Gmail's New Policy: How to Track Email Engagement Now | Be Uniic

Gmail has been a pain in the behind with its rules concerning deliverability and spam. Is it a good thing? A little bit, now our grandmas won’t get scammed. However, for those running email marketing campaigns, Google may have landed the final blow: as of this weekend, any email containing a tracking pixel will be flagged. This means tracking open rates is now a thing of the past. This isn’t just limited to cold outreach or prospecting emails – now it’ll affect every email you send through gmail.

First question we all have is why is Gmail doing this? Well, it’s a part of a broader effort by email service providers (ESPs) to reduce the amount of spam people receive and to increase overall user experience and engagement. When you shut down cold emails and other forms of unsolicited emails, ESPs push to cut down on how many emails we have to mark as spam or delete in our day-to-day inbox clean outs. However, this also means marketers now need to be creative and find a new way to track email engagement without getting flagged as a spam email account.

The New Reality: No More Open Rate Tracking

Open rates are usually what everyone gets caught up on when it comes to metrics specific to email marketing. Now, with Gmail flagging emails with tracking pixels, the metric is officially obsolete. For some, this is good. You don’t have to hide your crappy open rates. For others, this traditional approach to measuring engagement by tracking opens and replies is no longer reliable nor possible.

Not only does the tracking pixel affect your email, but so do links within your email, especially when paired with the tracking. So, what’s the best way to move forward with emails?

The Shift to What Matters: Reply Rates

Focuses need to shift from open rates to something far more valuable: reply rates. While open rates only indicate that someone saw your email, a reply tends to be the clearest indicator of engagement and overall interest.

Maximizing reply rates include a few strategies:

• Make Your Emails Text-Only: If you use a platform such as apollo.io, you’d realize that it isn’t like MailChimp or anything. It’s strictly text-only or text-based email creation – nothing fancy with headers or images. These types of emails come off as more personal and less “spammy,” but they also improve deliverability. By removing images, tracking pixels, and links, you’re more likely to not land in spam.
• Craft Personalized and Engaging Content: Without the tracking pixel in place, the content in your email becomes even more important. Focus on creating messages that resonate with your audience and encourage them to reply. Personalization is key now more than it ever has been. Show your recipient that you’ve done your homework and that your email isn’t just another generic pitch.
• Use Clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs): Push CTAs to be clear and make sure they’re easy to respond to. Ask direct questions or offer something valuable in return for a response.

Navigating the New Email Marketing Landscape

When you rely on open rates, you’re falling behind. Gmail’s new policy is a reminder that email marketing constantly evolves and you need to stay ahead. We need to adapt to new strategies. By focusing on reply rates and keeping your emails simple, personal, and text-only, you can continue to engage your audience effectively.

So, what now? It’s time to push what matters most: engagements that are meaningful. Shift your focus to reply rates, refine email content, and embrace the new rules of email marketing. The result? Better email open rates and engagement from an engaged audience.