Yes, your stationary is pretty. At least to you. And yes all those underlines, bolds, and italics really show off the important words that you think have extra meaning. But, consider this - many people can’t or won’t see them. That’s right, there are a lot of people out there who through either choice or technical limitation cannot see all the fancy formatting you are applying to your message.
The hard cold reality is that different email programs show your email differently. So you may be composing in Microsoft Outlook, but the person receiving your email may be using GMail, or Mail on the Mac, or Thunderbird, or even their cell phone. It is also possible that they are even using Outlook, but have the security function to prohibit image display turned on.
How do you get around this, you don’t. What you need to do is is construct a good email that conveys your message and prompts a call to action. That action should be to visit your website where the reader will find all the pretty formating and wondrous pictures. There you can use links and shading style sheet tricks galore. But for your email, tone it down.
That doesn’t mean not to use any formatting. That would lead to very boring and unattractive emails. Just be careful, don’t overdo it, and make sure to test on as many different platforms as possible. And if your really insist on doing way over the top formatting, maybe you should get some expert help from a company such as Constant Contact or Get Response.
