Support email format: plain-text or HTML?

Question

I have to send planned support notification emails on system events (service window, alerts, etc). I see that most of such emails I receive from my vendors are in plain text format.

I wonder should I to stick to plain text format as well (with accompanied limitations) or provide HTML based one with better visualization?

I am aware of limited HTML rendering capabilities of different email clients, but I suppose that not complex HTML with images will be OK.

Answer 1

The decision should start with if you will possibly have any clients that will not accept HTML email.

This is less common that it once was, but you still may have some security concious users that don't allow HTML.

However you can provide a plain text alternative, within the same email.

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/html-email-multi.htm

Also you should consider does the HTML provide value above the plain text? For me the information I usually receive is transmitted within the subject line for maximum readability.

Answer 2

Obviously it really depends on what you're doing with your e-mails, but if there's no real value in using the HTML format, I say why mess with it.

I tend not to take HTML e-mails seriously--usually they're newsletters or what have you. Plaintext e-mails almost always mean "business". That might just be me.

Answer 3

If you do choose to send HTML, make sure you also include a text version (send as multi-part MIME)... reason being that most SPAM filters are more likely to construe an HTML-only email (with no text-only component) as SPAM.

The other obvious advantage of using multi-part MIME is that you allow the recipient to choose (via their email client) the version they prefer to read.

Answer 4

To send a mail from a web application it has to be done by some code (C#, PHP, Java, etc). We normally set the MIME type for the mails.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME

creating a MIME email template with images to send with python / django

you can check these links

Answer 5

A spam filter might also flag a message as 'possibly spam' when sending HTML mails, especially if they were sent automatically. At least SpamAssassin penalizes HTML.

Answer 6

Maybe send the HTML 'rich' version as an attachment to the plain-text email ? Saves mucking up the simpler email clients ?

Answer 7

ALWAYS respect the RFC and always supply the text mail body!!!