Today I had a meeting at a company where I saw a MailChimp report.  The mail was sent to a database of 38k users and the report showed that only 9k opened and the rest remain Unopened. The mail was sent two weeks ago.

I personally think it’s very low the percentage (22%) of people who opened the mail considering it was sent two weeks ago. The person in charge of this department argues that this is normal or common this  percentage of opened mails. I disagree.

I would like to know your opinions about this and what do you think it can be affecting this low response of opened mail considering the message was sent to 38k users.

Thanks!

Hi @fernandocortes 

From my own experience and information I’ve read they are correct in saying that 22% is not a bad percentage.  But this is a percentage of known opens. See links and text below for a better explanation.

http://mailchimp.com/resources/research/email-marketing-benchmarks-by-industry/

http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/can-i-track-who-didnt-open-a-campaign/

Notes About the Who Didn’t Open Report (per Mailchimp see links above)

Some marketers like to know who didn’t open, because they can send a follow up email to them with a modified offer, or they can contact those recipients offline instead.

Before you do stuff like that, you should understand a few things:This report is NOT 100% perfect. If you send any followup campaigns, always assume that there’s a slight chance that these people actually did open your emails. Here’s why…

• We generate this report by using our open-tracking system. Open tracking is based on whether or not someone downloaded a tiny, invisible tracking graphic that we place at the bottom of your email. If that graphic wasn’t downloaded, we assume they did not open the email.
• If someone viewed your email with “images turned off” in their email application, we cannot track the open. They will be on the “did not open list” because the tracking image wasn’t downloaded, even though they did in fact open your email.
• If someone opened your email with images turned off, the tracking graphic obviously won’t work. However, if they happen to click on one of your links, we do register that as an “open.”
• Don’t react on these numbers too quickly. Some people take a few days before getting around to reading their email. Give everyone enough time to get a chance to open your email. We recommend at least 4 or 5 days.

With all this in mind it’s worth pointing out many email clients do not download images unless you specify it’s either ok for current email or all emails from that address.  Outlook can be set up this way, Gmail and AOL both operate this way. So rest assure there are emails being opened, but not counted.

Hope this explanation was helpful:)Jules

“If someone viewed your email with “images turned off” in their email application, we cannot track the open.” 
That really surprises me! And seems a silly way to track email opens. Although I am no expert on how these things work. 
Thanks for the info @juleswebb

Russ

Hi Everyone,

I use MailChimp for my clients and I don’t even pay attention to the “open” numbers. Here’s why….

1. If an email is viewed on a mobile device, it does not register as an open for MailChimp or Constant Contact. (I’ve tested this myself and it’s true.) Depending on your demographic, your customers may be heavy mobile users and so you may see a low open rate. (one of my clients customers are 20 – 30 yo and she has a very low open rate. We know this is false data because people utilize her email coupons, via their phone quite frequently.)

2. If someone utilizes a preview pane for their email this will not register as an open. They’ve seen it, they’ve read it, but they haven’t “opened” it according to MailChimp and Constant Contact. Outlook is notorious for preview panes.

IMHO – Tracking click throughs are a much more reliable tool. I liberally sprinkle links throughout my email blasts and newsletters. I track which links my click throughs come from and focus on giving people more of that type of information in the email. For example; I have a client, a children’s gym, which sends out weekly emails. I carefully watch which of the “permanent” links we’ve embedded in the newsletter to know what specials to run and points to emphasize. If I have a lot of people clicking through on the birthday party link, but her birthday party reservations haven’t gone up, then we run a birthday party special. (There’s interest, but something has prevented these interested people from taking action. So I want to bring the price point of entry down.) 

One of the things I tell my clients is that it doesn’t matter your open rate if people aren’t utilizing your services once they open your email. Who cares if you only get a 22% open rate… how many clients/customers did you get from the email blast is the accurate question. 

I didn’t know that MailChimp tracking was imbedded in the html image. Thanks for that info.

Sorry for the long winded answers… I just LOVE this stuff!!!!!

My Pleasure! Eep Eep