Email Opens Are Not Dead: What's Changed and What Hasn't

Email opens have never been an incredibly accurate metric, and Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) made it even more difficult. ESPs handle Apple auto opens in one of three ways; reporting all opens, reporting reliable opens only, or by calculating an adjusted open rate. Opens are still useful for understanding campaign engagement, measuring click-to-open rates, recognizing deliverability problems, and managing subscriber inactivity.

MPP has changed how marketers use opens, such as subject line optimization and send time optimization no longer relying on open rates. Open-triggered journeys are no longer viable, but alternatives exist. The impact of Apple's Link Tracking Protection (LTP) on email marketers will likely be negligible.

Although open rates have become more difficult to measure, they can still be useful for understanding campaign engagement, deliverability, and subscriber inactivity. There are alternatives to open-triggered journeys, and LTP is not expected to have a major impact on email marketers.