0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign? 7 Possible Reasons + Best Fixes
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2024 4:19 am
So you sent an email campaign and when you checked the stats, you had a 0% open rate. You’re here because you’re wondering how that’s possible.
Because really, it’s almost impossible to do. So congrats?
Odds are your 0% open rate is the result of a technical issue, not unilateral indifference from every single recipient on your list.
In this article, we’ll discuss why a 0% open rate is highly iceland phone number material unlikely (outside of a technical issue). We’ll also cover the possible reasons why your campaign netted that hot zero, and discuss fixes for each of those issues. And finally, we’ll go over some ways to prevent a 0% open rate — or anything even close to that low watermark — in the future.
0% Open Rate Troubleshooting: Table of Contents
Why a 0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign Is Unlikely Unless There’s a Technical Issue
7 Possible Reasons Your Campaign Had a 0% Open Rate
10 Preventative Steps to Avoid 0% Open Rates (and Low Open Rates) in the Future
Why a 0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign is Unlikely Unless There’s a Technical Issue
Good (?) news: Your 0% open rate is probably because of something you did, not something you said. It’s not because your subject line flopped or every recipient saw your name in their inbox and thought, “Yeah… hard pass.”
Here are the two main reasons why your 0% open rate is probably due to a technical issue.
Gmail tests campaigns by placing it in both inboxes and spam folders
Gmail may be pretty sure you’re sending spam. Almost positive. But they won’t condemn every one of your emails to the spam folder initially. If Gmail is suspicious, they’ll place some emails in inboxes and some in spam to see how people react.
You should get at least a few opens from that.
And even if every message in your campaign goes to spam, you’re still not looking at a guarantee of a 0% open rate. Someone out there could notice your campaign in their spam folder, mark it as “Not spam,” then open it and trigger the open tracking pixel.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection is out there in the wild automatically opening emails
In fall of 2021, Apple introduced a new default feature called Mail Privacy Protection for their Mail app on iOS and macOS. And a major part of that feature is Apple automatically “opens” every email (by downloading it to their own proxy servers).
That’s falsely inflating open rates (at least to some degree), which can be frustrating to cold emailers and email marketers. But for the purposes of this article — it’s quite helpful. After all, even if no people are opening your campaign, someone on your list has to be using Apple’s Mail app on
Because really, it’s almost impossible to do. So congrats?
Odds are your 0% open rate is the result of a technical issue, not unilateral indifference from every single recipient on your list.
In this article, we’ll discuss why a 0% open rate is highly iceland phone number material unlikely (outside of a technical issue). We’ll also cover the possible reasons why your campaign netted that hot zero, and discuss fixes for each of those issues. And finally, we’ll go over some ways to prevent a 0% open rate — or anything even close to that low watermark — in the future.
0% Open Rate Troubleshooting: Table of Contents
Why a 0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign Is Unlikely Unless There’s a Technical Issue
7 Possible Reasons Your Campaign Had a 0% Open Rate
10 Preventative Steps to Avoid 0% Open Rates (and Low Open Rates) in the Future
Why a 0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign is Unlikely Unless There’s a Technical Issue
Good (?) news: Your 0% open rate is probably because of something you did, not something you said. It’s not because your subject line flopped or every recipient saw your name in their inbox and thought, “Yeah… hard pass.”
Here are the two main reasons why your 0% open rate is probably due to a technical issue.
Gmail tests campaigns by placing it in both inboxes and spam folders
Gmail may be pretty sure you’re sending spam. Almost positive. But they won’t condemn every one of your emails to the spam folder initially. If Gmail is suspicious, they’ll place some emails in inboxes and some in spam to see how people react.
You should get at least a few opens from that.
And even if every message in your campaign goes to spam, you’re still not looking at a guarantee of a 0% open rate. Someone out there could notice your campaign in their spam folder, mark it as “Not spam,” then open it and trigger the open tracking pixel.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection is out there in the wild automatically opening emails
In fall of 2021, Apple introduced a new default feature called Mail Privacy Protection for their Mail app on iOS and macOS. And a major part of that feature is Apple automatically “opens” every email (by downloading it to their own proxy servers).
That’s falsely inflating open rates (at least to some degree), which can be frustrating to cold emailers and email marketers. But for the purposes of this article — it’s quite helpful. After all, even if no people are opening your campaign, someone on your list has to be using Apple’s Mail app on