diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a1a4f3a..81f34cd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -54,8 +54,11 @@ attachments:
 ---
 
 Campaign body goes here, in Markdown. It's sent to listmonk with
-content_type "markdown" — listmonk renders the HTML *and* derives the
-plaintext alternative itself.
+content_type "markdown" for the HTML part; listmonk never derives a
+plaintext alternative on its own, so this same source is also sent
+verbatim as `altbody` — recipients on plaintext-only clients see the
+raw Markdown (and personalization still resolves, since the `{{ }}`
+expressions are still there), rather than getting an HTML-only email.
 ```
 
 - **`subject`** — required.
diff --git a/internal/listmonk/listmonk.go b/internal/listmonk/listmonk.go
index 8387a14..9dae237 100644
--- a/internal/listmonk/listmonk.go
+++ b/internal/listmonk/listmonk.go
@@ -335,7 +335,17 @@ func (in CampaignInput) payload() map[string]any {
 		"lists":        in.ListIDs,
 		"content_type": "markdown",
 		"body":         in.Body,
-		"type":         in.Type,
+		// listmonk never derives a plaintext alternative from body/HTML on its
+		// own (models/campaigns.go only compiles AltBodyTpl, and
+		// internal/manager/message.go only emits a text/plain part, when
+		// altbody is explicitly non-null) — confirmed against the deployed
+		// v6.2.0 source. Reusing the same raw Markdown+template source as the
+		// altbody gets it personalized identically to body (AltBodyTpl compiles
+		// whenever the text contains {{ }} expressions), at the cost of
+		// Markdown syntax like *emphasis* showing up literally in plaintext
+		// clients — an acceptable, well-established tradeoff for Markdown.
+		"altbody": in.Body,
+		"type":    in.Type,
 		// listmonk's create/update handlers default an omitted messenger to
 		// "email" before validating, but the test-send handler validates the
 		// raw request body as-is — an omitted messenger there fails with