Email Campaign Open rate dropped in April 2024

Hi @Ramyaa 

Thank you for posting your question in the community.

A drop in open rate could be caused by a variety of factors. 

Linking out to different websites shouldn’t necessarily cause your open rates to fall, especially with the new sender requirements, as long as your emails are configured to meet the sender requirements:

• DMARC policy has been setup
• You’ve set up a dedicated sending domain
• Your “Friendly” from address is using your domain vs. a gmail/yahoo email address
• Your messages include an easy unsubscribe link, header unsubscribe (Klaviyo is apply this automatically)
• And your spam rates are low (<0.01%) on average

That said, content in your emails could be a factor. For example, if you are constantly sending the same type of message to the same audience, it can get fatigued. Or, if you are constantly using the same type of subject line, that can get fatigued. You should send your subscribers a variety of different message types while also AB testing what resonates best with your audience.

Separately, your audience is going to play a big role in your open rates. If you are sending to a large list and not targeting based on recency of engagement, this will bring your open rates down. You want to send to your most engaged users the most, and then send to a wider audience a few times a month. Be mindful of how your list is engaging (opening, clicking, active on site, viewing products, etc. and incorporate that into your segments. 

You also need to watch your unsubscribe, bounce, and spam rates closely. If you see unsubscribes going up, this is an indicator that you are sending too often or your content isn’t as relevant to all subscribers. If Gmail, for example, sees more people unsubscribing, they may send your messages to the junk folder. If you are constantly sending to addresses the bounce, that will hurt your reputation, and you’ll go to the junk folder. If this happens more overtime, your messages may get blocked which is where you’ll see spikes in Bounce rate. 

While there are some filters that look at text-to-image ratios, that is not as big of a factor as your segmentation and keeping an eye on performance to make sure you are optimizing your messages over time to make sure your users want to receive them and engage with them.

If you are seeing lower open rates, assess some of these factors like your segments, cadence, content, and start running some tests to improve those performance. 

I hope this gives you some ideas of where to look and what to start to asses for improvement.

Best

@In the Inbox