Prospecting Emails: Plaintext vs. HTML

Prospecting emails are still king. For the last ten years, social media was the key focus for brands to reach new and existing customers. Today, social media noise can make it difficult for your message to stand out, and well-crafted prospecting emails are more important than ever.

There’s debate in the sales world over whether prospecting emails should be formatted as plaintext or rich text (HTML). Many say that rich text emails with hyperlinks are more likely to be flagged as spam and you should use plaintext instead. What’s the best strategy?

With countless emails flooding inboxes daily, it’s crucial to make every word count and to present your content in the most engaging way possible. Let’s explore both the pros and cons of hyperlinks and rich text (HTML) in your prospecting email outreach as well as examples of effective usage. We’ll also provide tips for optimizing your email outreach strategy.

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HTML Sales Email

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I wanted to share how our company can assist you in improving your revenue goals.

We have helped numerous clients in your field. We take pride in our ability to deliver customized solutions that meet our clients’ unique needs and exceed their expectations.

I’ve attached a few links below that provide more information about our services and some case studies of how we’ve helped businesses like yours in the past:

* https://textexpander.com

* https://textexpander.com/case-study/companycam-case-study

* https://textexpander.com/case-study/circle-ci

Let’s discuss your business needs and explore how we can work together to achieve your goals. Are you available next Thursday at 2 PM CDT?

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I wanted to share how our company can assist you in improving your revenue goals.

We have helped numerous clients in your field. We take pride in our ability to deliver customized solutions that meet our clients’ unique needs and exceed their expectations.

I’ve attached a few links below that provide more information about our services and some case studies of how we’ve helped businesses like yours in the past:

Our Product

Case Study #1

Case Study #2

Let’s discuss your business needs and explore how we can work together to achieve your goals. Are you available next Thursday at 2 PM CDT?

The benefits of active links in prospecting email outreach

Improved user experience and engagement are significant benefits of hyperlinks in sales emails. Hyperlinks can help recipients reach additional information or take action without leaving the email. This creates a better user experience for readers, who are able to navigate to relevant content or offers quickly.

Increased click-through rates, especially on mobile devices, can also be achieved through the use of hyperlinks. Mobile users benefit from easily clickable links because they often have limited screen space and may find copying and pasting URLs difficult. With the rise in mobile users comes an increased opportunity for sales to capitalize on more customers.

Including a call-to-action button with a clear and concise message, linking to a video or case study, or a blog for more context—these are all effective ways of leveraging links and HTML within sales emails. When you use these techniques to create an interactive and dynamic email experience, readers will be more inclined to engage with your content.

Another advantage of using hyperlinks in prospecting email outreach is the ability to track user engagement. By including tracking links in your email, you can gain valuable insight into how recipients interact with it. This data helps you understand which links and content are most effective—and what sort of tweaks might produce even better results over time.

While it’s typically been best practice to say no links with an email, some heavy TextExpander users are reporting the opposite now.

“We’re seeing that emails with hyperlinks embedded are not bouncing back like that would in years past. We’re now adding links within our SalesForce emails using TextExpander.” – Ty Schalamon, SketchUp

The drawbacks of hyperlinks in prospecting email outreach

While using a few hyperlinks within prospecting emails can be a useful tool for engaging recipients, using too many hyperlinks can trigger a recipient’s spam filter and the email can end up in their junk folder or blocked altogether. Here are some key considerations of using hyperlinks within prospecting emails:

Overusing hyperlinks can also detract from the email’s central message, making it difficult for recipients to identify the primary call to action or focus on the main message.

To use hyperlinks effectively, limit the number of links in your email and ensure each link serves a clear purpose.

Compile a list of relevant, high-quality links and include them in your email messages to boost the impact of your message while reducing its spam score.

The benefits of rich text and HTML in prospecting emails

It is possible to increase the appeal and professionalism of your emails by including rich text formatting and HTML. Well-designed emails with visually appealing elements can create a better impression of your brand and help you stand out in a crowded inbox. Visual design elements like images and catchy headlines can grab the reader’s eye and encourage them to take action.

Increased readability and comprehension are other benefits of using rich text in sales emails. By formatting your emails with headings, bullet points, and bold text, you can make it easier for recipients to understand what you are saying and absorb the key information. Presenting content in a clear structure will improve the overall effectiveness of sales outreach efforts.

The drawbacks of rich text and HTML in outreach emails

Rich text and HTML may disrupt the formatting of your prospecting email outreach, leading to broken images or misaligned content on different email apps and screen sizes. Testing your email design is crucial to ensuring that content can be read across multiple email clients and devices.

The risk of an email being too long and overwhelming is another drawback. An email with a lot of visuals or text may make the recipient lose interest or feel overwhelmed. It’s important to provide valuable information without using too many words—think the length of a LinkedIn status update.

When crafting your prospecting email outreach messages, keep the following tips in mind:

Keep it short. Don’t make your email so long that people will become distracted from reading about why you’re contacting them and start worrying whether their inbox is on fire.

Keep paragraphs short—no more than five lines each—and use bullet points sparingly or not at all.

When using rich text in your emails, ensure the design is responsive and looks good on multiple screen sizes. Keep the length of the email short and its visual complexity low. Striking a balance between personalization and visuals will maximize your campaign’s appeal to readers.

Wrap up on prospecting email strategy

Using hyperlinks and rich text/HTML in sales email outreach comes with both benefits (such as increased engagement) and risks. Hyperlinks can make your content more engaging and easy to navigate, but they also risk your prospecting emails being flagged as spam and distracting readers from your main sales outreach message. Rich text and HTML can increase visual appeal, but potential formatting issues and the risk of overwhelming recipients are important factors to consider.

To effectively use hyperlinks and rich text in your sales email outreach strategy, strike a balance between enhancing the recipient’s experience without sacrificing clarity or overwhelming them with visuals. By considering the pros and cons of these tactics, you can determine which will work best for you. Like any marketing strategy, it’s important to monitor your results, gather customer feedback and adjust accordingly—all of which will maximize the impact of your sales email campaigns.

Did you know that with TextExpander, you can create email prospecting Snippets with either plaintext or rich text? Try it out with a 30-day free trial!

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