0% Open Rate Troubleshooting: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n\n- Why a 0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign Is Unlikely Unless There\u2019s a Technical Issue<\/a><\/li>\n
- 7 Possible Reasons Your Campaign Had a 0% Open Rate<\/a><\/li>\n
- 10 Preventative Steps to Avoid 0% Open Rates (and Low Open Rates) in the Future<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Why a 0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign is Unlikely Unless There\u2019s a Technical Issue<\/h2>\n
Good (?) news: Your 0% open rate is probably because of something you did, not something you said. It\u2019s not because your subject line flopped or every recipient saw your name in their inbox and thought, \u201cYeah\u2026 hard pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are the two main reasons why your 0% open rate is probably due to a technical issue.<\/p>\n
Gmail tests campaigns by placing it in both inboxes and spam folders<\/h3>\n
Gmail may be pretty sure you\u2019re sending spam. Almost positive. But they won\u2019t condemn every one of your emails to the spam folder initially.\u00a0If Gmail is suspicious, they\u2019ll place some emails in inboxes and some in spam<\/b>\u00a0to see how people react.<\/p>\n
You\u00a0should<\/i>\u00a0get at least a few opens from that.<\/p>\n
And even if every message in your campaign goes to spam, you\u2019re still not looking at a guarantee of a 0% open rate. Someone out there could notice your campaign in their spam folder, mark it as \u201cNot spam,\u201d then open it and trigger the open tracking pixel.<\/p>\n
Apple Mail Privacy Protection is out there in the wild automatically opening emails<\/h3>\n
In fall of 2021, Apple introduced a new default feature called\u00a0Mail Privacy Protection<\/a>\u00a0for their Mail app on iOS and macOS. And a major part of that feature is Apple automatically \u201copens\u201d every email (by downloading it to their own proxy servers).<\/p>\nThat\u2019s\u00a0falsely inflating open rates<\/b>\u00a0(at least to some degree), which can be frustrating to cold emailers and email marketers. But for the purposes of this article \u2014 it\u2019s quite helpful. After all, even if no\u00a0people<\/i>\u00a0are opening your campaign, someone on your list has to be using Apple\u2019s Mail app on their iPhone \u2014 and you know\u00a0that<\/i>\u00a0will give you an open.<\/p>\n
So if you have a 0% open rate here in the Apple Mail Privacy Protection era, that\u2019s a red flag that something else is causing your issue.<\/p>\n
So could the reason for my 0% open rate still be that no one opened it?<\/h3>\n
Yes. Although there\u2019s a narrow path to arrive there,\u00a0it is possible to send a campaign that no one opens<\/b>.<\/p>\n
For instance, let\u2019s say you sent to a very small list of five people. None of them uses Apple Mail, you went to spam for three of them, and the other two were on vacation and\/or uninterested in the hook of your subject line. Then sure, you could organically hit a 0% open rate.<\/p>\n
Or let\u2019s say you tried to use\u00a0mail merge personalization<\/a>\u00a0in your subject line, but you mistyped the mail merge tag. You sent to a small list, none of them uses Apple Mail, and the rest weren\u2019t interested in an email with the subject: \u201cHey {FirstName, I have a great offer for you\u201d. Then you might get a 0% open rate.<\/p>\nBut as you can see, I had to set up very specific scenarios in both hypotheticals<\/b> \u2013 lots of caveats involved. Because if you\u2019re a cold emailer or email marketer sending a well-crafted campaign to a targeted list, it\u2019s awfully hard to shoot the moon with an organic 0%.<\/p>\n
In the next section, we\u2019ll cover the likely reasons why your campaign bottomed out on open rate.<\/p>\n
7 Possible Reasons Your Campaign Had a 0% Open Rate<\/h2>\n
Here are the possible (and probable) reasons why you had a 0% open rate with your campaign.<\/p>\n
Possibility #1: Your entire campaign is to one domain \u2014 and it has a strict spam filter<\/h3>\n
Did you send a cold email campaign to a bunch of people at one company? And is it a large company using some\u00a0hardcore, enterprise-level spam filtering<\/b>\u00a0on its email? Industries like finance, medicine and healthcare, law, government services, defense, aviation, and others dealing with ultra-sensitive information will often be more aggressive on flagging emails as spam.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen this in the past at GMass \u2014 someone sending to one company or a few companies and hitting aggressive corporate spam filters. The result: A 0% open rate.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough when you want to reach several people at one company with a mass email \u2014 and that company has an aggressive spam filter. Here are some strategies you can try to get past the filters and reach your prospects.<\/p>\n
