Question

Topic: E-Marketing

How Do "reading Panes" Affect Open Rates

Posted by melissa.paulik on 2/3/2011 at 9:13 AM ET 250 Points
Outlook has a reading pane view that allows the user to see and read an email without really opening it. You can even click on a link within the reading pane.

- If a recipient just reads the email in the reading pane, how do email marketing tools (e.g. Eloqua) count that, if at all?

- If the recipient clicks on a link within the reading pane, how does that change the way the tool counts it?

Melissa
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  • Posted by melissa.paulik on 2/3/2011 at 9:57 AM Author
    Aluceno, thanks for the explanation. In my Outlook reading pane, I automatically see the graphics. That must be a setup option.

    On a personal note, what that tells me is I've been bumping up the open rates for some folks that are just a touch short of being spammers in my book! No wonder they keep me on their list.

    Melissa



  • Posted by Mario R on 2/3/2011 at 11:58 AM Accepted
    If images load in the email, the email marketing service you use will count that as an "open". If no images load, some providers won't count that as an "open" even if the reader clicks on a link. That may seem counterintuitive but - some - providers choose to keep clicks and links separate for tracking purposes. Whichever service you use, I would ask them to clarify their policy.
  • Posted by arthursc on 2/4/2011 at 7:53 PM Accepted
    As aluceno and Mario explained, a 1 pixel image is included which is used to track opens. If images are not blocked, and a preview pane is used (and depending on which study you read, up to 80% of business users of Outlook use a preview pane), then the open rate is falsely inflated.

    If images are blocked then the open rate is deflated.

    Then there's mobile devices, which screw it all up.

    So as a metric open rates are notoriously unreliable. They have some value in troubleshooting, e.g., if the OR is way out of whack, something may have gone wrong, like delivery or rendering problems.

    In fact, there's a movement afoot to replace the Open Rate metric with Render Rate. Search that term and you'll find a number of articles and reports on the subject. I recommend reading them all.

    Bottom line is it's best to avoid making any major decisions on the Open Rate metrics.

    Ah, but having said all that, for those who are not affected by preview panes/image blocking/mobile, you still want to compel the open by paying attention to the From line and crafting the best subject line you can. Permit me a digression--many people do not spend enough time on the subject line. I write copy, and in some cases I have spent hours crafting it. Give it due diligence.

    And for those preview pane users, you still want to optimize the pane content to encourage full opens and of course clicks.

    There's lots of material out there on optimizing the preview pane. Some of the sites you visit in reading up on the Render Rate will also have good stuff on From and subject lines and pane optimization, and the most frequently used configurations of the pane (so you know where to put what). If you can't find any, let me know, I can send some info.
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