The Text Version of an Email Template provides additional support for your template so that anyone who cannot or wishes not to receive HTML in emails can still read your email. Including a Text Version will also decrease your Spam Score.
Add a Text Version
The Text Version can be found in your template.
You can click the A icon to generate text for you automatically.
Text Versions will strip out HTML entirely including graphics, styling, and links. Any links that you added into your template will be inserted as a plain URL, for example http://clickdimensions.com. This also means that there were be no tracking on the email if the recipient receives it as plain text (this will most likely be very few to none of your recipients).
Since there's no styling, text will come in as plain text with the default font settings for your system. This is often Times New Roman in 12 point.
Dynamic Personalization will work as well in the Text Version. Make sure to save!
Why Include a Text Version?
The primary reason to include a Text Version of your Email Templates is to decrease your spam score, which will improve your email deliverability. Many spam filters check to see if an email includes a Text Version; leaving it out will not guarantee that the email will be treated as spam, but including it will certainly decrease the likelihood.
Including a Text Version is also good as a courtesy to your email recipients, particularly recipients who open emails on their phones. Some recipients may have their mail client set to display emails as plain text because doing so takes less time to process the email and requires less data usage.
Some email clients that are set to display emails as plain text will convert the HTML version to plain text if a Text Version is not included. This will still allow the recipient to see the pertinent data, but the layout of the text may be off. Conversely, some email clients that are set to display emails as plain text will display the HTML version's raw HTML code if a Text Version is not included. This will look unprofessional and may either confuse the recipient or make them believe that the email is spam.