Your latest newsletter shows an impressive open rate on the dashboard. Yet nobody replied, the link to the new service got a handful of clicks, and the phone did not ring any more than usual. Or the opposite: a campaign you know people read, because they mentioned it in the shop, shows a disappointing number.
Both are normal, because the email open rate no longer measures what its name suggests. This guide explains how an open is recorded, why the figure is now inflated for some readers and missing for others, what the number is still good for, and which signals to rely on instead.
How an open is recorded
An email cannot report back on its own. To count opens, the platform adds a tiny invisible image to each email, with an address unique to that recipient. When the recipient’s mail app loads that image from the platform’s server, the platform records an open.
So an “open” really means “the tracking image was downloaded”. For years that was a fair stand-in for “someone looked at the email”, because images usually loaded when a person opened the message. That link has weakened.
Why opens are counted when nobody read anything
Several things now download the tracking image without a person reading the email.
- Privacy features in mail apps. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, which users can switch on, downloads email content, images included, through Apple’s servers in the background. That registers an open for many messages whether or not anyone looked at them, and it hides the reader’s location and device.
- Image proxies. Gmail and other providers fetch images through their own servers. This mostly still reflects real opens, but caching can blur repeat opens and the time they happened.
- Security scanners. Many business mail systems scan incoming email, sometimes loading images and even following links, before a person ever sees it. These can show up as opens, and as clicks.
The effect: a list with many readers using Apple Mail, or many corporate addresses, can show a high open rate that has little to do with attention.
Why real reads go uncounted
The opposite happens as well.
- Some people and some mail apps block remote images by default. Someone can read every word of a mostly-text email without the tracking image ever loading.
- Plain-text emails have no image to load, so their opens cannot be tracked at all.
- Some readers see enough in the preview pane or the notification to get the message, such as “closed on Friday”, without fully opening it.
So the open rate is both too high and too low, by amounts you cannot know, and the balance changes as your list changes.
What the email open rate is still good for
It is not useless. Treated as a rough indicator rather than a count of readers, it can still help.
- Trends on the same list. A steady figure month after month, followed by a sudden sharp drop, is a warning sign worth checking. It can mean mail has started going to spam at one provider.
- Comparison between providers. If opens from Gmail addresses suddenly fall while others stay level, look at your reputation with Gmail specifically.
- Spotting addresses with no activity at all. A subscriber with no recorded opens and no clicks over a long period is probably not reading, though you should look at clicks before acting.
What it cannot do is tell you who read your email, how many people read it, or whether a subject line was better than another.
Signals that are harder to fake
Clicks
A click means someone, or something, followed a link. Security scanners can add false clicks, especially on business addresses, but clicks are still far closer to real interest than opens. Look at which links got clicked, not only how many clicks in total. That tells you what your readers care about.
If you suspect scanner clicks, look for patterns: every link in an email clicked within moments of delivery, from the same address, is usually a machine.
Replies
No machine writes “Do you have this in blue?”. Replies are the most honest sign that an email was read and mattered. Invite them, make sure the reply-to address reaches a real inbox, and keep a rough tally.
What happened on your website
Add campaign tags to the links in each email, so visits from it are labelled in your website analytics. Then you can see whether newsletter visitors went on to enquire, book or buy. Our free UTM link builder makes the tagged links.
Unsubscribes and spam complaints
These are reliable because a person had to act. A rise after a particular email tells you something about its content or timing.
The full set of numbers worth tracking, and a simple way to report them, is in our guide to measuring email campaigns.
Features that quietly depend on opens
Some platform features rely on open tracking, which means they inherit its problems. Use them with care.
- Subject line A/B tests judged by opens. The automatic opens can pick the “winner” for you. Choose clicks as the deciding measure if your platform lets you.
- Re-engagement and clean-up rules based on opens. Someone with Apple’s privacy feature switched on may look active forever, while a careful reader who blocks images may look inactive. Base these rules on clicks, purchases and replies as well. Our guide on removing inactive subscribers explains how.
- Send-time optimisation. If it learns from open times, and those times reflect a server fetching the email rather than a person reading it, the suggested time may be meaningless.
- Automations triggered by “opened” or “did not open”. Prefer triggers based on clicks.
Changing what you report
If you send a monthly summary to yourself, a partner or a client, move the open rate down the page and label it as approximate. Lead with:
- Enquiries, bookings or orders that came from email.
- Clicks, and the links that got them.
- Replies.
- Unsubscribes and complaints.
- List growth.
If someone reporting to you, an agency or a freelancer, leads with open rates and nothing else, ask what happened after the opens. It is a fair question.
Subject lines are still worth writing well, even though opens cannot reliably prove it; our guide to honest subject lines covers how. For where measurement fits in the overall plan, see our small business email marketing guide, while the digital marketing services overview explains why every platform’s own numbers, not just email’s, should be checked against real enquiries.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn off open tracking completely?
Many platforms let you switch it off for a campaign or the whole account. Some businesses do, for privacy reasons or because they no longer trust the figure. Before you do, check whether any automations, list clean-up rules or reports depend on opens, and switch those to clicks first.
Why did my open rate jump suddenly?
Often because more of your subscribers now use a mail app with a privacy feature that loads emails automatically, or because more business addresses with scanners have joined. A jump without a matching rise in clicks or replies is almost certainly automatic opens, not new readers.
Are clicks affected by the same problem?
Less so, but not entirely. Security systems at some companies follow links to check them, which can register clicks nobody made. These are usually easy to spot because every link is clicked within moments of delivery. Real clicks are spread out and favour particular links.
Is it worth comparing my open rate with published industry averages?
Not much. Averages mix lists with very different mail apps, countries and types of address, and the automatic opens distort them in ways you cannot adjust for. Compare your own figures over time instead, and give more weight to clicks, replies and enquiries.
If your email reports lean on open rates and you want a clearer view of what newsletters do for the business, our email marketing services include tagged links and plain monthly reporting.
Next in this series: Email List Segmentation for a Small Business
