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Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

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Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#71

Post by bertolo1988 »

I have had a job where they tried to implement emails 4 times. The last attempt is still ongoing and in my opinion destined to fail.

They wanted to implement few dozen of auto generated emails with huge content.

The task was suspended 3 times, always because of the same thing: cost. Its insanely costly and hard to make a good looking cross platform email. After every suspension there were new design changes to implement so we ended up starting almost from scratch in every attempt.

I worked on it for a bit and i can assure you email clients are the biggest shit. Specially Gmail and Outlook.

A few highlights:

* Javascript not allowed.

* Outlook processes HTML and CSS with a specific engine which is also used in Microsoft Word.

* Outlook does not support paddings.

* Gmail requires the styles to be all inline.

* We followed Foundation Zurb recommendations and used tables all over. Still didn't work on all clients.

Humanity urgently needs to replace the emails with something else. Not only because the clients suck but because the protocol is outdated.

Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#72

Post by yellowapple »

tgb wrote: post #33
chippy wrote: post #15

Click rate of plain text email: 1% Click rate of html email: 0.3% That's very low and yet the result was, loudly claimed in bold, that the plain text one had 3.3x more clicks than the designed email!! Also, the opened rate is within the margin of error and therefore insignificant. I may not be a data analyst, yet I look at the analysis and think to myself, "eh?"

Users can't really tell that an email is styled or plain before opening it, so if the opened numbers were too different, I'd be concerned that something was up.

Per the article, it's probable that the styled emails are being flagged as promotional (or outright spam) and thus being filtered from immediate view by various mail clients (including Gmail).

Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#73

Post by BeetleB »

bertolo1988 wrote: post #71

I have had a job where they tried to implement emails 4 times. The last attempt is still ongoing and in my opinion destined to fail. They wanted to implement few dozen of auto generated emails with huge content. The task was suspended 3 times, always because of the same thing: cost. Its insanely costly and hard to make a good looking cross platform email. After every suspension there were new design changes to implem…

>I worked on it for a bit and i can assure you email clients are the biggest shit.

All the complaints you listed are features in my book. The only problem is that they even allow what they do.

Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#75

Post by tgb »

yellowapple wrote: post #72
tgb wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users can't really tell that an email is styled or plain before opening it, so if the opened numbers were too different, I'd be concerned that something was up.

Per the article, it's probable that the styled emails are being flagged as promotional (or outright spam) and thus being filtered from immediate view by various mail clients (including Gmail).

Good point!

Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#76

Post by patrickmay »

BeetleB wrote: post #73
bertolo1988 wrote: post #71

I have had a job where they tried to implement emails 4 times. The last attempt is still ongoing and in my opinion destined to fail. They wanted to implement few dozen of auto generated emails with huge content. The task was suspended 3 times, always because of the same thing: cost. Its insanely costly and hard to make a good looking cross platform email. After every suspension there were new design changes to implem…

>I worked on it for a bit and i can assure you email clients are the biggest shit. All the complaints you listed are features in my book. The only problem is that they even allow what they do.

Exactly. There is no way in hell I want JavaScript running in my email.

Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#77

Post by phil21 »

CaptSpify wrote: post #74

A lot of this applies to web-design for (what should be) static sites as well. The more complex and "engaging" you make your site, the less likely people are able to read it cleanly. I wonder if anyone is doing a/b testing with those as well? KISS

At this point that is a feature, not a bug. That's the only explanation as almost all websites for products/services you don't already know of are utterly useless at explaining what precisely it is they do.

I still get pretty upset by this and try to avoid buying from such companies whenever possible in my professional role, but I'm pretty convinced it's on purpose so you have to call someone and let them "engage" you in the "value add" sales process.

Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#78

Post by devmunchies »

CaptSpify wrote: post #74

A lot of this applies to web-design for (what should be) static sites as well. The more complex and "engaging" you make your site, the less likely people are able to read it cleanly. I wonder if anyone is doing a/b testing with those as well? KISS

I think the KISS acronym is better if you swap the last two "S" words so that its keep it stupid simple.

It changes the acronym a bit from KISS to KISS but use your imagination.

Re: Plain emails not only save time but work better (2016)

#79

Post by astura »

iam-TJ wrote: post #45
HappyKasper wrote: post #19

I was turned on to “no design” newsletters by Jeff Bezos’ updates on Blue Origin. They read and feel like a personal note from him, even though I know I’m just an entry on a big list. Since then, I’ve made all important announcements to my company’s customers via this “personal”, no-design style. The reply-to is my direct email address, which I think deepens the personal touch of this style, and prevents me from abus…

Your observation about the reply-to is an important flag. I almost always instantly delete any email where I see the From: or Reply-To: has noreply@ or the email starts off with "Please do not reply to this email it is sent from an account which is not monitored" Unfortunately one of the big transgressors of this are banks and other major service-provider organisations where we have ongoing contract relationships. My…

Banks can't be taking inquiries over email because it's not a secure way to communicate. They have to take inquiries through their own secure messaging systems.
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