A lot of people have asked about open rates recently as most open rates are in decline. They wondered if they had been over emailing their subscribers, is there a problem with our deliverability? Are people just sick of receiving marketing emails?

The answer is no!

All ESPs measure open rates when someone downloads images. In the last couple of years the rise of hand held devices has been phenomenal, and most hand held devices receive plain text emails. So if one of your subscribers receives a plain text email, they won’t be counted in the open report.

Couple that with some of the ISPs re-launching their email services with the fact that images are routinely suppressed as a default setting and you can see where the dip in open rates comes in.

The last thing to take into consideration is that email design itself has come full circle to accommodate the fact the images are routinely suppressed. A good HTML email will not only be well branded without relying on images, you should be able to read all the copy and click through all the links without downloading images thus people can interact with your email, just never show up on your open report. Images in emails should only be used to support the creative and not be the creative.

So if you notice your open rate has dropped over the last year, don’t panic. As long as you are sending timely, relevant communications to people who have opted in to receive them then it’s likely one of the above will explain your dropping open rate.