Should You Use Plain Text or HTML Emails for Marketing?

This debate resurfaces every year, usually framed as a simple either-or choice. In reality, plain text and HTML emails aren't competing for the same job. Each one performs better in different situations, for different types of messages, sent to different types of relationships. This guide breaks down what each format actually does well, where each one falls short, and how to decide which one fits your next email.

What Each Format Actually Is

A plain text email looks exactly like a personal message. No images, no colored buttons, no custom fonts. Just text, formatted the way it would appear if you typed it directly into your own email client and hit send to one person.

An HTML email is built with design elements: images, brand colors, custom layouts, buttons, and sometimes multiple columns. It's built to look like a polished piece of marketing material rather than a personal note.

Why Plain Text Often Outperforms Expectations

It Feels Personal

A plain text email looks like it came from an actual person typing directly to the reader, not a marketing department. This matters most in situations where trust and authenticity carry more weight than visual polish, such as a founder update, a personal outreach email, or a one-to-one style follow-up.

It Renders Reliably Everywhere

Plain text has no layout to break. It looks the same on every device, every email client, and every screen size, because there's no design to render incorrectly in the first place. HTML emails, by contrast, can look different across Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, and various mobile clients, sometimes badly enough to hide key content or buttons.

It Can Slip Past Certain Spam Signals

Some spam filters treat heavily designed, image-heavy emails with more suspicion than simple text messages, particularly when the sender has a weaker reputation. This isn't a guaranteed advantage, but it's part of why cold outreach and B2B prospecting emails often perform better in plain text than in a fully designed template.

Why HTML Still Matters for Most Marketing

It Reinforces Brand Recognition

Consistent colors, logos, and layout help subscribers recognize your emails at a glance, before they even read the subject line. This matters more for e-commerce and consumer brands where visual identity is part of what customers are buying into.

It Supports Visual Products

If what you're selling depends on how it looks, like fashion, food, furniture, or travel, plain text can't do the product justice. A well-designed HTML email lets the product photography do a large part of the persuading, something no amount of clever text can fully replace.

It Allows Clear, Trackable Buttons

A designed CTA button stands out visually in a way a plain text link often doesn't, especially in a crowded inbox where readers are scanning quickly. HTML also allows more detailed click tracking across multiple sections of the email, which plain text can't support in the same way.

It Can Scale Complex Layouts

Multi-product roundups, newsletters with several sections, and promotional emails with several offers are far easier to structure clearly in HTML than in plain text, where everything has to be communicated through paragraph breaks and simple line spacing alone.

Match the Format to the Type of Email

The Hybrid Approach: Simple HTML That Looks Like Plain Text

Many of the best-performing marketing emails today aren't purely one or the other. They use minimal HTML, a simple font, a small logo, maybe one clean button, without heavy images or complex multi-column layouts. This gives you the personal, trustworthy feel of plain text while still keeping consistent branding and a functional, trackable call-to-action.

This hybrid style has become especially common in cart abandonment emails, personal-style promotional emails, and any message trying to balance authenticity with a clear next step.

Deliverability: A More Nuanced Picture Than People Assume

It's a common myth that HTML emails are inherently more likely to land in spam than plain text ones. Deliverability depends far more on sender reputation, authentication setup, and subscriber engagement than on format alone. A well-authenticated sender with an engaged list can send heavily designed HTML emails with strong inbox placement, while a poorly reputed sender can still land in spam even sending plain text. Format is a minor factor compared to the technical and behavioral signals covered in a deliverability-focused review of your sending practices.

Accessibility Considerations

Plain text is naturally accessible to screen readers and low-bandwidth connections, since there's nothing complex to interpret. If you choose HTML, make sure images have descriptive alt text, text contrast meets basic readability standards, and the email still makes sense if images fail to load, since many email clients block images by default until the recipient chooses to display them.

How to Test Which Format Works Better for Your List

1. Pick one recurring email type, such as a monthly promotional send.
2. Send a plain text or hybrid version to half your list and your usual HTML version to the other half.
3. Compare open rate, click-through rate, and, where relevant, conversion rate, not open rate alone.
4. Repeat the test across a few sends, since results can vary depending on the specific offer or subject matter in any single campaign.

Final Thoughts

Plain text and HTML aren't rivals fighting for one universal winner. Plain text tends to win when trust and authenticity matter most, like personal updates and outreach. HTML tends to win when visual presentation and structured content genuinely improve the message, like product launches and multi-section newsletters. A simple hybrid approach often captures the best of both. Instead of picking one format for every email you send, match the format to what that specific message is actually trying to accomplish.