Solution #1: Reduce the number of identical (or virtually identical) emails you\u2019re sending<\/h4>\n
A little bit of personalization might not be enough. Consider using entire\u00a0personalized paragraphs<\/a>. Or even better,\u00a0divide your list into smaller subsets<\/b>\u00a0and use different emails for each of those groups.<\/p>\nSolution #2: Add a delay in between sends<\/h4>\n
You can add a\u00a0delay in your sending speed<\/a>\u00a0with GMass. Go to the GMass settings and click on the Schedule section. Set the speed for your campaign there.\u00a0Adding the max delay of one to five minutes between emails<\/b>\u00a0will better simulate the process of typing and sending individual emails.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/throttling-setspeed-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSolution #3: Turn off click tracking (or use a custom tracking domain)<\/h4>\n
If you\u2019re looking for replies, not clicks, to your email, consider turning off click tracking entirely.<\/p>\n
But if you do want to track clicks, consider setting up a custom tracking domain (here are the instructions<\/a>\u00a0to set one up in GMass). With a custom tracking domain,\u00a0your reputation won\u2019t be tied to other senders on a default shared click tracking domain<\/b>.<\/p>\nThat can help deliverability \u2014 and with very aggressive enterprise spam filters, every little bit helps.<\/p>\n
Solution #4: Send as replies to previous conversations<\/h4>\n
If you\u2019ve already emailed with people at the domain and you\u2019re reaching out again, try\u00a0sending your emails are replies to those previous conversations<\/a>\u00a0rather than sending your emails with new subject lines to start new threads.<\/p>\nIn the GMass settings, go to the Advanced section and for \u201cSend As,\u201d choose \u201cReplies.\u201d You can send as replies to your last conversation with each recipient, or as replies to a specific previous GMass campaign.<\/p>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/sendasreplies-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPossibility #2: Your emails never went out because of a misconfigured SMTP server for a From alias<\/h3>\n
Gmail lets you send mail from multiple aliases or other email accounts. You can set those aliases up in the Accounts (or Accounts and Import) section of the Gmail settings. And if the account you add isn\u2019t a Gmail or Google Workspace account, you\u2019ll need to enter your SMTP credentials to send via that account.<\/p>\n
![\"SMTP](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/alias-smtpcredentials-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIf you\u00a0try to send a campaign with that From alias but there\u2019s a problem with that SMTP server<\/b>\u00a0(it\u2019s misconfigured, it\u2019s temporarily down, a setting changed), your emails won\u2019t make it out.<\/p>\nSolution: Use Gmail\u2019s SMTP server to send from your alias<\/h4>\n
Rather than sending through your external SMTP server, you can\u00a0configure that account to send through Gmail\u2019s SMTP server instead<\/b>.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve detailed the instructions in our article on\u00a0Gmail Send Mail As settings<\/a>. For Google Workspace, it\u2019s as simple as making one tweak in your account settings.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Google-Allow-Less-Secure-Apps.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFor regular Gmail accounts, there are a few extra steps. Either way, you\u2019ll now get the deliverability of Gmail\u2019s servers and less of the risk of something going wrong with a third-party SMTP server.<\/p>\n
Possibility #3: You sent a plain text email<\/h3>\n
Plain text emails are popular in cold email \u2014 the stripped down plain text format\u00a0feels<\/i>\u00a0like it best simulates a one-on-one email.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0with a true plain text email, you won\u2019t register any opens<\/b>. Even if you turn on open tracking, you won\u2019t get open data \u2014 because open data requires an image pixel. Plain text means no image pixel.<\/p>\n
So if you got a 0% open rate on your plain text email, that\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
Solution: Use light text emails rather than plain text<\/h4>\n
Instead of a plain text email, send a \u201clight text\u201d email \u2014 basically a rich text email that looks like plain text. That way you\u2019ll still be able to track opens while also getting the \u201chey, I just fired off this quick text email\u201d authenticity.<\/p>\n
Plus, Gmail defaults to rich text \u2014 so sending a light text email actually\u00a0better<\/i>\u00a0mimics the process of sending a one-on-one message.<\/p>\nPossibility #4: Your tracking domain was broken<\/h3>\n
