HTML e-mail with a plain-text alternative

Ivo Miranda - You might interested in checking out this code which uses PHP Mailer to send a multipart-alternative MIME email

http://phpmailer.worxware.com/index.php?pg=examplebmail

James Barnett Many thanks for the info! I will take a better look at it soon just after I finish my android lessons :) I'm excited about them and despite I don't have much time I just can't stop watching it :P

Hi Ivo,

Like Dan said, MailChimp (and pretty much every other ESP) will automatically create a plain-text version of your email for you. I can't speak for other services, but with MailChimp, you can edit the plain-text version in whatever way you want before the campaign is sent - you can also just send plain-text-only campaigns, if that's your thing.

You can certainly do it yourself, but there are more drawbacks to sending bulk email yourself than there are benefits.

The biggest is deliverability - whatever you send won't be coming from an IP that's been 'whitelisted' or seen as trustworthy by spam filter and email services, which will prevent a lot of what you send from getting through. It's likely that, in a short time, the IP you send from will be blacklisted.

There's also a lot of cost on your end, if you choose to do it yourself. Not necessarily monetary cost, but a lot of development time in order to be able to do it all correctly and by-the-book.

The thing about ESPs is that we all provide more than just an interface from which you can send email; the infrastructure that powers everything behind the scenes (dedicated sending IPs that are trusted, MTA servers, etc.) is the difference between sending from an ESP like MailChimp or just using Gmail or Outlook.com.

I'm sure you can guess what I think, but honestly, sending via an ESP - and it certainly doesn't have to be MailChimp - is your best option.

Hi Fabio! Thanks for your reply :)

I see your point. So I can send a plain text different from the HTML? I wanted to do HTML e-mails that some companies do like: giving a link to a HTML page in case something is wrong with images or if the client only accepts plain text send a plain text version with the link to the HTML page. Is this possible with mailchimp?

My main concerns in using an ESP are the following:

1. The privacy of my e-mail list<br>
2. I would like to use HTML pages in my own host so that emails would alternatively show that link
3. The privacy/block of my content: For example, I have some clients that have adult related websites and escort businesses. All legal in their countries and hosts but sometimes, in this delicate markets there are very strict policies and I am afraid of losing my mailing lists, having accounts banned and so on...

On another hand, I completely understand the benefits of using such a service.

Do you have any suggestion in my case? I would love to centralize all my clients but I fear to have my account blocked and my clients that don't even have nothing to do with it also get injured.

You can have a plain-text email that's different from the HTML version, yes; they can't be too different in content, though, because many spam filters watch for that kind of thing.

Speaking generally regarding email list privacy, the major ESPs are secure enough that it shouldn't be a big concern to you.

As far as adult content and MailChimp goes, you couldn't send it with us, regardless of its legality in the country of origin, as stated in our acceptable use policy. I can't really speak to the policies of other ESPs, but some may be okay with that sort of content - you'd have to check with them, and it'd be good to do so before sending your emails.