On Track With Jack: Reconsider Email Attachments

Hello JangoMail Users!

Jack here reporting from the JangoMail headquarters. Today's tip comes from our support team:

Reconsider Email Attachments

When you have a large file to send, you may want to think twice about sending as an attachment. Ask yourself, "Is there a better way to get my message across?" Size and security are the two main deliverability issues that will prevent your subscribers from receiving your attached message.

There is a better way to incorporate files into your email marketing plan. Upload your assets to JangoMail and embed them within your email. For larger files, post to your website and create links within the body of your email. Encourage readers to click for more information.

Embedded links will not only increase traffic back to your site, but will also provide you with click tracking data throughout your email to see what your audience is interacting with the most.

Emails without attachments are also easier to access since downloading is not required. It sounds silly, but subscribers are usually on the go and this saves them a step. Convenience is key!

To recap:

• Attachments could cause deliverability issues.
• Email links encourage users to visit your website, which will increase traffic.
• You can track clicks throughout your email to see what your audience is interacting with most.
• Messages without attachments are easier for your recipients to access.  Your message is just a click away instead of taking additional steps to download.
• Are there times when attachments are needed? Of course. That's why we support them. Just remember to think twice before you send any attachments to make sure it's the right message for your audience!

If you need help with anything, like installing click tracking, please Contact Support.



Sincerely,

Jack the Jangolope
Department of Awesome
JangoMail

About Jack

Jack the Jangolope is our JangoMail mascot.  Each week, look for Jack's emails for marketing advice, trends, and quick tips on how to grow your email marketing plan to the fullest!  Hop into email marketing each week with Jack's helpful tips!

What is a Jangolope? Find out HERE

We want to hear from you. Remember, at JangoMail it's your email, your way.  Have a topic you would like Jack to cover?  Email us at marketing@jangomemail.com with the subject line: On Track With Jack.  Follow Jack on Facebook

An adjustment to how we calculate open rates

Tonight we've made a slight adjustment to how our system detects an "open" on a broadcast email campaign.

First, some background

Email marketing systems detect that an email has been opened by inserting a 1-pixel image at the bottom of the email message and waiting for that image to be downloaded from the server. Some email clients block images by default, and therefore they prevent email marketing systems like JangoMail from detecting the "open". If an email message can be understood by its recipient by not seeing the actual images, because perhaps there is enough text to explain the email message, then it's even more likely that the 1-pixel image won't be downloaded.

Therefore, we have always only counted an email as being "opened" if the 1-pixel image at the bottom of the email was downloaded, meaning that the recipient had viewed the email, and that images (even if there aren't any in the email body) are turned on.

New way to detect an open

We recently determined, however, that in many cases, a recipient may click a URL in an email (thus counting as a click), but never downloads the images in the email (thus NOT counting the open). And since clicking the email is indicative of also opening it, we've made the following change to Open Tracking:

If an email is clicked, but that recipient has not yet been counted as an "open" for that email campaign because images haven't been downloaded, the recipient now WILL get counted as an "open" anyway due to the click.
The net effect of this change is that you will now see higher Open Rates, and the Open Rates will be more accurate and reflective of what recipients are actually doing with the email message.

How much of a difference does this make?

Our analysis shows that this makes a big difference. For a recent email campaign we did to a segment of our own customers, these were the statistics in Reporting:

Recipients: 6,369
Unique Opens: 993 (15.6%)
Unique Clicks: 384 (6.0%)

An analysis of the data showed that there were 118 unique recipients that clicked that never registered as having opened the email. So if we add the 118 to 993, that's now a total of 1,111 opens, for an actual open rate of 17.4% instead of 15.6%.