When you set up a custom tracking domain with GMass, we use it for click tracking on your links\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0on your open tracking pixel. It\u2019s one of the measures we take to help avoid the\u00a0tracking pixel blockers<\/a>\u00a0out there.<\/p>\nBut\u2026\u00a0if there\u2019s a problem with your tracking domain, your campaign could register a 0% open rate<\/b>.<\/p>\n
We validate the DNS settings for your tracking domain when you set it up, then re-scan it again every 24 hours to make sure it\u2019s still working. So if your tracking domain breaks, and you squeeze in a campaign in the window between when it broke and when we scan it, there\u2019s a chance your campaign could register zero opens.<\/p>\n
Solution: Test your tracking domain<\/h4>\n
Add a new 15-second step to your pre-send checklist where you check your tracking domain.<\/p>\n
Just\u00a0enter your tracking domain into a browser<\/b>. If it\u2019s working, it will redirect to the GMass homepage immediately. If you don\u2019t see that redirect, your tracking domain could be broken. Check the DNS settings to make sure nothing changed.<\/p>\nPossibility #5: You turned off (or didn\u2019t turn on) open tracking<\/h3>\n
This is one of the more facepalm-y reasons why you could have a 0% open rate \u2014 but it\u2019s a reason we\u2019ve seen multiple times over the years.<\/p>\n
You might be registering a 0% open rate if\u00a0you turned off, or didn\u2019t turn on, open tracking<\/b>\u00a0for your campaign.<\/p>\n
And yes, I know that offering this advice is like when my parents call me every few weeks to tell me, \u201cThe TV isn\u2019t working\u201d and my first question is, \u201cDid you turn it on?\u201d It\u2019s obvious\u2026 but sometimes it\u2019s the solution.<\/p>\n
Solution: Double check the open tracking setting before you send a campaign<\/h4>\n
Go the GMass settings box for your campaign and make sure under \u201cTrack,\u201d the checkbox to the left of \u201cOpens\u201d is checked.<\/p>\n
![\"Make](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/trackopens-checkopensetting-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPossibility #6: You created drafts and never sent them<\/h3>\n
With GMass, you have two \u201cAction\u201d options with a campaign: You can either send the emails, or create all of the emails as drafts.<\/p>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/drafts-actionoptions-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCreating drafts is a popular choice. You can use that option to preview your emails before they send; to double-check that things like mail merge personalization or\u00a0conditional logic<\/a>\u00a0are working properly.<\/p>\nBut\u00a0after you create the drafts, you need to send them<\/b>. And you may not even realize you created drafts rather than sending \u2014 so you think you sent a campaign, but all of its emails are really just sitting there in your drafts folder.<\/p>\nSolution: Check the Action setting before sending (and if you do Create Drafts, remember to send them)<\/h4>\n
Before you hit the GMass button to send a campaign, open the GMass settings and give a quick glance to the Action section.<\/p>\n
And if you are creating drafts, make sure to send them. You\u2019ll receive an email from GMass once your drafts are all prepped \u2014 and that email contains a link giving you the option to send your drafts.<\/p>\n
![\"GMass's](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/drafts-senddrafts-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPossibility #7: You\u2019re sending to people who have unsubscribed or hard bounced in the past<\/h3>\n
GMass handles unsubscribe management and bounce management for you. That means: You can continue sending as normal, but\u00a0if someone on your list has unsubscribed or emails to them have hard bounced, GMass will suppress the emails<\/b>.<\/p>\n
So you could send a campaign to a list featuring lots of unsubscribes or bounces and see a 0% open rate because many of those emails were (rightfully) suppressed.<\/p>\n
This could also come into play if you\u2019re sending to one domain or a handful of domains and you\u2019ve\u00a0unsubscribed that domain<\/a>. For example, if you unsubscribed\u00a0uber.com\u00a0and then, a few months later, you try to email 25 people at Uber, all of those emails could be suppressed.<\/p>\nSolution: Check your campaign report for recipients<\/h4>\n
Your campaign report<\/a> will show you how many recipients there were for your email. If that number is low (or much lower than the number of emails you thought you were sending), it\u2019s possible some of the emails were suppressed.<\/p>\n![\"Your](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/suppression-report-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nYou can check your unsubscribe list and bounce list in the GMass dashboard<\/b>. Compare those with the list you used for your campaign.<\/p>\n
![\"Check](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/suppression-reports-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n0% Open Rate: 10 Steps to Take to Prevent This From Happening Again<\/h2>\n
