How do I change everyone's plain text choice to html email choice?

Hi,

I just realized that I made a mistake : by default, when a new customer log in and enter his details for the first time the option is to receive plain text email.
I would like to change in one goal all this options to HTML email (I have more than 3000 customers) so I can send newsletter with links to other webpages, pictures, etc ...
how to do that please ?

A.

One possibility is to execute this SQL (after you back up your database, of course!)

UPDATE customers SET customers_email_format = 'HTML';

You can do this via Tools - Install SQL patches. It will update all your customer records, so please be sure that this is indeed what you want.

Apsona
http://apsona.com

Thanks it worked perfectly...exactly what I wanted, is there a book or a website where we can have some explanation or training on this SQL command ?

Just to point out that a year ago we habitually removed the ability to select text emails on clients' sites, but the pendulum has now swung back.

Increasing numbers of our clients' customers are electing to manage their emails via mobile devices and want plain text emails and one of our clients is a direct marketing guru with a ton of research showing that plain text emails get higher conversion rates than html emails.

Suppose I am your customer and I signed up or even purchased something from you.

Now, when I created my account I elected to have emails sent to me in plain text format (that is my wish as a customer as I was given the option of text or html).

All of a sudden I am receiving html emails ....... you know what I would do? Cancel my order(s) and go somewhere else because this store does not respect my wishes :shocking:

Thanks for all this advices,

actually, I will send text email for order confirmations, changes of order status, etc... but I want to send html for newsletters (3 or 4 per year).
Concerning your point franck 18 : none of my customers choosed the html option which made me think that they just did not saw that this option was proposed. But still you're right, so I will check with my customer before sending the first newsletter if they agree to receive html email or not.
What about people looking at their emails on Iphone and the likes, I do not have one so I do not know if they can receive html emails, how much it cost to them, is it cheaper if I send them plain text...do anyone have any suggestion on this point ?

Thanks 4 all

A.

Akasashasha:

how much it cost to them, is it cheaper if I send them plain text...do anyone have any suggestion on this point ?
I think you're missing the point.. It's not about COST, it's about CHOICE, and you have usurped your customer's choice because you have assumed that 3000 people made the wrong choice.

If you are using Zen Cart's mailing list function, it supports both plain text and HTML newsletters. You should be creating two versions when you send out newsletters anyway. If you are using another newsletter service/program it too should support both plain text and HTML. By the way there is no reason you cannot include links/URLs in both formats..

What it sounds like you are wanting to create is e-mails with CLICK-ABLE links. If that is indeed what you are after, you should know that many e-mail clients turn off URLS/links and other web content in e-mails by default anyway. This allows the recipient to determine which URLs/links and content is safe. There is NOTHING you can do to control that.

My suggestion is to follow best practices, and create text and HTML formats for all your newsletters and let your customers decide how they wish to deal with your e-mails.