We recently made a few subtle tweaks to Campaign monitor when you select the format you'd like to send your email in. We still present the same options - HTML only, HTML and text or plain text only - but we've tweaked the copy to encourage those sending HTML only emails to also include a text version.

There are many reasons behind this. Including a text version can improve your deliverability, it looks much better when forwarded by many web-based email clients, and is a format some of your subscribers simply prefer.

While your formatting options are obviously more limited, there are still plenty of do's and don't you need to observe when designing plain text emails. Stefan Pollard recently put together a few great tips on the best approach to formatting plain text emails that are definitely worth checking out. While you're at it, take a look at Mark Brownlow's tips for formatting plain text emails we published here back in December 2004. All his points are still very relevant today.