What is HTML Email?

Html Email Definition



According to Wikipedia,HTML email is "the use of a subset of HTML (often ill-defined) to provide formatting and semantic mark-up capabilities in e-mail that are not available with plain text." In layman's terms, HTML e-mail allows for formatting and images to be in emails. This includes text styles, links, and embedded images. You can design the body of your email in whatever form you wish, making it more attractive to your recipients.





Email Advantages



HTML e-mails have a lot of advantages over its text counterpart and a lot of people prefer them over plain text e-mails. Based on a recent survey, people preferred HTML e-mail marketing messages and newsletters for the following reasons:



28% says HTML email newsletters can accomplish a more effective layout



24% says Color can be used in the email newsletter



21% says Images can be included in the email newsletter



20% says Ads can be more effective in HTML e-mail than text e-mail



The remaining 7% chose "other" reasons and brought up the fact that embedded links are more effective in HTML e-mail for two reasons: 1) they can be hidden behind the text and are therefore less intrusive, and 2) links can be shorter avoiding the uber long link problems that affects many text-based mailings.



Basically, the advantages of HTML e-mail revolve around the layout of the message, the colors, and images that are included. These advantages can only be appreciated by the recipients if HTML e-mail is done well. Otherwise, a poorly made HTML e-mail will just distract the readers from the main message that the body of your email contains and makes for a chaotic layout with missing graphics and broken links.



HTML e-mail, when done right, can make for an attractive promotional material that can boost your sales and website traffic. But if you don't have the skills and resources to create a good HTML e-mail, it might be best to just stick with plain text e-mails.



Disadvantages


HTML e-mail, with all its frills and fancies, brings with it a host of disadvantages. On the sender's end, its most obvious disadvantage of HTML e-mails is that they are more complicated to make than plain text. Also, HTML e-mails are prone to compatibility issues and has problems with rendering consistently across platforms and software. This would create problems for the sender as compatibility issues will cause missing graphics, broken links, or even have your emails be rejected by some email service providers.

On the recipient's end, HTML e-mail has other disadvantages than those mentioned above. HTML e-mails are considered dangerous as more often than not, they contain executable codes. Every time you read an HTML email message, a code could be executed. This is like executing dozens of unknown programs daily. Because of this, HTML e-mails are prone to contain virus that can be harmful to your computer. Hackers can hide executable codes that can contain viruses or are designed to extract personal data behind clickable links and images. For this reason, there are subscribers that would prefer plain text emails over HTML emails for safety reasons.



Conclusion



HTML email has its advantages and disadvantages and it is your choice as an email marketer or a subscriber to choose to send or receive these types of emails or whether you will choose its plain text counterpart.