2 builders who never spoke to each other

Strip the template until it looks like a normal email

A designed email reads as advertising in about a second and gets skipped, while an unstyled one is read before the reader has classified it. A split test to over twenty thousand recipients gave the plain version more opens and several times the clicks, and dropping the design also removes the internal approval round that stops campaigns shipping.

The method

1. 01

   Send unstyled emails rather than designed HTML ones - the plain version wins on opens and clicks and costs nothing to produce.

2. 02

   Apply the plain format to every email type, not just newsletters: onboarding, cold sales, webinar invitations and product updates all performed better without design.

3. 03

   A designed email is identified as advertising within a second and then ignored, while a plain one gets read before the reader classifies it - and it reads as more personal than a template with a merged first name.

4. 04

   Dropping email design also removes the approval step where colleagues debate colors and font sizes, so campaigns actually ship.

5. 05

   Test a plain version against your current design using the split-testing built into your email platform, and keep the copy short.

What it returned

• 24,000

  In a split test to over 24,000 newsletter recipients, the version with no styling was opened by more people and got 3.3 times the clicks of one built on a standard Mailchimp template.

• 30

  Replies to welcome emails tripled; his cold emails ran at 30-35% open rates with 3% conversion.

• He lists the design tax: inconsistent rendering across Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, about half of opens on mobile, table-based layouts and no external stylesheets, and templates that still need brand edits.

• He notes Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Hubspot and Marketo all include A/B testing.

Sources

• My First Year Teaching: How I Built My Audience - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · My First Year Teaching: How I Built My Audience · 2013-08-15
• Why beautiful email templates hurt your businessNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Not plain text · 2013-05-06
• Don't Design Your EmailsGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · Testing Plain vs Designed Emails · 2016-06-28