Build a Plain-Text Campaign

Create a Plain-Text Campaign

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page in your account.
2. Click the drop-down menu next to the Create Campaign button and choose Plain-Text Campaign.
   
3. On the Recipients step, select the list that you'd like to send your campaign to, and click Next.
4. On the Setup step, input your campaign information and set tracking or Social Media options you want for the campaign. When you're finished, click Next.
5. On the Plain-Text step, type in or paste the content of your email in the area above the dotted line.
   
   Since you can't embed images or links, copy and paste their source URLs from the File Manager. To get the URL for an image, click File Manager, and check the box next to the image you want to link. Click Copy URL to save the URL to your clipboard. Then, click the x in the upper-right corner to return to the Plain-Text editor.
   
   Use the Preview and Test drop-down menu at the top of the page to Enter Preview Mode or Send a Test Email, or click Next to continue.
6. Review the Pre-delivery Checklist for your campaign and click Resolve to fix any errors or Edit to return to a step and make changes.
7. Click Schedule to select a date and time for delivery of your campaign or click Send to send your campaign immediately.
   

Tips for Creating your Plain-Text Campaign

When you create a plain-text campaign, keep these tips mind:

• Use a simple text editor
  If you want to compose your campaign content outside of MailChimp, we recommend a simple plain-text editor instead of something like Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word and other rich text editors add extra text formatting that will break in a plain-text email.
• Make it easy to read
  Plain-text emails are harder to read than HTML email. Bullet points can help make your content easier to read and break your content up into chunks that are easier to skim and scan. Here's an example:

    ====================
  
    This is your headline
  
    ====================
  
  
  
    Here's some intro copy for
  
    my plain-text message.
  
    
  
    Here's some bullet points:
  
  
  
    ** Bullet one
  
    ** Bullet two
  
    ** Bullet three
  
  
  
    ==================== 

• URLs look different
  To track clicks in plain-text emails, we have to replace your URL with one that redirects your recipients to a page we can monitor before we send them on to your site. This URL tracking link can't be hidden in an HTML link in plain-text campaigns like it is in HTML emails.
• No opens reported
  Be sure to include links in your plain-text campaign, so that we can track opens and clicks. Open rates are typically determined when an invisible image inside your campaign is downloaded by a subscriber's email client. Since plain-text campaigns don't support images, we estimate opens by monitoring how many subscribers click a link in your plain-text campaign. If there are no links in a plain-text campaign, we won't be able to track open rate.