A 0% opening rate is never fun. If it happened because of a technical issue, now you\u2019ll need to diagnose what happened (by running through the six possibilities we covered in this article). If it happened because all your emails went to spam and\/or no one opened them, that\u2019s also most unfortunate.<\/p>\n
So here are 10 preventative steps you can take to make sure you avoid 0% open rates (or open rates that are really low) in the future.<\/p>\n
Deliverability steps to take right now, even if you aren\u2019t sending emails yet<\/h3>\nSet up a custom tracking domain<\/h4>\n
As we discussed earlier in the article, a\u00a0custom tracking domain can help with your deliverability<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 no one else\u2019s reputation can affect you. Just make sure the tracking domain is working (and registering opens).<\/p>\nEmail copywriting and campaign settings<\/h3>\nPersonalize your emails<\/h4>\n
If you send an identical message to a huge list of people, that\u2019s a\u00a0spam red flag<\/b>\u00a0for two reasons. One, spam generally features non-personalized, identical emails. And two, you probably won\u2019t get that much engagement, which is another sign to the email clients that you\u2019ve sent spam.<\/p>\n
Use personalization to make your emails targeted and relevant to everyone on your list.<\/p>\n
Use embedded images<\/h4>\n
When you upload an image directly into Gmail, it\u2019s embedded. This is different than if you were sending email through, say, Mailchimp, where every image is hosted on an external server.\u00a0Embedded images<\/a>\u00a0can help deliverability \u2014 because if you were sending a one-on-one email in Gmail, you\u2019d use embedded images.<\/p>\nGMass allows you to choose between embedded and hosted images<\/b>; lean embedded as much as possible.<\/p>\nInclude a clear call-to-action<\/h4>\n
If Google believes people want your emails, those emails will hit people\u2019s inboxes and not their spam folders. One of the best ways for people to signal to Google they want your emails is to engage with them. So make sure your emails have a clear call-to-action \u2014 whether it\u2019s a click or a reply \u2014\u00a0allowing people to easily engage<\/b>\u00a0with them.<\/p>\nThrottle your emails<\/h4>\n
There\u2019s no definitive answer on whether adding a pause between cold emails improves deliverability. But if you want to be extra safe \u2014 or, as we discussed earlier, if you\u2019re sending lots of messages to one domain \u2014 you can\u00a0add a pause of a few seconds or even a few minutes between your messages<\/b>.<\/p>\nInclude one of your other email addresses as a recipient<\/h4>\n
Want to make sure your campaign went out properly and open tracking works? Add yourself as a recipient with a different email address. (GMass doesn\u2019t charge you for number of contacts or number of messages, so go wild.)<\/p>\n
That way, if you send your campaign to one of your other email addresses, you open it, and your open rate still comes out as 0%\u2026\u00a0you know something\u2019s wrong<\/b>.<\/p>\nPre-sending steps<\/h3>\n
We covered some pre-send steps earlier in this article (like checking your custom tracking domain and making sure open tracking is turned on). Here are some other highly-valuable pre-send steps.<\/p>\n
Use GMass\u2019s Spam Solver to test your email deliverability before you send<\/h4>\n
![\"spam-solver\"](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/spam-solver.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGMass has a powerful tool called\u00a0Spam Solver<\/a>\u00a0which you can use to check whether your email will hit the inbox or spam folder. (Or the Gmail Promotions folder.)<\/p>\nSpam Solver sends your email to 20 different special accounts we\u2019ve set up, and analyzes your inbox, promotions, and spam placement. Then if\u00a0offers suggestions to improve your inbox placement<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 and you can re-test with those suggestions implemented to see if they work.<\/p>\n
This is a great way to improve your deliverability, which should directly tie in to your open rate.<\/p>\n
Use the GMass Email Analyzer<\/h4>\n
The\u00a0Email Analyzer<\/a>\u00a0is another tool you can use to\u00a0check the technical side of your emails<\/b>. To use the tool, you\u2019ll send a test email to a specific address. From there, you\u2019ll be able to see\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0of the technical details that might be causing problems, from SPF and DKIM to email blacklists.<\/p>\nIf you spot any red flags in the\u00a0Email Analyzer report<\/a>, those could have a direct impact on the campaign you\u2019re about to send.<\/p>\nValidate the email addresses on your list before you send<\/h4>\n
