Email Marketing Blog

Newsletter Sign Up

Message Quality Score

Posted by Andrew Adams

Jul 24, 2008 5:05:00 AM

When using the Message Quality Score (MQS) have you ever seen the error, BODY: Message only has text/html MIME parts and wondered what it is? This error gives a whopping 17 point deduction. What does it mean? How do you fix it?

email spam body

For those of you that want the quick explanation  add a text version to your email and the deduction will disappear. If you interested in the details, read on.

A multipart email is an email that has both the HTML and text version of the content in one envelope or message. HTML messages support images, colors and links while text messages do not. Creating a text version of your HTML message helps you attain the widest possible audience for your email messages, enabling you to reach people who prefer a text version or have poor rendering for HTML versions but can read plain text.

Underneath the hood, the HTML version of your message is labeled as a text/html MIME part (because technically speaking HTML is still text) and the text version of your message is labeled by computers as a text/plain MIME part. This labeling is part of the email internet standards.

When your Contactology spam alert reads Message only has text/html MIME parts", it is implying that you havent created a text version to accompany your html email. Creating a text version of your message makes the deduction disappear.

This error comes straight from Spam Assassin, the open source spam filtering software that powers some of our results. So then the question becomes, why does Spam Assassin penalize so much for only having HTML versions?

There are many reasons. A great deal of SPAM has the characteristic of only having an HTML version. But it's worth noting that any HTML emails created in Outlook or Thunderbird automatically creates a text version and is shipped with the HTML message. Since these personal one-to-one correspondences are rarely SPAM, Spam Assassin sees messages that have both as being more authentic.

Creating a text version of your message is a snap inside Contactology. Just go to the text tab and click the Auto-Create Text button. A text version of your HTML message will appear. You may want to adjust the spacing and eliminate the image URLs that appear. After that, you're all set.




Ready to get started? Create your free account today.

Create Free Account