When do my recipients receive plaintext?

Dear Fin,

Each email you send through Emma actually includes two versions - the html with its stylish images and formatting, and the plain-text with its, well, plain text. In Emma's preview mode, you'll see them side by side - html to the left, and plain-text to the right, unless you're looking at it through a mirror, or from China, in which case things are, of course, reversed. Before you send, you'll always want to double-check both versions to make sure they look just the way you want them to.

When you send, the two versions form a multi-part message, and your recipients' mail clients simply display the version they prefer. As you know, most will display the html, and some will keep it old-school and display text. Your plain-text crowd includes folks who use hand-held devices, folks who've set their email clients to show text, and folks who work at companies with a strict No-HTML policy, to go along with the other office policies of: 2. No tanktops, 3. No open-toed sandals, and 4. No Hitting Coworkers With Your Open-Toed Sandals, Which You Shouldn't Be Wearing Anyway Had You Carefully Read Rule Number 3.

So how is it that someone might receive the plain-text version over its more attractive, confident html sibling? Here's how:

1. The recipient's mail server picked the plain-text.
In this case, either the recipient has turned html off for incoming emails, or someone at their company or email host has. When your email arrives, the plain-text is the one that makes it through, and the recipient may view the html in all its glory by clicking the view-this-online option at the top of most campaigns sent through Emma.

2. The recipient chose "plain-text" as their preference when signing up.
Though the html-or-text decision happens on its own, you can also let your recipients pick their own format when they sign up. Start by turning on the email format field inside your audience records (open any record and use the 'add more fields' option). Then hop, or perhaps skip lightly, over to your signup screen and add the format field as an option there. Your recipients can now hard-set their format when they sign up or whenever they manage their preferences.

3. The email was a signup confirmation.
When someone signs up to get your emails (and does it using your Emma-provided signup screen), we send them a quick confirmation note. It's an email you can personalize, and it's sent in plain-text form as a quick way to welcome your newest subscriber and make sure he or she adds you to the all-important address books or safe-senders lists before your real campaigns begin arriving.

4. The text version was the only one we could get delivered.
Most of your emails will be delivered (and accepted by the receiving hosts) on the first pass. But some won't - either because an inbox is full, or a server is down or simply not responding. If at first we don't succeed, we try, try again, sometimes up to 24 hours after you hit send. (We label those re-tries emails in progress on your response screen.)

During one of those follow-up delivery attempts, we strip the email down and try sending a plain-text version. Why? To make sure a server isn't rejecting it simply because it spots an html version (as silly as it sounds, a few filtering programs do just that). If the plain-text email does make it through, we automatically flip that audience member's preference to plain-text for future emails. That's why someone might begin receiving plain-text emails even if no one has set his or her preference to plain-text - it's just Emma trying to deliver as many of your emails as possible.

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Can I set someone's format preference back to html?
You bet. First, do a quick search and find that person's member record. Using the 'add more fields' option at the bottom, add the email format field. It will be set to 'text,' and you can just switch that to html and save.

Oh, and whether or not you plan to let your recipients make their own choices, it's a good idea to turn the email format field on in your account; that way, you can quickly see what someone's format is and adjust it any time you need to.

Can I set someone's format preference to Klingon?
Only if you're sending to recipients in the Star Trek universe. If you are, how's your open rate?

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Hope that helps, and if this A has spurred another Q, by all means ask away...

Cheers,
Emma