How can I tell how many people receive text vs html versions of emails? | Community
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Anonymous
June 16, 2015
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How can I tell how many people receive text vs html versions of emails?

  • June 16, 2015
  • 1 reply
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Is there a way to configure an Email Performance Report to show data on HTML vs Text versions of emails? It would be useful to know how many people are receiving our text versions and how they perform vs HTML. Any way to do this in Marketo?

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Best answer by Josh_Hill13

No, there is not a way to do this right now. Think of it this way - all leads receive both versions using the MIME format. Their email viewer is set to read HTML or Text version. Some old clients like PINE will only see the text version. Thus, everyone receives both. I would expect the number of text only viewers to be in the 10% or less range for most businesses. For people like sysadmins or security folks, it's possible this is higher.

If you want to test this, i would create a Text Only email and a regular email, then do a whole email test. I know of pro-bloggers who write only in text or mostly text and it works well. Your audience may feel otherwise.

1 reply

Josh_Hill13
Josh_Hill13Accepted solution
New Participant
June 16, 2015

No, there is not a way to do this right now. Think of it this way - all leads receive both versions using the MIME format. Their email viewer is set to read HTML or Text version. Some old clients like PINE will only see the text version. Thus, everyone receives both. I would expect the number of text only viewers to be in the 10% or less range for most businesses. For people like sysadmins or security folks, it's possible this is higher.

If you want to test this, i would create a Text Only email and a regular email, then do a whole email test. I know of pro-bloggers who write only in text or mostly text and it works well. Your audience may feel otherwise.

    A
    Anonymous
    June 16, 2015

    Okay. Thank you, Josh. I do understand how it works and there are lots of email platforms that figure out which version is received and report on that. I wanted a feel for how much of our audience was receiving the text-only versions vs HTML so sending a text only email wouldn't answer the question. Thanks again.

    SanfordWhiteman
    SanfordWhiteman
    New Participant
    June 17, 2015

    Denise, not only is Josh correct, but there are no email platforms that can figure out which version is read by recipients who do not take any actions and do not read the HTML version with images enabled.

    The only unattended user action that can be logged is downloading a tracking pixel (which only works for HTML recipients with images enabled and without any other firewall restrictions).  Text readers who only read the email but do not follow your CTA can't be logged, period.  No magic can tell you that I read your text version in my email client, nor that I read your HTML version (since I disable images by default).  (Not to mention that you won't know if I read thoroughly or just lingered for an extra sec while deleting.)

    If you're willing to restrict your test population to only those who positively click a link, then have different links in the HTML and text versions.

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