There are many metrics to consider when evaluating your email campaigns performance - open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, ROI etc. While open rates are normally the first stat to be reviewed, they aren't necessarily the most important - however, improving your open rates can help improve your other metrics.
When is an email "open"?
In general, email open rates have been falling for most companies for quite some time. This trend doesn't necessarily mean that fewer people are actually opening emails. A considerable factor in the decline of open rates is the image blocking used by many of the leading email clients.
In order for an "open" to be accurately reported by an email marketing service provider, an image (usually 1px by 1px and transparent) needs to be displayed. By "displayed", I mean that it needs to be loaded into the email - the calling of this image from the email service providers web server indicates the email has been opened. If the image is not downloaded from the server, the email is not counted as "open", even though the recipient can still see and read all of the text-based content in the email.
So, with many email clients now blocking images by default, you can see how easy it is for your email not to count as an "open". You need to rely on the recipient to actually "download images" to view your email before it is counted as a real "open". Whilst this may seem like it is actually reducing your "open" rates, it also means that only the people who really read your emails are being counted as opens - so this could mean we're simply seeing more accurate figures thesedays!
Another thing to consider...
The position of the 1px image from the email service provider is another consideration - whether it is at the top of the email, or the bottom. Let's take this example - a recipient receives an email and doesn't have image blocking on, they click on your email and quickly move to the next one, only very briefly viewing the email in the preview pane. In this example, it is likely that an email with the 1px image at the top will count as an "open" when in fact it shouldn't - and an email with the 1px image at the bottom wouldn't count as an "open".
So, not only do you need to consider image blocking, but the position of the 1px image also plays a factor in your open rate statistics. If you would like any help to understand your email reports, please don't hesitate to give us a call on 1300 557 330.
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