Open rates are dead. It’s time to move on
Open rates were once a staple of email marketing. They gave brands a sense of how many people were “engaging” with their messages. But the issue is that open rates have always been flawed, and now they’re completely unreliable.
Why? Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). This feature preloads email content, artificially inflating open rates by making it look like people are engaging when they’re not. That means your “engagement data” is, at best, misleading, and at worst, meaningless. If you’re still using opens to measure email success, you’re making decisions on bad data.
Instead, real engagement is what happens after an email is opened. Clicks, website visits, purchases—those are the signals that matter. For seasonal businesses, this is even more critical. A customer who bought your product once but hasn’t opened an email in months isn’t necessarily disengaged. They might just be waiting for the right time to buy again.
The solution is to stop treating email engagement as a one-size-fits-all metric. Build better customer profiles based on actual intent—what they click, browse, and buy—not whether they trigger a false open. Companies that adapt will see better retention. Those that don’t will keep spamming customers with emails based on bad assumptions, driving unsubscribes instead of sales.
Accept that most emails don’t matter
Most marketers believe their emails are crucial. Reality check: They aren’t. Your customers are not waking up in the morning thinking, Can’t wait to see that email from this brand today!
That doesn’t mean email isn’t important. It means most emails aren’t valuable enough to demand attention. People don’t engage with every message, especially from brands they only buy from once in a while. Despite this, many companies still treat a drop in open rates or a few ignored emails as a crisis.
For seasonal businesses, this mindset is even more dangerous. If your product has a clear purchase cycle—say, winter gear or high-end electronics—you can’t expect year-round engagement. That doesn’t mean the customer is lost. They’re just not in buying mode yet.
The fix? Expand how you measure engagement. Instead of assuming every ignored email is a problem, track the behaviors that actually matter:
- Are customers clicking through to your site?
- Are they browsing but not buying?
- Are they engaging with your brand on other platforms?
Smart brands use this data to time their messaging right. Instead of annoying customers with constant “Are you still interested?” emails, they use behavior-driven triggers to reach them when they’re actually ready to buy.
Bad timing kills engagement
Re-engagement emails often fail because they land in inboxes at the worst possible time. Imagine waking up at 5:30 AM, grabbing your phone, and seeing an email asking if you still want to hear from a brand you bought from last year. Are you clicking that? No. You’re swiping left and deleting it.
Sending re-engagement emails without considering context is lazy marketing. It assumes that if a customer doesn’t click right away, they’re not interested. But people don’t check their email at random times hoping to buy something. They engage when they’re in the right mindset—and most automated re-engagement emails don’t account for that.
Here’s what smart companies do instead:
- Analyze behavioral patterns to see when customers actually engage, then send emails at those times.
- Use AI-driven scheduling that adapts to user activity instead of relying on pre-set time slots.
- Segment customers based on intent, not just past email opens.
“Email success is built through delivering them at just the right moment. Get this right, and your engagement rates climb. Get it wrong, and you’re just another delete in a crowded inbox.”
Automation is not “set and forget”
Marketing automation is one of the most powerful tools a business can use—when done right. But too many companies treat it like a one-time setup. They build workflows, set re-engagement triggers, and walk away. Then, months or years later, they wonder why their emails aren’t converting.
Here’s the problem: Bad automation builds on bad data. If your CRM is outdated, if engagement signals are based on open rates, or if segmentation hasn’t been updated, your automation is working against you.
Some common mistakes:
- Sending re-engagement emails to customers who just bought a product.
- Assuming lack of email activity means lack of interest.
- Using rigid, outdated segmentation that doesn’t reflect real buying behavior.
Fixing this isn’t complicated, but it requires regular audits of your automation system:
- Check your triggers—Are they based on meaningful actions, or just legacy open-rate data?
- Update your segmentation—Are customers still being grouped based on outdated behaviors?
- Test your messaging—Are your emails providing value, or just filling inbox space?
Automation works only if it evolves with customer behavior. If you’re still running old workflows with outdated engagement rules, you’re not automating marketing, and are instead automating failure.
Engagement can’t be forced
The best brands don’t beg for engagement. They create emails people actually want to open. Instead of sending generic “Do you still want to hear from us?” messages, they build value into every interaction.
How?
- Make emails worth opening—Exclusive offers, first-look deals, and genuinely interesting content win attention.
- Use behavior-driven triggers—Customers who visit your site but don’t buy should get different messages than those who haven’t engaged at all.
- Respect the customer’s buying cycle—Not everyone needs your product every week. Stop treating disengagement like disinterest.
Engagement is a result, not a request. If you have to ask customers if they still want to hear from you, you’ve already lost them. Focus on providing real value, and they’ll stick around—without the desperate emails.
Key executive takeaways
- Rethink engagement metrics: Relying on open rates is misleading due to privacy features like Apple MPP. Decision-makers should shift focus to clicks, website visits, and purchase behaviors for a more accurate view of customer intent.
- Embrace targeted segmentation: A one-size-fits-all re-engagement approach is ineffective, especially for seasonal buyers. Leaders should implement segmentation strategies that account for varied customer behaviors and purchase cycles.
- Optimize email timing: Poorly timed emails diminish engagement and can trigger unsubscribes. Prioritize data-driven scheduling to deliver messages when customers are most receptive, enhancing overall campaign performance.
- Audit automation systems: Outdated CRM data and static workflows lead to ineffective re-engagement efforts. Regular reviews and updates of automation processes are essential to align messaging with current customer behavior and market trends.
