An open is not an open… 6 email analytics myths busted
One of the most common questions I get from small business owners trying to optimize these days is why so many people “open” their emails yet so few respond. But of course an email open isn’t necessarily an open. Unfortunately from open rates to click rates to text, email analytics are often labeled in ways that just doesn’t make it clear what they really do. So I’m here to clear up a few simple misconceptions and bad ideas.
1 – Open rates mean people chose to open my email.
Open rates are exactly what the name states – the number of people who opened your email. The problem of course is that the person does not have to be involved in the opening process for it to count. A user may have an email client that automatically downloads all of their messages and opens the images in them counting it as an open or they may see your subject and click it to click delete without ever actually loading the message. All that’s required for an open to be counted is that the tracking image is loaded when the images are downloaded.
Unfortunately there is no metric that insures someone actually reviewed the message rather than just had their computer “open” it.
2 – Open rates measure everyone who has read my message.
If you use Outlook 2003 or 2007, Google Mail, Yahoo Mail or just about any other new email program or service you’ve probably loaded messages to see a prompt saying that images have been disabled for your safety and you have to download them by clicking. Open rates are measured by the loading of images (or when someone clicks through your message for some providers) so if a user browses your message but never chooses to download it they wouldn’t count as an open. Furthermore some email clients don’t even display the possibility of images and the user just sees text (this is especially true for smartphone email clients) which means there’s absolutely no chance of registering an “open” until a click is made.
3 – Using fewer images will make my open rates more accurate.
As I mentioned before, an open is only counted when someone loads images. If all you have is a small logo or a couple of aesthetic images in a mostly text message there’s very little reason for anyone to download the images associated with the email and thus become an open. So while you want your messages to be legible and clear without images being loaded, you also want images to be important enough to the message that people have a reason to download them and trigger your tracking in the process. Your images need to add to the message to be used… having too many will make the message bulky and impossible to read without images being loaded but having too few will give the user no reason to load them at all.
4 – Images are a thing of the past. Everyone is going to text.
For a while the marketing buzz out there almost got me to believe we were going to see the end of images and HTML in email but so far that has not been the case and in fact, I’d argue that email is going more image heavy these days thanks to improved bandwidth and big brands doing more email. The truth is most consumers are going to shop using visual cues and while text may get delivered better it doesn’t show the product, the story or the experience nearly as well as images. Thus image emails are almost demanded (I’ve had customers ask me why we sent them a text campaign before) and despite the extra step many consumers are more than willing to open up images to get a better sense of the message. A picture is worth 1000 words even in email.
Of course don’t mistake this as an absolute. Some niches have seen much better responses from text only campaigns like those targeting blackberry users (b2b).
5 – Its either text or images, there’s no other option.
Emails don’t have to be sent in just one format and most email service providers have started forcing emails to be sent with text and html/ rich versions if a rich version is being used. By creating what’s known as a multi-part message your emails can be all done up for users with rich viewing clients yet also have a simple and completely separate text version for those using more restrictive systems or older mobile devices. Multi-part messages aren’t perfect as SPAM filters still see the HTML for their equations but it’s a great option for your users and something every email message should have setup.
6- Every email can be tracked to sale.
While email is one of the more contained means of online marketing where you really can tag every link don’t make the mistake of believing that everyone who sees your email uses those links to convert or at all. While many people do click, there have been a few studies showing that many people will simply surf to a site directly after seeing an email blast (and not always immediately) or just go to a store. And of course if you have other conversion options like a phone number there may be no reason for a click at all.
So there you have it, 6 myths you hopefully didn’t fall into but now know the truth about. Have more questions on email marketing analytics? Leave me a comment.
