RIP: Open Rates
The way open rates are measured is dead. The logic simply isn’t accurate anymore. And the reason why it doesn’t work in 2009 is that most ISPs prevent images from rendering by default.
For those who are unaware, an “open” for an email send is marked as such when a small 1x1 transparent image is displayed by the end user. The problem is that now most people don’t change their email preferences to allow images to display. This was an accurate way to represent an open years ago—before spammers inundated inboxes with embedded images in their emails. And because of spammers, ISPs cracked down and began blocking images by default. At this point, the open rate as we knew it became obsolete and out-dated.
The EEC has an on-going discussion on what to do about this issue for email marketers. They believe that a standardization between ESPs and marketers alike is the first step in clarify the issue, and I couldn’t agree more. Sure, someone can open an email, click a link, go to a landing page and buy something—all the while never displaying an image—and it still won’t count as an “open”. The old-school logic of an “open rate” will now be called a “render rate”—which is a much more accurate description of what’s actually happening.
But how long will it take for all of this to be digested and adopted across the board? Well, I for one hope it happens sooner than later. The EEC wants your feedback on this issue. Read more about it by downloading the “Email Render Rate” whitepaper here.
Stay tuned for further developments on render rates and their industry-wide adoptions.
Posted by MindComet on Mar. 13, 2009
Comments
thanks for this post! good stuff.<BR><BR>the Open rate has bitten me a few times in the past because my reports show such a LOW open rate…and I know it’s because Outlook and other email clients are not displaying images by default…which is a good thing, for other reason!<BR><BR>i agree. i hope things change to “Render Rate”.
Posted by Jeff T on 03/26/2009 12:08 PM
Matt: I do agree with you on those points, although the “single image” email is still prevalent with certain companies who “don’t get” email marketing. As far as I can tell, it’s specific to clothing companies.<BR><BR>Maybe those who consistently render your emails (since they are actually interested in seeing the images and your ENTIRE message) should be segmented into a separate list that provides them with exclusive offers and incentives?<BR><BR>At any rate, the vendors really do need to standardize their means of capturing and determining certain data—especially opens.<BR><BR>Jeff: On second thought, I don’t think open rates will ever go away… So I retract my opening sentence of “The way open rates are measured is dead”. I’d like to see users / statistics being broken down into 3 or 4 tiers:<BR><BR>lax users: no-render no-click<BR>average users: render, no-click<BR>average users: no-render, click<BR>active users: render, click<BR><BR>What do you think?
Posted by MindComet on 03/27/2009 11:36 AM
I disagree - Open Rates are still important. Image blocking did several great things for the email marketing industry: <BR><BR>1 - Prevented the drive by open causing inflated rates<BR>2 - Forced better design and coding into email standards<BR>3 - Forced (most) mailers to move away from single image emails<BR>4 - Allowed a more accurate view of who actually wants to see your images<BR><BR>The render rate wont resolve this issue as much as people hope… the issue is non-standard reporting from vendor to vendor. Fixing this will go a lot further then creating new, unknown, unfamiliar, and just as inaccurate data points.<BR><BR>Matt<BR>@emailkarma
Posted by Matt V - @emailkamra on 03/19/2009 11:27 AM