Treat Gmail opens since mid-December as counted differently, not as new interest. Ignore the location and device Gmail opens show, judge issues by clicks and visits, and put every important word in text, not pictures.

December's report looked different

A local shop's December newsletter report shows more Gmail readers opening it than ever before, and a map that puts a cluster of them in California.

The shop has not gained a following in California, and its readers did not suddenly grow keener. Gmail changed how it shows pictures, and the report is measuring that change.

What Gmail changed in December

On December 12, Google said Gmail would show images in messages automatically, instead of asking each reader whether to display them.

Google's own servers now fetch each picture from the sender's server and keep a copy. The reader's browser loads Google's copy, not the original.

For the reader, little seems different: pictures simply appear. For the sender, every Gmail open now passes through Google first, and that is what changes the report.

The change started with Gmail in a browser on a computer. Readers who prefer the old way can turn on a setting that asks before showing images.

What a mailing report now shows

A mailing service records an open each time a small hidden picture in the message is requested from its server. The proxy changes what that request can say about Gmail readers:

Clicks are not affected. A click goes from the reader's own browser to your link, so it still carries the reader's own location and device.

Opens that were always there

Before December, a Gmail reader who read the text and never showed the images was never counted as an open unless they clicked a link. Many of those readers were there all along.

Now their images load, so their opens register. The open rate for Gmail readers can look better than last autumn's without a single reader changing habits.

Treat mid-December as a break in the series. Compare later mailings with each other, not with the months before, and lean on clicks, which this change did not touch.

Location and device, for Gmail readers

A report that maps where readers opened the newsletter now places Gmail readers where Google's servers are. For a local business, that is a cluster of readers somewhere it has never served.

The device and mail program columns lose those readers too. A report suggesting that few people read on phones may simply be missing every Gmail reader.

For questions such as where readers live or whether they use phones, look at clicks and at the visits those clicks bring to the website. Do not choose a neighbourhood to advertise in from that map.

Counting visits from each issue

Links in a newsletter can carry campaign tags, short additions to the address that tell Google Analytics which mailing a visit came from.

Each issue then appears in Analytics as its own line, with the visits, the pages read and any purchases. None of that depends on a picture loading.

Words inside pictures

Some newsletters are one large designed picture, with the offer, the dates and the address lettered into it. In Gmail on a computer, that picture now appears without a click.

That does not make the design safe. Outlook on many office computers still holds pictures back until the reader allows them, and so do other mail programs, which show an empty frame instead.

Words inside a picture also cannot be searched in the mailbox, copied, or read aloud by a screen reader. On a phone, the whole picture shrinks, and its lettering with it.

A worked example

A frozen yogurt shop near a university campus sends a newsletter every two weeks to customers who gave their address at the counter. Most subscribers use Gmail or the university's own mail.

Each issue was a single designed picture: the flavour of the week, a coupon code and the hours, all lettered into the image.

December's report showed opens from Gmail readers far above anything before, and a map placing many readers in California. Subscribers reading in Outlook on campus saw an empty frame unless they clicked.

The coupon code could not be copied or found by searching, because it was part of the picture.

The newsletter now opens with a short line of text naming the offer, with the dates, the code and the address in text below. The flavour photograph has a description that names the offer.

The shop judges each issue by clicks to its coupon page and codes used at the till. Neither depends on whether a picture loaded.

Write the important words as text

Put the headline, the offer, the dates, any code and the address in text. Use pictures for photographs, and give each a short description of what it shows.

Many mail programs that hold pictures back show those descriptions in their place, so a reader still learns what the newsletter is about.

A line of text at the top also gives the inbox something to show beside the subject line, where an image-only issue shows nothing.

Keep the layout narrow enough to read on a phone without zooming, with type large enough to read at arm's length.

The counter-case

Where most subscribers read on company addresses, with few on Gmail, the reports will barely change.

A newsletter judged by sales, bookings or replies rather than opens never depended much on the open count in the first place.

But words inside pictures fail readers on every list, in every mail program that holds pictures back, and Gmail's change does nothing for them.

Newsletters after December 12

  1. Mark December 12 on your mailing reports.
  2. Compare issues sent after that date only with each other.
  3. Judge each issue by clicks and website visits.
  4. Ignore Gmail locations and devices in the report.
  5. Move the offer and the dates out of pictures and into text.
  6. Describe every picture in a few words.
  7. Preview the issue with pictures turned off.

Step seven shows the problem in a minute. Whatever is left on screen with pictures turned off is what many readers outside Gmail still receive.

The same caution about numbers that say less than they seem runs through LinkedIn endorsements for skills you never listed, where forty endorsements sit on the wrong skill.

Frequently asked questions

What did Gmail change in December?

It began showing images in messages automatically, fetching them through Google's own servers and keeping a copy, instead of asking each reader whether to display them.

Why do Gmail open counts look higher?

An open is counted when an image loads. Gmail readers who never showed images were never counted before; now their images load, so their opens register.

Why does my report show readers in California?

Google's servers fetch the images, so the report records their location rather than the reader's. Clicks still come from the reader's own browser and location.

Are repeat opens still counted?

Less reliably. Google keeps its own copy of each image, so a second look at the same message may never reach the mailing service at all.

Is it now safe to send the newsletter as one picture?

No. Outlook and other mail programs still hold pictures back until the reader allows them, and words inside a picture cannot be searched, copied or read aloud.

What should I measure instead of opens?

Clicks on the newsletter's links, visits from tagged links in Google Analytics, replies and offers redeemed. Each comes from a reader's own action, not an image loading.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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