It sends a bad spam signal to Google if you have a bunch of dead email addresses in your list. With GMass, you can\u00a0verify each address<\/a>\u00a0on your list before you send an email to that address.<\/p>\nThis is also beneficial for the sake of your open rates \u2014 after all, at least this way you\u2019ll know you\u2019re sending to valid addresses where someone\u00a0should<\/i>\u00a0have the chance to open your message.<\/p>\nGetting set up with GMass<\/h3>\n
99% of GMass users report the highest deliverability they\u2019ve ever had.<\/b>\u00a0And good deliverability is a huge part of avoiding low open rates. As for 0% open rates\u2026 we\u2019ve set up the tools you need to diagnose the issue.<\/p>\n
Why a 0% Open Rate for an Email Campaign is Unlikely Unless There\u2019s a Technical Issue<\/h2>\n
Good (?) news: Your 0% open rate is probably because of something you did, not something you said. It\u2019s not because your subject line flopped or every recipient saw your name in their inbox and thought, \u201cYeah\u2026 hard pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are the two main reasons why your 0% open rate is probably due to a technical issue.<\/p>\n
Gmail tests campaigns by placing it in both inboxes and spam folders<\/h3>\n
Gmail may be pretty sure you\u2019re sending spam. Almost positive. But they won\u2019t condemn every one of your emails to the spam folder initially.\u00a0If Gmail is suspicious, they\u2019ll place some emails in inboxes and some in spam<\/b>\u00a0to see how people react.<\/p>\n
You\u00a0should<\/i>\u00a0get at least a few opens from that.<\/p>\n
And even if every message in your campaign goes to spam, you\u2019re still not looking at a guarantee of a 0% open rate. Someone out there could notice your campaign in their spam folder, mark it as \u201cNot spam,\u201d then open it and trigger the open tracking pixel.<\/p>\n
Apple Mail Privacy Protection is out there in the wild automatically opening emails<\/h3>\n
In fall of 2021, Apple introduced a new default feature called\u00a0Mail Privacy Protection<\/a>\u00a0for their Mail app on iOS and macOS. And a major part of that feature is Apple automatically \u201copens\u201d every email (by downloading it to their own proxy servers).<\/p>\n That\u2019s\u00a0falsely inflating open rates<\/b>\u00a0(at least to some degree), which can be frustrating to cold emailers and email marketers. But for the purposes of this article \u2014 it\u2019s quite helpful. After all, even if no\u00a0people<\/i>\u00a0are opening your campaign, someone on your list has to be using Apple\u2019s Mail app on their iPhone \u2014 and you know\u00a0that<\/i>\u00a0will give you an open.<\/p>\n So if you have a 0% open rate here in the Apple Mail Privacy Protection era, that\u2019s a red flag that something else is causing your issue.<\/p>\n Yes. Although there\u2019s a narrow path to arrive there,\u00a0it is possible to send a campaign that no one opens<\/b>.<\/p>\n For instance, let\u2019s say you sent to a very small list of five people. None of them uses Apple Mail, you went to spam for three of them, and the other two were on vacation and\/or uninterested in the hook of your subject line. Then sure, you could organically hit a 0% open rate.<\/p>\n Or let\u2019s say you tried to use\u00a0mail merge personalization<\/a>\u00a0in your subject line, but you mistyped the mail merge tag. You sent to a small list, none of them uses Apple Mail, and the rest weren\u2019t interested in an email with the subject: \u201cHey {FirstName, I have a great offer for you\u201d. Then you might get a 0% open rate.<\/p>\n But as you can see, I had to set up very specific scenarios in both hypotheticals<\/b> \u2013 lots of caveats involved. Because if you\u2019re a cold emailer or email marketer sending a well-crafted campaign to a targeted list, it\u2019s awfully hard to shoot the moon with an organic 0%.<\/p>\n In the next section, we\u2019ll cover the likely reasons why your campaign bottomed out on open rate.<\/p>\n Here are the possible (and probable) reasons why you had a 0% open rate with your campaign.<\/p>\n Did you send a cold email campaign to a bunch of people at one company? And is it a large company using some\u00a0hardcore, enterprise-level spam filtering<\/b>\u00a0on its email? Industries like finance, medicine and healthcare, law, government services, defense, aviation, and others dealing with ultra-sensitive information will often be more aggressive on flagging emails as spam.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen this in the past at GMass \u2014 someone sending to one company or a few companies and hitting aggressive corporate spam filters. The result: A 0% open rate.<\/p>\n It\u2019s tough when you want to reach several people at one company with a mass email \u2014 and that company has an aggressive spam filter. Here are some strategies you can try to get past the filters and reach your prospects.