This certainly used to be true, but the facts today are that nearly all the major email clients send in HTML format by default now. Spam filters, if they really were considering all HTML emails spammy, would be totally overwhelmed.

That’s not to see there are not many challenges in deliverability, just that the format itself does not doom you to spam filter purgatory.

Besides, who hasn’t received a ton of plain text spam from Nigeria?

However, if your set of recipients — and you are sure! — have accepted and fully see your HTML e-mail, then go ahead. In this scenario, you’ll have much better reporting with regard to tracking your e-mail marketing campaigns, the “opens”, the click-throughs, and more.

Any other instance requires text-based e-mail transmission(s).

I tend to prefer HTML emails but when I get them on my Blackberry, it’s a pain to read them. I’m starting to steer towards subscribing to receive text-based emails for that reason. Even with the text-based emails, if they include a link to the HTML version I would definitely check it out once I got on my laptop.

People in the creative industries (web design, graphic design, even Internet marketing) tend to favor HTML emails. Unfortunately not everyone shares our preferences. I’ve run campaigns for others who saw an increase in their unsubscribes because their contacts didn’t want to receive HTML emails.

It really depends on the situation and the contact list. I’d say, if in doubt or if it’s your first correspondence, stick to text-based and include the link for an HTML version.

Also just for a note here, most spam email use a lot of HTML so if you intended to use HTML, you better not use it often

As others have said some light HTML use, that won’t ruin the look of your email if not displayed correctly, is probably the way to go.

Thx
MoneyAside.com

When you are in the design phase, just keep certain things in mind such as:

• Many email clients no longer recognize the P tag. Use BR or use DIVs if you need to center text
• Many don’t recognize VSPACE. So, i use tables and set cell height. (Emails are one place where using tables is totally acceptable…so go crazy :))
• All your styles have to be inline. No external CSS style sheets
• Outlook wont display background images at all! Which can really mess up your design.
So, if you need a bkgd color, use a color, not an image.
• DONT use one big image as your email. Many spam filters will catch that as spam
• ALWAYS use ALT tags to describe every image. Most email apps keep images off until the user manually clicks to have them downloaded. ALT tags are key to telling the user what each image is, hopefully inspiring him to open the email and click thru
• A lot of email software (what you use to execute the campaign) will allow you to create a text and html version, then sends the correct version to each user based on his selected preferences.

And aside from design thoughts:
• Keep the subject line short enough to read it all in the preview pane. And front-load your subject line so the most important words are first in case it gets cut off
• Make your from line recognizable. Don’t have it coming from “Suzie”….have it come from your business name
• Be sure to review your stats from your email campaign (most email software has stats as part of what you pay for). Reviewing what people click can help you revamp the email for better results.

Ok, long enough comment! Thanks for the article!