[dmix]

I prefer succinct plain-textish emails linking to HTML websites over HTML-heavy emails in most situations.

I've personally found plain-text often also converts better than most HTML-heavy newsletters.

Most HTML is pigeonholed into email where it doesn't fit well, for example the variety of unpredictable clients and devices. I'd rather serve that via the browser where full CSS/HTML is supported.

Mobile is helping by standardizing webkit but we're still far from it being a good delivery mechanism for a web experience.

[splatzone]

I feel the same way about plain text, but I can't help but wonder if I'm part of a nerdy minority. I know my mum finds her image heavy emails from eBay useful, for instance.

[biftek]

We’ve seen similar results at our company. Plain text emails always get more click throughs in A/B tests.

And personally I prefer them. If I must use html, I only stick to the basic styling elements with no css.