{"id":2494,"date":"2013-12-17T08:59:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T13:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/?p=2494"},"modified":"2020-07-21T03:01:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T07:01:24","slug":"gmail-image-caching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/gmail-image-caching\/","title":{"rendered":"Gmail Image Caching Sends Email Marketers Into a Tizzy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dont-cache-me-bro\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I wanted to take it easy at work this December. I wanted it to be a relaxing couple of weeks leading up to a well-deserved vacation. I figured I’d flesh out a few ideas for new product features. Maybe devote some attention to inboxygen.com. If I had some spare time, I\u2019d clean up my shared folder.<\/p>\n

But then Google had to get all Google on us, what with their constant innovation and forward-thinking approach to how users interact with the Internet.<\/p>\n

The nerve.<\/em><\/p>\n

First, Google sent email marketers into a tizzy when they announced that Gmail will be caching images in your emails. People started freaking out over open rates and privacy issues. And then, Google said they\u2019re doing away with image display confirmations. As a result of the caching, all images in emails will automatically display for Google users. You can read all about it on their blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the surface, Google says they\u2019re doing it to improve Gmail’s users’ experience \u2014 no more “display images” confirmations and, of course, faster load times. This GIF, pulled from the article link above, says it all:<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a>Image courtesy of Google<\/i><\/p>\n

But their UX improvement might come at the expense of your email marketing strategy. Note that I said \u201cstrategy,\u201d not \u201cperformance.\u201d Your 2.5% open rate is on you and your content, homey, not Google.<\/p>\n

So here are three important things to keep in mind:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gmail caching images won\u2019t affect your open rate, unless you calculate it by total opens (unique plus non-unique). But why would you do that? That\u2019s stupid. Every ESP in the world uses non-unique opens to calculate open rate. The big players in the email marketing game determine opens by serving a single pixel for tracking. If they\u2019re doing it right \u2014 and most are \u2014 that pixel contains a unique URL string for every recipient of every message you send, so each unique open will count. If you\u2019re unsure of how your ESP handles it, contact them or check their blog for updates about Google image caching.<\/li>\n
  2. It only applies to emails opened by Google users in the Gmail website. It applies neither to the Gmail mobile app nor Gmail users opening their Gmail messages in third-party software, such as the iOS mail client, Dropbox\u2019s popular Mailbox app, or software like Outlook or Lotus.<\/li>\n
  3. If you\u2019re fancy and using geolocation to determine which email image your subscribers will see, you need to start thinking of a new strategy because Google\u2019s\u00a0 image caching renders that one moot. A quick fix would be to create user segments based on location and then create iterations of emails with different images. Yes, that would be a pain, but targeted marketing usually is, at least at first.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What are your impressions of Google making the decision to cache images? Do you think it\u2019s a good improvement, or just another barrier for you to overcome in order to reach your customers with good, relevant content? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n

    About the Author:<\/i><\/b> Harry Kaplowitz is a Product Manager for iContact, an email and social marketing service of Vocus, a provider of cloud-based marketing and PR software.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I wanted to take it easy at work this December. I wanted it to be a relaxing couple of weeks leading up to a well-deserved vacation. I figured I’d flesh out a few ideas for new product features. Maybe devote some attention…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,23],"tags":[163,162],"yoast_head":"\nGmail Image Caching Sends Email Marketers Into a Tizzy, Again.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gmail's image caching will likely improve user experience but it creates new challenges for some email marketers. 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