experience. On extremely high resolutions there will be a lot of white space and your email might look like one big long tower of text but that's still a lot better than broken sentences or horizontal scrollbars and won't be too common a problem.
How To Set Characters Per Line Limitations
You didn't think I would tell you what to do without giving you practical advice on how to do it would I?! Of course not.
Format Text provided by Web-Source.net will handle email newsletter formatting to any character width you specify. Better still it can even undo the current character spacing on any text you have so it's definitely a tool worth book marking.
Newsletters Are An Important Tool For Your Online Business
Many of the most successful Internet entrepreneurs are wealthy because they have massive (10,000+) lists of highly targeted subscribers that they have been building for years. One well written affiliate product email to a good list can create thousands of dollars of sales and you don't even supply the product.
Better still once you have a solid list you can contact similar focused online marketers and carefully select the right cross promotional activities that can double your exposure with one email to their list. Of course you have to have your own list to make a
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