<\/p>\n A little bit of personalization might not be enough. Consider using entire\u00a0personalized paragraphs<\/a>. Or even better,\u00a0divide your list into smaller subsets<\/b>\u00a0and use different emails for each of those groups.<\/p>\n You can add a\u00a0delay in your sending speed<\/a>\u00a0with GMass. Go to the GMass settings and click on the Schedule section. Set the speed for your campaign there.\u00a0Adding the max delay of one to five minutes between emails<\/b>\u00a0will better simulate the process of typing and sending individual emails.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for replies, not clicks, to your email, consider turning off click tracking entirely.<\/p>\n But if you do want to track clicks, consider setting up a custom tracking domain (here are the instructions<\/a>\u00a0to set one up in GMass). With a custom tracking domain,\u00a0your reputation won\u2019t be tied to other senders on a default shared click tracking domain<\/b>.<\/p>\n That can help deliverability \u2014 and with very aggressive enterprise spam filters, every little bit helps.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve already emailed with people at the domain and you\u2019re reaching out again, try\u00a0sending your emails are replies to those previous conversations<\/a>\u00a0rather than sending your emails with new subject lines to start new threads.<\/p>\n In the GMass settings, go to the Advanced section and for \u201cSend As,\u201d choose \u201cReplies.\u201d You can send as replies to your last conversation with each recipient, or as replies to a specific previous GMass campaign.<\/p>\n Gmail lets you send mail from multiple aliases or other email accounts. You can set those aliases up in the Accounts (or Accounts and Import) section of the Gmail settings. And if the account you add isn\u2019t a Gmail or Google Workspace account, you\u2019ll need to enter your SMTP credentials to send via that account.<\/p>\n If you\u00a0try to send a campaign with that From alias but there\u2019s a problem with that SMTP server<\/b>\u00a0(it\u2019s misconfigured, it\u2019s temporarily down, a setting changed), your emails won\u2019t make it out.<\/p>\n Rather than sending through your external SMTP server, you can\u00a0configure that account to send through Gmail\u2019s SMTP server instead<\/b>.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve detailed the instructions in our article on\u00a0Gmail Send Mail As settings<\/a>. For Google Workspace, it\u2019s as simple as making one tweak in your account settings.<\/p>\n For regular Gmail accounts, there are a few extra steps. Either way, you\u2019ll now get the deliverability of Gmail\u2019s servers and less of the risk of something going wrong with a third-party SMTP server.<\/p>\n Plain text emails are popular in cold email \u2014 the stripped down plain text format\u00a0feels<\/i>\u00a0like it best simulates a one-on-one email.<\/p>\n But\u00a0with a true plain text email, you won\u2019t register any opens<\/b>. Even if you turn on open tracking, you won\u2019t get open data \u2014 because open data requires an image pixel. Plain text means no image pixel.<\/p>\n So if you got a 0% open rate on your plain text email, that\u2019s why.<\/p>\n Instead of a plain text email, send a \u201clight text\u201d email \u2014 basically a rich text email that looks like plain text. That way you\u2019ll still be able to track opens while also getting the \u201chey, I just fired off this quick text email\u201d authenticity.<\/p>\n Plus, Gmail defaults to rich text \u2014 so sending a light text email actually\u00a0better<\/i>\u00a0mimics the process of sending a one-on-one message.<\/p>\n When you set up a custom tracking domain with GMass, we use it for click tracking on your links\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0on your open tracking pixel. It\u2019s one of the measures we take to help avoid the\u00a0tracking pixel blockers<\/a>\u00a0out there.<\/p>\n But\u2026\u00a0if there\u2019s a problem with your tracking domain, your campaign could register a 0% open rate<\/b>.<\/p>\n We validate the DNS settings for your tracking domain when you set it up, then re-scan it again every 24 hours to make sure it\u2019s still working. So if your tracking domain breaks, and you squeeze in a campaign in the window between when it broke and when we scan it, there\u2019s a chance your campaign could register zero opens.<\/p>\n Add a new 15-second step to your pre-send checklist where you check your tracking domain.<\/p>\n Just\u00a0enter your tracking domain into a browser<\/b>. If it\u2019s working, it will redirect to the GMass homepage immediately. If you don\u2019t see that redirect, your tracking domain could be broken. Check the DNS settings to make sure nothing changed.<\/p>\n This is one of the more facepalm-y reasons why you could have a 0% open rate \u2014 but it\u2019s a reason we\u2019ve seen multiple times over the years.<\/p>\n You might be registering a 0% open rate if\u00a0you turned off, or didn\u2019t turn on, open tracking<\/b>\u00a0for your campaign.