Why did my email open rate drop? A Klaviyo checklist

Is a drop in open rate actually a problem?

Not always. Open rate is one of the least reliable numbers in your account.

Across 4 consumable brands and 2,897 campaigns, the correlation between open rate and revenue was 0.32. For click rate it was 0.65. For one of those brands, open rate was negatively related to revenue. Apple's automatic opens pushed some segments past an 85% open rate, which tells you how much of that number isn't people reading.

So before you rewrite subject lines, ask the question that matters: did clicks and revenue per recipient drop too? If you need the full breakdown of these two numbers, read open rate vs click rate.

Step 1: Did your click rate drop too?

Put the last few weeks of campaigns side by side and compare opens and clicks.

• Opens down, clicks steady: most likely a measurement or audience change. Keep going through the checklist, but don't rebuild anything yet.
• Opens and clicks both down: something real changed. Either fewer people are seeing your emails, or the people you're sending to care less. Go to step 2.
• Opens steady, clicks down: that's a content or offer problem, not a deliverability one.

For flows, compare each email to its own history. Klaviyo's published averages put flow open rates well above campaign open rates, so mixing the two will hide a change.

Step 2: Is one inbox provider dropping off?

This is the check I'd run first if Gmail seems to be burying your emails. Look at Klaviyo's deliverability by inbox provider for major dropoffs compared with the other providers.

In Klaviyo, go to Analytics > Deliverability > Email > Reports and set the category to "Inbox Provider." For a single campaign, open its Deliverability tab and look at "Performance by inbox provider."

What you're looking for:

• Gmail's opens and clicks fell while Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple held steady. That's a Gmail placement problem.
• Every provider dropped by about the same amount. That points back to your audience or your content, not one inbox.

Klaviyo's help center flags opens under 27% and clicks under 0.8% as "needs attention" on the campaign Deliverability tab. Use those as a rough line, but your own history is the better comparison. Full walkthrough in how to read Klaviyo's deliverability report by inbox provider.

Step 3: Did your Apple audience change?

Klaviyo's help center explains that when Apple Mail Privacy Protection is on, every image in the email loads ahead of time, whether the person opens it or not. That logs an open that may not be real and inflates your open rate.

That cuts both ways. If you send to fewer Apple Mail users this month, because of a new segment, a list cleanup or new signups from a different source, your open rate can drop without anyone reading less.

How to check:

• Klaviyo adds an "Apple Privacy Open" property to Opened Email events (from November 20, 2021 on).
• In a segment, filter "Opened Email where Apple Privacy Open is false" to see opens that weren't flagged as automatic.
• Klaviyo recommends using clicks and non-Apple-privacy opens as your engagement signals.

Step 4: Did you change who you're sending to?

Audience is the biggest lever on open rate. Send to more unengaged people and your open rate falls. Send to fewer, more engaged people and it climbs.

A flavored diffuser brand tightened its audiences and its open rate went from 22% to 44%. Same brand, same kind of emails, different list.

Check whether any of these changed around the time of the drop:

• You started sending campaigns to your full list instead of an engaged segment.
• You imported a list, ran a giveaway, or added a big batch of cold signups.
• You changed the engaged segment's time window.

If you're restarting sends to a list you've neglected, ramp up instead of blasting. I'd go in this order: people who opened with Apple privacy disabled, consistent clickers, then regular openers. Then over a month or two, keep sending to 60 and 90-day openers and all-time openers, and compare the open and click rates of the larger segments against the newer ones.

Step 5: Are bounces or spam complaints climbing?

Rising bounces and complaints are what get you filtered. Klaviyo's healthy ranges on the Deliverability tab:

• Bounce rate: 1% or lower is healthy. Over 2% needs attention.
• Spam complaint rate: 0.01% or lower is healthy. Over 0.05% needs attention.
• Unsubscribe rate: 0.3% or lower is healthy. Over 1% needs attention.

Klaviyo's help center also notes that Gmail doesn't report spam complaints back to Klaviyo, so your Gmail complaint rate lives in Google Postmaster Tools. Klaviyo suggests checking Postmaster Tools weekly.

If you're seeing suppressions pile up, here's what Klaviyo's suppressed profiles mean. If you think it's spam placement, go to why your Klaviyo emails are going to spam.

Step 6: Did you land in Promotions, and does it matter?

Probably less than you think. Promotions is a reflection of how you've performed with your list, not a penalty. If your Gmail clicks are in line with your other providers, people are still finding and reading your emails there.

More on that in the Gmail Promotions tab.

FAQ

WRITTEN BY Jack White

Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.

Instagram @jackintheinbox LinkedIn