You'll be surprised:

As you can probably tell...

We lean heavy into the plain text style of emails 'round these parts. And a certain contractor recently took note of it:

"The emails just aren't eye-catching enough for me."

I get where she's coming from. We've all been trained by video- and image-driven social media feeds to expect marketing that is colorful and "eye-catching."

But when it comes to email marketing, you want your emails to look like they come from a friend - because they do! You're not just another business showing up in someone's inbox...

You're their trusted home service provider! You've been to their house, pet their dog, and met their kids. Shouldn't your follow up messages feel like they came from someone who pet the dog rather than a big corporation?

Plus, an email is not supposed to be "eye-catching" anyway. That's the subject line's job (and you can't "design" one of those even if you tried). If someone has opened your email, then you've already "caught" their eye. The most important thing you can do now is make sure the first sentence is so good that they want to keep reading.

Send emails that look like they come from a friend - because they do. You'll be surprised at how well it works.

Talk soon,

Zac Garside

P.S. Another reason people read plain text emails is because they don't look like an ad. Something to think about.