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I don't understand the insistence on building "beautiful" emails. I'm not the kind of person to insist on text-only e-mail, but I do think it's ridiculous to sp

I don't understand the insistence on building "beautiful" emails. I'm not the kind of person to insist on text-only e-mail, but I do think it's ridiculous to spend lots of time and money making e-mails that look like fully-fledged Web documents. Either your message does have some useful information for the reader, in which case say that and then get out of my way, or it doesn't, in which case you're a spammer. There is no third option.

blowski 3y ago
Perhaps that is your response, but it’s not true of everybody. I’ve done a lot of experiments with different types of email, and beautiful emails always get significantly better response rates.
- NoraCodes 3y ago
  Ah. I think the difference is that when I send emails, I do so to communicate information, rather than to elicit people to buy a product.
  - yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
    Are you relying on the user's email client to convert plaintext URIs into interactive hyperlinks in transactional mail?
    - NoraCodes 3y ago
      No. As I said, I'm not advocating for plain text only emails, just simple ones.
  - franga2000 3y ago
    Even when communicating important information, using the company design has been the norm since graphic printing was invented. Even something as transactional as a bank statement or court summon will use the sending organization's logo, fonts and colors.
- LastTrain 3y ago
  So, spam.
  - yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
    Is transactional email spam?
    - LastTrain 3y ago
      Well, that depends. Is it something I need to see? Did I proactively ask for it, or did I neglect to opt out? Etc, etc. If you are having to measure response rate, and it doesn't involve an emergency alert or some such, it is probably spam.
      - yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
        Transactional mail is not marketing mail. It's typically a notification in response to an action you initiated on some web application. https://postmarkapp.com/blog/what-is-transactional-email-and-how-is-it-used https://postmarkapp.com/blog/what-is-transactional-email-and...
        seba_dos1 3y ago
        How much sense does it make to measure and discuss response rates for transactional mails though?
        blowski 3y ago
        Low response rates are used as a spam signal by major email providers, whatever the type of email.
        seba_dos1 3y ago
        How does that make any sense when those are often sent from no-reply addresses that are routed nowhere?
- cosmodisk 3y ago
  Beautiful emails are easy. Emails with well conveyed and informative text- much much harder.
thrashh 3y ago
Some of us like beautiful things.
- NoraCodes 3y ago
  Fair enough. I fully support hobbyists making email clients do fun tricks.
thfuran 3y ago
>There is no third option But only because the best way to accomplish the first option is to be cognizant of the way the information is presented so that it can be most effectively conveyed. And that can involve paying attention to layout and color and possibly including some graphics.
epolanski 3y ago
There's no chance a business today can work with plain text documents at scale. Virtually all email clients support html since a decade and the expectations user have todays have changed. To put it differently, it looks unprofessional.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- legitster 3y ago
  To add to this, plaintext emails are a much bigger avenue for phishing, MITM attacks, and scammers. Especially when dealing with technology, consistent branding actually has an important safety factor for consumers.
- dsr_ 3y ago
  There is nothing in the average internal email that requires HTML, much less CSS. There is nothing in the average external email that requires HTML or CSS. There is no useful content in any email that requires JavaScript. "looks unprofessional" is cultural, and of the same significance as green vs blue text bubbles in your SMS messaging system.
  - yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
    This is an absurdly wrong, yet characteristically HN take. Transactional mail typically requires some hyperlink for the average user.
    - dsr_ 3y ago
      No, it doesn't. Email is a great feedback medium. "If you want to continue with the subscription, reply with the word YES on a line by itself. You can put comments on other lines and we will read them." do-not-reply@marketing.com is one of the stupid innovations by people who can't automate their email. Transactional email gets handled by robots and fed into a ticketing system when it goes awry. Treat your customers like customers, not consumers.
oliwarner 3y ago
It's weird that your can't conceive of useful information that benefits from HTML elements (images, actual tables, links) and layout design to make it more readable. In pretty much the same way a web page does. I benefit from this as the reader. I want it. That non-existent third option is critical for good communication.

blowski 3y ago

Perhaps that is your response, but it’s not true of everybody. I’ve done a lot of experiments with different types of email, and beautiful emails always get significantly better response rates.

NoraCodes 3y ago
Ah. I think the difference is that when I send emails, I do so to communicate information, rather than to elicit people to buy a product.
- yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
  Are you relying on the user's email client to convert plaintext URIs into interactive hyperlinks in transactional mail?
  - NoraCodes 3y ago
    No. As I said, I'm not advocating for plain text only emails, just simple ones.
- franga2000 3y ago
  Even when communicating important information, using the company design has been the norm since graphic printing was invented. Even something as transactional as a bank statement or court summon will use the sending organization's logo, fonts and colors.
LastTrain 3y ago
So, spam.
- yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
  Is transactional email spam?
  - LastTrain 3y ago
    Well, that depends. Is it something I need to see? Did I proactively ask for it, or did I neglect to opt out? Etc, etc. If you are having to measure response rate, and it doesn't involve an emergency alert or some such, it is probably spam.
    - yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
      Transactional mail is not marketing mail. It's typically a notification in response to an action you initiated on some web application. https://postmarkapp.com/blog/what-is-transactional-email-and-how-is-it-used https://postmarkapp.com/blog/what-is-transactional-email-and...
      - seba_dos1 3y ago
        How much sense does it make to measure and discuss response rates for transactional mails though?
        blowski 3y ago
        Low response rates are used as a spam signal by major email providers, whatever the type of email.
        seba_dos1 3y ago
        How does that make any sense when those are often sent from no-reply addresses that are routed nowhere?
cosmodisk 3y ago
Beautiful emails are easy. Emails with well conveyed and informative text- much much harder.

thrashh 3y ago

Some of us like beautiful things.

NoraCodes 3y ago
Fair enough. I fully support hobbyists making email clients do fun tricks.

thfuran 3y ago

>There is no third option But only because the best way to accomplish the first option is to be cognizant of the way the information is presented so that it can be most effectively conveyed. And that can involve paying attention to layout and color and possibly including some graphics.

epolanski 3y ago

There's no chance a business today can work with plain text documents at scale. Virtually all email clients support html since a decade and the expectations user have todays have changed. To put it differently, it looks unprofessional.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
legitster 3y ago
To add to this, plaintext emails are a much bigger avenue for phishing, MITM attacks, and scammers. Especially when dealing with technology, consistent branding actually has an important safety factor for consumers.
dsr_ 3y ago
There is nothing in the average internal email that requires HTML, much less CSS. There is nothing in the average external email that requires HTML or CSS. There is no useful content in any email that requires JavaScript. "looks unprofessional" is cultural, and of the same significance as green vs blue text bubbles in your SMS messaging system.
- yakshaving_jgt 3y ago
  This is an absurdly wrong, yet characteristically HN take. Transactional mail typically requires some hyperlink for the average user.
  - dsr_ 3y ago
    No, it doesn't. Email is a great feedback medium. "If you want to continue with the subscription, reply with the word YES on a line by itself. You can put comments on other lines and we will read them." do-not-reply@marketing.com is one of the stupid innovations by people who can't automate their email. Transactional email gets handled by robots and fed into a ticketing system when it goes awry. Treat your customers like customers, not consumers.

oliwarner 3y ago

It's weird that your can't conceive of useful information that benefits from HTML elements (images, actual tables, links) and layout design to make it more readable. In pretty much the same way a web page does. I benefit from this as the reader. I want it. That non-existent third option is critical for good communication.