This is one of those topics that may be elementary to some, mystifying to others….but either way it’s an important topic for email marketers.

Seems logical that all email marketers would want to deliver a Multipart email to optimize delivery and performance, yet a surprising number of companies choose not to include the Plain Text version.

Quick Review: Multipart email format allows you to set up both an HTML and a Plain Text version of your email. The goal being to ensure that anyone who can’t see HTML will still receive a Plain Text version.

With Multipart format, however, if you don’t provide a plain text version of your email when you set it up, and a recipient can’t get an HTML version (ie., Blackberry, Treo….) then they won’t see anything but a blank email….not something companies want to have happen.

The alternative is to choose to send an HTML Only version, rather than a Multipart version. With an HTML Only set-up, those users who can’t receive HTML format emails will instead receive the HTML version stripped of all HTML formatting. In essence they will see a modified Plain Text version consisting only of the pure text left over from the HTML version before it was stripped down….

It’s not the best option to choose, but in most cases it’s better than sending a blank email.

What’s the lesson here?

The best choice is Multipart format, but if adding a Plain Text version isn’t in your plans, then consider sending an HTML Only format to increase your odds for success!