Sending HTML E-mail

[GoCubsGo]

I have a client that wishes to send out an e-mail in HTML format, but as I discussed with her, there are people that do not get HTML e-mail. If any of you have ever opened up an Apple newsletter in a web mail client that wasn't set up for HTML then you'll get a message saying that you aren't set up to get HTML e-mail. I am trying to find out how to do that.

Out of 1000 people I will bet that at least 25% of them aren't set up for HTML e-mail so I want to be able to put in a message that tells them they can view the e-mail online at another location which would be specified.

Would anyone be able to help me with this?
Thank you.

 

[Doctor Q]

I studied this and set up an HTML e-mail system last year that produces the message directly and passes it to a mailing agent. The full message file is plain text, in the form of an e-mail message with two attachments.

The main body of the e-mail is not actually used, so it can be a message like "message follows".

The first attachment is plain text, and can be either a plain text version of the message you want to send, or simply a message saying "You need an HTML e-mail client to see this message."

The second attachment is the HTML-formatted e-mail.

People who receive the e-mail and have an HTML-enabled e-mail client will see the message as a web page in their e-mail program, i.e., an HTML-formatted page. People with e-mail clients that don't handle HTML (or are set to give preference to text) will display the second attachment.

E-mail clients are supposed to display the richest form of the e-mail that they encounter and are enabled to display, i.e., they should prefer HTML to plain text, but in practice many e-mail clients choose the LAST form, not the BEST form, which is why I put the HTML-formatted version as the second attachment, not the first.

If you want more details, in particular the syntax of a two-attachment e-mail message, just say so and I'll dig up more details.

 

[jimthorn]

I use MailDrop for all my HTML-email and multipart-mime (text only/HTML hybrid) mailing needs. I've been using it for a while to send mailings to my customers at work and it works well. Try it:

http://freshsqueeze.com/products/maildrop/

 

[rdowns]

We send out a high volume of email (subscribed people) at work. We use Silverpop and couldn't be happier. The small cost is greatly outweighed by all the benefits they provide. They deliver HTML or text based email based on the client, tracking, more stats than Doctor Q could ever imagine, white listing to big ISPs and much more. Best vendor I ever chose.

www.silverpop.com