A product photograph can show a finish, a shape or how something fits into a room. Without it, ‘excellent quality’ has rather a lot of work to do. Usually more than it can manage.
A good plain text marketing email makes the offer clear in words. That means choosing useful details, giving the reader a reason to care and making the next step easy to find. It does not mean describing every last screw.
First, be clear what you are sending
An email without photographs may still be HTML. A text-led HTML email can use styled headings, bold type and named links even when it looks like a personal note.
A true text/plain message contains text and line breaks, not HTML styling or embedded images. Write out URLs; many email clients turn them into clickable links, but do not assume they will all display or handle them identically.
The writing principles here suit both formats, but the practical checks differ. If you are sending HTML and plain-text alternatives together, read both. They should carry the same offer, essential conditions and useful next step, not a polished design accompanied by a neglected text version.
Choose the detail your reader needs
Start with the question a product image would help answer. How does this fit? What does it hold? What would using it actually be like? Choose the question that matters to this reader, rather than writing a description of everything you can see.
Before drafting, make three brief notes:
- The situation: what is the reader trying to do, or put right?
- The useful detail: which verified feature makes a difference?
- The consequence: what does that feature let them do?
For a supplier selling desk lamps, an individual buyer may want room to work. A facilities manager ordering across several offices may first need to know whether the fittings suit different desks. The product has not changed, but the detail worth leading with has.
Keep a specification if it answers a buying question. Remove an adjective if it merely sounds pleased with itself. ‘Adjustable arm’ tells us something. ‘An exceptional lighting experience’ leaves most of the work to our imagination.
Paint a picture with a practical example
Imagine a supplier selling a clamp-on desk lamp with an adjustable arm. For this example, those features are confirmed, not the copywriter’s guesswork.
A vague opening might read: ‘Discover our innovative, versatile lighting solution, designed to transform your workspace.’ It sounds busy, but we still cannot picture the lamp.
Here is a more useful copy extract:
Subject: A task lamp that leaves room for your work
Your laptop, paperwork and coffee already have a claim on your desk. A lamp does not need to join the queue.
Our clamp-on task lamp fixes to the desk edge rather than standing on the work surface. Move the adjustable arm towards the page when you need it, then move it aside.
See the lamp and check the clamp sizes.
The reader gets a familiar situation, a physical detail and a reason it matters. There is no invented promise of greater productivity or healthier posture.
This is a copy extract, not a complete send-ready email. Add the working product URL, sender details and unsubscribe route before sending. Include verified price, fit or availability information where it is essential to the offer; do not leave a material condition behind in the missing photograph.
Keep a specification if it answers a buying question. Remove an adjective if it merely sounds pleased with itself.
Keep the conversation recognisably yours
Plain-looking copy does not need a new personality. If your usual voice is calm and knowledgeable, keep it. You can be approachable without opening with ‘Hey mate’ or pretending a campaign is a personal reply.
Use a familiar situation or a direct question when it helps. Avoid fake follow-ups, invented urgency and subject lines suggesting an existing conversation when there has not been one. A modest promise that the email fulfils is more useful than borrowed intimacy.
Our guide to a consistent brand voice across email and social media explains how to stay recognisable without repeating identical wording. Here, the simple test is whether the message still sounds like your business when the design is removed.
For campaigns going to several markets, check each version against the approved product facts. A smoother sentence must not quietly change what the price includes, delivery exclusions or warranty terms. Agree who signs off those details before the copy goes into production.
In a larger team, read the whole message after product, sales and brand reviewers have finished. Three sensible contributions do not always produce one natural conversation.
Give the next step a line of its own
Without a coloured button, the action wording must explain where the reader is going and why. ‘See the lamp and check the clamp sizes’ is more useful than ‘Click here’. A procurement enquiry might instead need ‘Request the specification and a quote for your offices’.
Put the main action on its own line, with a blank line around it. In true plain text, follow it with the full destination URL. In text-led HTML, you can attach that destination to descriptive link text. Make sure the page delivers what the wording promises.
Do not surround the action with a fence of hashtags or decorative symbols. They add clutter, not a reason to act. Keep any necessary supporting link, but do not give every link equal billing.
Keep the sender’s identity clear and the unsubscribe route obvious and working. A simpler layout is not a reason to remove either.
Read the actual message before you send
Send a test and read the version that arrives, not just the draft in your editor. Check it on a narrow screen as well as your usual working screen.
- Read without the picture: can someone explain what is offered, why it matters and what to do next?
- Follow the links: check the actual destination, any long URL wrapping, and the unsubscribe route.
- Check every version: look for missing personalisation, leftover HTML, image references and conditions that disappeared from the text alternative.
Do not treat recorded opens as a fair verdict on the format. A true text/plain message has no embedded image-based tracking pixel, while privacy features can obscure opens in HTML messages too. Look instead at outcomes relevant to the offer, such as completed orders or qualified enquiries. Removing pictures is not evidence of better delivery.
For your next product email, write the useful difference in one sentence. Add the detail that makes it believable, then give the reader a clear next step. You do not have to paint the whole showroom. Just help them see why this product belongs in their day.
The WizEmail Team
