[thelist] Word to HTML

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Or to give a slightly more complex answer:

* People who don't want to/can't receive HTML email will be *really* upset
   about it
* It's not really possible to predict in advance whether a user can or
can't
   receive HTML email based on their email client or platform (except for
   webmail accounts that almost certainly can, and pine/elm users who
almost
   certainly can't) because people have all kinds of wierd setups either by
choice
   or by imposition of their friendly sysadmin
* However, HTML email to those who are OK about it and can see it generally
   does extremely well.

Therefore, here's what you could do:
* The default is plain text email - send this unless you have better
information on
    the user
* Allow the user to explictly choose to receive HTML (you might want to
label the
   options as "words only/words and pictures" as many general users won't
understand
   what you mean by HTML email)
* In HTML email, always send it as multi-part with a text version just in
case of user
   error
* Make sure there's some kind of tracking in that email (eg a single pixel
image with
   a unique query string) so you know that HTML email receivers can
actually view
  the HTML. ***make sure you let people know about this in your privacy
policy, and
  don't use it for anything else***
* Test, test, test to see if the above brings significantly better results
than what you're
   doing at the moment. This will require a modicum of statistics...
Remember, that by
   definition, we are not representative web/email users, and while we may
have our
   own opinions about what's acceptable, we don't know for sure if that's
shared by our
   audiences until we test it.

Cheers
Martin



To:   thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject:  Re: [thelist] Word to HTML


HTML in email is bad!, especially since you're considering sending LARGE
HTML emails to a bunch of people.  Minimally, make sure that there is
also a plaintext section in the email.  I for one frequently use a
text-only email client and I routinely delete plaintext-free emails.


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