<\/p>\n And yes, I know that offering this advice is like when my parents call me every few weeks to tell me, \u201cThe TV isn\u2019t working\u201d and my first question is, \u201cDid you turn it on?\u201d It\u2019s obvious\u2026 but sometimes it\u2019s the solution.<\/p>\n Go the GMass settings box for your campaign and make sure under \u201cTrack,\u201d the checkbox to the left of \u201cOpens\u201d is checked.<\/p>\n With GMass, you have two \u201cAction\u201d options with a campaign: You can either send the emails, or create all of the emails as drafts.<\/p>\n Creating drafts is a popular choice. You can use that option to preview your emails before they send; to double-check that things like mail merge personalization or\u00a0conditional logic<\/a>\u00a0are working properly.<\/p>\n But\u00a0after you create the drafts, you need to send them<\/b>. And you may not even realize you created drafts rather than sending \u2014 so you think you sent a campaign, but all of its emails are really just sitting there in your drafts folder.<\/p>\n Before you hit the GMass button to send a campaign, open the GMass settings and give a quick glance to the Action section.<\/p>\n And if you are creating drafts, make sure to send them. You\u2019ll receive an email from GMass once your drafts are all prepped \u2014 and that email contains a link giving you the option to send your drafts.<\/p>\n GMass handles unsubscribe management and bounce management for you. That means: You can continue sending as normal, but\u00a0if someone on your list has unsubscribed or emails to them have hard bounced, GMass will suppress the emails<\/b>.<\/p>\n So you could send a campaign to a list featuring lots of unsubscribes or bounces and see a 0% open rate because many of those emails were (rightfully) suppressed.<\/p>\n This could also come into play if you\u2019re sending to one domain or a handful of domains and you\u2019ve\u00a0unsubscribed that domain<\/a>. For example, if you unsubscribed\u00a0uber.com\u00a0and then, a few months later, you try to email 25 people at Uber, all of those emails could be suppressed.<\/p>\n Your campaign report<\/a> will show you how many recipients there were for your email. If that number is low (or much lower than the number of emails you thought you were sending), it\u2019s possible some of the emails were suppressed.<\/p>\n You can check your unsubscribe list and bounce list in the GMass dashboard<\/b>. Compare those with the list you used for your campaign.<\/p>\n A 0% opening rate is never fun. If it happened because of a technical issue, now you\u2019ll need to diagnose what happened (by running through the six possibilities we covered in this article). If it happened because all your emails went to spam and\/or no one opened them, that\u2019s also most unfortunate.<\/p>\n So here are 10 preventative steps you can take to make sure you avoid 0% open rates (or open rates that are really low) in the future.<\/p>\n As we discussed earlier in the article, a\u00a0custom tracking domain can help with your deliverability<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 no one else\u2019s reputation can affect you. Just make sure the tracking domain is working (and registering opens).<\/p>\n If you send an identical message to a huge list of people, that\u2019s a\u00a0spam red flag<\/b>\u00a0for two reasons. One, spam generally features non-personalized, identical emails. And two, you probably won\u2019t get that much engagement, which is another sign to the email clients that you\u2019ve sent spam.<\/p>\n Use personalization to make your emails targeted and relevant to everyone on your list.<\/p>\n When you upload an image directly into Gmail, it\u2019s embedded. This is different than if you were sending email through, say, Mailchimp, where every image is hosted on an external server.\u00a0Embedded images<\/a>\u00a0can help deliverability \u2014 because if you were sending a one-on-one email in Gmail, you\u2019d use embedded images.<\/p>\n GMass allows you to choose between embedded and hosted images<\/b>; lean embedded as much as possible.<\/p>\n If Google believes people want your emails, those emails will hit people\u2019s inboxes and not their spam folders. One of the best ways for people to signal to Google they want your emails is to engage with them. So make sure your emails have a clear call-to-action \u2014 whether it\u2019s a click or a reply \u2014\u00a0allowing people to easily engage<\/b>\u00a0with them.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no definitive answer on whether adding a pause between cold emails improves deliverability. But if you want to be extra safe \u2014 or, as we discussed earlier, if you\u2019re sending lots of messages to one domain \u2014 you can\u00a0add a pause of a few seconds or even a few minutes between your messages<\/b>.