What a plain text email actually is
Most ecommerce brands rely entirely on creative-based emails. These are the standard marketing messages you see every day, packed with banners, styled product grids, custom fonts, and buttons. They look like advertisements because they are advertisements.
A plain text email is the exact opposite. It looks like a standard message typed out directly by a real person from their personal inbox. It is stripped back, light on links, and contains zero heavy design assets.
That simplicity changes how inbox providers treat your message, and more importantly, how your subscribers react when they open it.
Why plain text cuts through to the primary tab
Deliverability algorithms at Gmail and Outlook are constantly analysing incoming mail to decide where it belongs. When an email arrives loaded with image blocks, tracking pixels, and promo layout code, the inbox provider immediately files it under the Promotions tab.
Plain text emails strip all that noise away. Because the message contains almost no image weight, inbox filters are far more likely to let it bypass Promotions and land directly in the Primary tab. That alone creates an immediate jump in visibility.
When we split test plain text campaigns against standard creative-based emails to an engaged segment, the difference is night and day. Creative emails typically land between 40% and 50% open rates, while a plain text version regularly hits 60% to 70% open rates on the exact same audience.
The human touch and higher click-through rates
Beyond inbox placement, plain text creates a completely different psychological dynamic with the reader. When you send an email written from the founder or a specific team member, subscribers read it as a direct, one-to-one conversation.
Because the template is not cluttered with competing visual elements, the call to action cannot get lost. If you include one simple contextual link in the body copy, readers actually see it and click it. There are no distracting graphics pulling their attention away from the core message.
That simplicity makes it an exceptional tool for genuine brand storytelling, founder updates, quick surveys, or high-priority product announcements.
Why you must use plain text emails scarcely
Seeing 70% open rates makes a lot of brand owners want to ditch designed templates entirely and send plain text every week. That is a mistake.
Plain text works primarily as a pattern interrupt. Gmail looks for sending habits over time. If you send plain text campaigns constantly, the algorithm will adapt, recognise the commercial pattern, and start routing your plain text emails straight back to the Promotions tab anyway.
In my books, you should send roughly one plain text email per month as part of your broader campaign calendar. Keep it in reserve as a strategic tool to game deliverability and re-engage dormant segments. If you overuse it, you lose the advantage entirely.
How to build a plain text campaign in Klaviyo
Setting this up in Klaviyo takes less than two minutes once you know where the setting lives, though Klaviyo hides it slightly inside the campaign workflow.
- Navigate to Campaigns and click Create Campaign.
- Select your channel (Email) and assign your engaged recipient segment.
- Proceed to the content screen where Klaviyo presents the template library options.
- Instead of picking a layout, look to the top right-hand corner and click Switch to text-only editor.
- Write your message directly in the editor, adding your recipient's first name tag and a simple text hyperlink.
Always preview and send a live test to your own inbox before broadcasting to confirm the line breaks and links render cleanly.
Final Thoughts
Plain text emails are one of the simplest and most underused levers in ecommerce email marketing. When deployed once a month to your engaged segment, they cut through the Promotions tab clutter and deliver massive open rate spikes. Keep them short, write them like a human, and use them sparingly to protect their power.
If you want help planning and executing high-converting campaign calendars for your store, take a look at our email campaign management service to see how we handle it for our clients.
