Do you have non-human interactions within your email campaigns?

With email providers like Google and Yahoo enforcing updated expectations for deliverability, opt-ins, and privacy and Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), many marketers are noticing a change in metrics within their email campaigns. While these changes are great news for consumers, as marketers they bring new challenges into how you are tracking the success of your campaigns.

You may have noticed unexpected increases in engagement in your email campaigns. Privacy and security software, which we refer to as non-human interactions, can influence a change in open or click rates. This increase in non-human interactions isn’t specific to Marigold, our products, or even a specific industry or region. It’s safe to say that anyone utilizing email as part of a digital marketing strategy is experiencing this shift.

Most importantly, non-human engagement isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it just means you may want additional insights to best understand campaign impact and performance.

At Marigold, we’re working to ensure our customers and partners have the tools and resources to understand these changes and make even more informed, data-driven decisions as marketers.

Let’s start with email opens. Open data has been one of the essential metrics for marketers since the inception of digital marketing. However, with the release of pre-caching services like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, we’ve seen the value of this data shift over time as open rates may be inflated due to non-human opens. Apple Mail Privacy Protection pre-fetches the tracking pixels when emails are delivered to a user’s inbox, artificially increasing open rates.

It’s a slightly different story for clicks. Non-human clicks happen when security software systems—like virus scanners and enterprise firewalls—check the validity of links in an email before or after delivering it to the inbox. These systems may click on some or all of the links within an email and, as a result, determine whether to deliver the email to the inbox or to junk it as spam.

It’s crucial to note that these clicks are an added security measure and not necessarily a concern. However, savvy marketers should be asking themselves how to get more accurate data, as well as a clear understanding of who (or what) is engaging with content. Open data remains crucial for gauging engagement and is a vital metric for maintaining data accuracy. When the data is reliable and consistent, it’s also valuable for tracking engagement over time.

While there are benefits to this type of software (i.e., reducing the chance of attacks or phishing attempts to a recipient’s inbox or safeguarding users’ privacy), it can also become a burden for some email marketers who want to determine if some – or all – of engagement data has been impacted. This type of software may result in other consequences, including:

• Inaccurate marketing automation and campaign triggers
• Invalid A/B testing results
• Unintentional opt-outs or unsubscribes
• Inaccurate campaign metrics
• Inflated engagement results

In addition to non-human interactions, the new deliverability requirements from Google and Yahoo can make it more challenging to determine the true success of your efforts. Rest assured, at Marigold, we are not only tracking industry changes, such as increased non-human interactions, but also have improved functionality to deliver more accurate data to our customers and their businesses.

At Marigold, we want you to feel empowered that you have accurate data, can best understand campaign engagement and impact, and can ultimately measure success and ROI for your marketing efforts. In order to do all of this, you need accurate data and a clear picture of your audience engagement.

First, focus on world-class email marketing deliverability and best practices from inbox providers like Google and Yahoo. This will assist emails in being delivered without concern of spam or requiring additional security considerations. This includes subject line, email content, campaign design, and message frequency. Check out our Essential Guide To Deliverability to ensure your efforts are having the most impact.

Second, focus on hyper-personalization to avoid any assumption of email blast. Focus on personalized content, clear and specific call-to-action language, and dynamic content that converts customers into loyal brand superfans that continually engage with your campaigns.

Finally, utilize the tools, resources, and elements of your email marketing platform to best review and understand your campaign performance. Use that data to make strategic and data-informed decisions.

Need more help? We’ve got you covered. Marigold is focused on supporting your marketing needs and ensuring that our products and services give you the tools and resources to connect with your customers and measure your marketing success. Let’s talk!