<\/p>\n Want to make sure your campaign went out properly and open tracking works? Add yourself as a recipient with a different email address. (GMass doesn\u2019t charge you for number of contacts or number of messages, so go wild.)<\/p>\n That way, if you send your campaign to one of your other email addresses, you open it, and your open rate still comes out as 0%\u2026\u00a0you know something\u2019s wrong<\/b>.<\/p>\n We covered some pre-send steps earlier in this article (like checking your custom tracking domain and making sure open tracking is turned on). Here are some other highly-valuable pre-send steps.<\/p>\n GMass has a powerful tool called\u00a0Spam Solver<\/a>\u00a0which you can use to check whether your email will hit the inbox or spam folder. (Or the Gmail Promotions folder.)<\/p>\n Spam Solver sends your email to 20 different special accounts we\u2019ve set up, and analyzes your inbox, promotions, and spam placement. Then if\u00a0offers suggestions to improve your inbox placement<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 and you can re-test with those suggestions implemented to see if they work.<\/p>\n This is a great way to improve your deliverability, which should directly tie in to your open rate.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Email Analyzer<\/a>\u00a0is another tool you can use to\u00a0check the technical side of your emails<\/b>. To use the tool, you\u2019ll send a test email to a specific address. From there, you\u2019ll be able to see\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0of the technical details that might be causing problems, from SPF and DKIM to email blacklists.<\/p>\n If you spot any red flags in the\u00a0Email Analyzer report<\/a>, those could have a direct impact on the campaign you\u2019re about to send.<\/p>\n It sends a bad spam signal to Google if you have a bunch of dead email addresses in your list. With GMass, you can\u00a0verify each address<\/a>\u00a0on your list before you send an email to that address.<\/p>\n This is also beneficial for the sake of your open rates \u2014 after all, at least this way you\u2019ll know you\u2019re sending to valid addresses where someone\u00a0should<\/i>\u00a0have the chance to open your message.<\/p>\n 99% of GMass users report the highest deliverability they\u2019ve ever had.<\/b>\u00a0And good deliverability is a huge part of avoiding low open rates. As for 0% open rates\u2026 we\u2019ve set up the tools you need to diagnose the issue.<\/p>\nSo could the reason for my 0% open rate still be that no one opened it?<\/h3>\n
7 Possible Reasons Your Campaign Had a 0% Open Rate<\/h2>\n
Possibility #1: Your entire campaign is to one domain \u2014 and it has a strict spam filter<\/h3>\n
Solution #1: Reduce the number of identical (or virtually identical) emails you\u2019re sending<\/h4>\n
Solution #2: Add a delay in between sends<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSolution #3: Turn off click tracking (or use a custom tracking domain)<\/h4>\n
Solution #4: Send as replies to previous conversations<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPossibility #2: Your emails never went out because of a misconfigured SMTP server for a From alias<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSolution: Use Gmail\u2019s SMTP server to send from your alias<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPossibility #3: You sent a plain text email<\/h3>\n
Solution: Use light text emails rather than plain text<\/h4>\n
Possibility #4: Your tracking domain was broken<\/h3>\n
Solution: Test your tracking domain<\/h4>\n
Possibility #5: You turned off (or didn\u2019t turn on) open tracking<\/h3>\n
Solution: Double check the open tracking setting before you send a campaign<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPossibility #6: You created drafts and never sent them<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSolution: Check the Action setting before sending (and if you do Create Drafts, remember to send them)<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPossibility #7: You\u2019re sending to people who have unsubscribed or hard bounced in the past<\/h3>\n
Solution: Check your campaign report for recipients<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n0% Open Rate: 10 Steps to Take to Prevent This From Happening Again<\/h2>\n
Deliverability steps to take right now, even if you aren\u2019t sending emails yet<\/h3>\n
Set up a custom tracking domain<\/h4>\n
Email copywriting and campaign settings<\/h3>\n
Personalize your emails<\/h4>\n
Use embedded images<\/h4>\n
Include a clear call-to-action<\/h4>\n
Throttle your emails<\/h4>\n
Include one of your other email addresses as a recipient<\/h4>\n
Pre-sending steps<\/h3>\n
Use GMass\u2019s Spam Solver to test your email deliverability before you send<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nUse the GMass Email Analyzer<\/h4>\n
Validate the email addresses on your list before you send<\/h4>\n
Getting set up with GMass<\/h3>\n