HTML vs. TEXT DC Web Women “Blacklists, Whitelists and Read All

HTML vs. TEXT DC Web Women “Blacklists, Whitelists and Read All Over” June 17, 2003 Gabriela Linares VP Marketing 2003 L-Soft

Industry Research – Study #1 Source: Survey of E-Mail Format Preferences and Programs, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, April 2003 - N 954 2003 L-Soft

Industry Research – Study #1 Source: Survey of E-Mail Format Preferences and Programs, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, April 2003 - N 954 HTML Readability Today: Bible Study Business Yes 87.1% 93.1% Only Partially 7.6% 4.5% No 5.3% 2.4% Respondents 394 468 2003 L-Soft

Industry Research – Study #1 Source: Survey of E-Mail Format Preferences and Programs, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, April 2003 - N 954 E-Mail Client Program Casual users: Business users: Outlook Express 34% Outlook 98/2000/XP 48% AOL 6.0 to 8.0 17% Outlook Express 27% Yahoo! Mail 13% Eudora 11% Outlook 98/2000/XP 12% HotMail 10% AOL users: 92% of users studied used version 6.0 and higher and could read HTML e-mail 2003 L-Soft

Industry Research – Study #1 Source: Survey of E-Mail Format Preferences and Programs, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, April 2003 - N 954 2003 L-Soft

Industry Research – Study #1 Source: Survey of E-Mail Format Preferences and Programs, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, April 2003 - N 954 Plain Text Preference Bible Study Business Dial-up Access 24.1% 41.3% Broadband Access 20.3% 17.3% 2003 L-Soft

2003 L-Soft

Industry Research – Study #1 Source: Survey of E-Mail Format Preferences and Programs, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, April 2003 - N 954 Reasons for HTML preference: Readability Attractive display Ease of scanning Overall design (78%) (68%) (64%) (64%) Reasons for text preference: Readability Security from viruses Ease of saving for future use Ease of scanning Download speed (73%) (68%) (63%) (61%) (54%) 2003 L-Soft

Poll on HTML vs. Text preference - #2 Readers of “Splash” and “E-zine Tips”, N 600, February 2003 2003 L-Soft

Poll on HTML vs. Text preference - #2 Readers of “Splash” and “E-zine Tips”, N 600, February 2003 Reasons for preferring text: Can't read HTML 6% Just want the meat without the distractions Like to read offline 15% Ads are more intrusive in HTML 22% Slow to download 14% Other 11% 32% Reasons for preferring HTML: HTML email can be laid out more effectively Color can be used 24% Images can be included 21% Ads can be more effective in HTML 20% 28% 2003 L-Soft

Preferred e-mail advertisement formats worldwide, Q1 2002- #3 Source: Opt-In News, May 2002 3% 35% HTML Text Rich Media 62% 2003 L-Soft

Use of anti-spam filters - #3a Source: Opt-In News, May 2002 (21%) of consumers use a Spam filter within their email messaging programs. (52%) do not use this type of service and (27%) are uncertain if they are using a filter feature 2003 L-Soft

Response rates per format- #4 Source: IMT Strategies, Sept. 2001 ClickThrough Conversion 15.60% 18.50% 5.30% 9.00% 7.70% 7.40% Bounce Unsubscribe 0.00 % HTML Text 3.20% 1.20% 5.00 % 10.00 15.00 20.00 % % % 2003 L-Soft

Other Industry Research #5 Source: Debbie Weil, WordBiz Report, N 300, May 2003 One-third publish HTML only Text-only subscribers are typically less than 50% of list recipients 70% survey respondents prefer HTML 2003 L-Soft

Best practices is a moving target- #6 Source: Jupiter Media Metrix, May 2002 Best practices for campaigns are a moving target, depending on campaign objective. “There is no one best practice for these factors. Only with testing can an e-mail campaign be fully optimized” Audience segmentation, message content and e-mail format should be tested prior to rolling out any campaign 2003 L-Soft

Anti-Spam filters Spam report from the anti-spam filter product Spam Assassin HTML FONT COLOR RED (0.1 points) BODY: HTML font color is red HTML MESSAGE (0.0 points) BODY: HTML included in message HTML LINK CLICK CAPS (1.1 points) BODY: HTML link text says "CLICK" HTML FONT BIG (0.3 points) BODY: FONT Size 2 and up or 3 and up LINES OF YELLING (0.0 points) BODY: A WHOLE LINE OF YELLING DETECTED HTML LINK CLICK HERE (0.1 points) BODY: HTML link text says "click here" HTML FONT COLOR GRAY (0.1 points) BODY: HTML font color is gray HTML FONT COLOR YELLOW (0.0 points) BODY: HTML font color is yellow 2003 L-Soft

HTML vs. Text issues Attachments blocked by Anti-Spam & Anti-Virus filters Embedded images are attachments Referencing images from web site does not include attachments A Multi-Part message may include attachments Multipart/Alternative doesn’t have attachment Multipart/Mixed has an attachment Multipart/related has an attachment 2003 L-Soft

HTML vs. Text issues Design preferences Both formats are visually appealing to different groups Both formats are easier to scan according to different groups Format depends on company’s image & personality HTML protocol & e-mail applications’ inconsistencies AOL Text convenient for those readers that need specific information and don’t care about format 2003 L-Soft

HTML vs. Text issues Size of message Larger size for HTML than for text only messages HTML with embedded images is larger than with referenced images Slows transmission and download time for dial-up connection users Recommended maximum size of an e-mail message is 15k-20k to not alert mail watcher software 2003 L-Soft

HTML vs. Text issues Tracking recipient behavior HTML allows for tracking open-ups, click-thrus, frequency, date, time, personal data and demographics Same tracking capabilities available for text messages BUT doesn’t include open-up tracking User reading e-mail online or offline HTML messages with referenced images, will not display correctly when read off-line Network firewalls sometimes strip HTML messages that contain links to outside sources 2003 L-Soft

Evaluate options HTML & Text: Offer two separate mailing lists if possible Provide recipient with alternative at registration HTML only Text-only recipients are not reached Test how message is viewed in different e-mail clients Attach images? Or reference web site? Send multi-part messages Providing alternative for those who cannot read html “Sniffing” technology is not an established e-mail protocol therefore is not reliable Text only Reaches entire audience Cut text at 60 characters Message can be creatively designed and easy to scan 2003 L-Soft

Recommendations 1. There is no right or wrong format 2. Determine internal capacity & needs 3. It is all about your recipients: survey them about desired format 4. Consider ISPs’ anti-virus and anti-spam measures – AOL, MSN, Earthlink measures -- which are DYNAMIC 5. Consider personal anti-spam applications 6. Test, test, test 2003 L-Soft