I want to find research data that shows the attitudes of people over
the age of 50 have when receiving marketing e-mails/e-newsletters. In
particular I am looking for information that will enable me to decide
if to use plain text or html e-mail. I am aware that you should give
the receipient of the e-mail a choice, but I would like to know if
there is any research that shows the preferences.

Hello, 50plus:
  Just a simple comment to tell you that you can send the newsletter
in both formats at the same time and the user can decide the format
when receives the newsletter. That is, the mail will contain HTML and
Text formats and depending on the user's mail client preferences will
see it on HTML or Text.

Regards.

Hi, 

I second joseleon's comment. If the email you are sending out is
properly formatted, then it won't make any difference. The top part of
the message is plain text and the bottom html or xhtml or what ever.
It doesn't matter. They will see what they have told their client to
show, and nothing more. That is, if it is properly formatted.

webadept-ga

Many businesses have their systems set to reject any email which
includes scripting, for fear of viruses.

And older people - like me - tend to stick to their old favourite
operating system, browser and email client as long as it still copes
with what they want to do - they don't upgrade for the sake of it.

So HTML needs to be very clean and fast-loading for them to bother to
wait for it. I tend to see HTML, think "advert" and hit delete.

50plus-ga,

I couldn't find any studies regarding the 50+ age group, but here are
a few things you might consider.  Here is an article on how broken
HTML emails lower response rates:
http://emailuniverse.com/list-news/2002/11/14.html

Here is an article specifically related to newsletters:
http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/insights/ectech/article/0,,10378_901371,00.html

There is an ongoing debate over HTML vs. plain text, and it won't be
settled anytime soon.  Personally, I think it is a Bad Thing to send
an HTML and text version of a message.  Sending both *more than
doubles* the bandwidth vs. plain text because you have two text
versions + the HTML markup.  People tend to think this is not an issue
because the download time for each individual is still not too much,
and high-speed Internet is becoming widely popular.  But the fact
remains that bandwidth costs, and you are burning more than twice the
bandwidth by sending HTML+text.

The vast majority of AOL users cannot properly view HTML emails.

If your audience actually wants your content (IOW, you aren't sending
unsolicited emails), and you want pretty formatting, you might
consider creating a newsletter on your website, and mailing the URL to
each new article along with a plain text summary of what is in the
current issue.

I'm 24 and all for new technology when it is beneficial, but I despise
HTML emails.  Most HTML emails are spam, and those that aren't are
usually sent by uninformed users who do not add anything but size to a
message by formatting it as HTML.  I have my email client set to
automatically convert HTML emails to text before I ever see them.  I
*never* have images automatically pulled down from the web unless I
know the source, because I don't want anyone being notified if and
when I open the message.  Most of the 50+ people I know are more
practical than the people I know who are in my age group.  Middle aged
people are typically not patient with technology, and get very annoyed
by such things as broken HTML emails...they aren't going to do
anything but delete them.  They want information, and don't need all
the bells and whistles that don't add to content just because it can
be done.

Real-life example:
My Mom (50 yrs old) used to get Lowe's Foods' weekly specials
automatically delivered to her inbox each week.  It was formatted as
plain text, and she loved it.  All she had to do was scroll through
and look at the product name and price.  She knows what a block of
cheese looks like...she doesn't need an image.  Then Lowe's changed to
HTML format.  Images of all the products, pretty formatting, etc.  She
despises it.  If I'm not mistaken, she doesn't even bother looking at
it anymore.

Just my 2-cents.  It's overpriced. :)
bikerman
Google Answers Researcher