Is this Practice good or bad?

[Anonymous]

Hello fellow Marketo users.

I have a few questions. Currently, I set up streams based on 1 email. Each email in said stream is the same stream, however, each email has a different subject line. If they don't open email 1 they will get email 2 which is the same exact email with a different subject line. If they don't open email 2 they will get email 3. If they open any of the emails they sent to next stream with different content and process resumes.

What constitutes an open in Outlook? We are B2B so I'm working on the assumption most of our audience use Outlook. Personally, I don't need to click to open emails to view their contents I can see just by going through Inbox, does that count as an open?

Are there any negative consequences to this practice?

Philosophically what are all your thoughts?

Personally, I'm not a huge fan I would rather segment the streams by where they are in buyer journey and focus on captivating needed content. However, I don't see a strong enough downside to make a case for not doing it this way.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Please move this to Products (Move link will be at the right). This space isn't for Marketo support, it's for webmaster feedback about the Jive platform.

[Brooke_Bartos1]

If it is only viewed in the preview pane in Outlook, and not double-clicked to fully open, it does not get counted as an open, even though they may have viewed the content. This is one hang-up with analytics and Outlook. One thing to look at would be how much of your audience tends to be viewing on mobile vs. desktop, since you don't have the preview pane on mobile.

For our team, when we have a situation like this, we do make minor tweaks to the body copy just in case, that way it is not the exact same email with just a different subject line.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Brooke - if the user has their images turned on/download by default (I realize this setting is disabled by most companies - and then the users' themselves change this), then simply viewing the email in the preview pane will render the hidden, single-pixel image and ping back to Marketo that the email has been opened.

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I believe it's opened if they have been turned or if they open the email directly. If that is truly the case what is the downside to sending the same email with a different subject line for those who haven't opened the original?

[Dan_Stevens_]

If images are turned off in Outlook and the user physically clicks the message to open it, it still won't register an open (since it still relies on an image to ping back to Marketo servers).  They would need to click on a trackable link within the email for Marketo to register this as an open.  As you can see, "opens" are a very unreliable metric.  And why "opens" alone should never be used to drive/trigger a programmatic tactic like this.  Just my opinion.

[SanfordWhiteman]

I'm fully I'm agreement with Dan.

In an environment you already know to be open-unfriendly, do not interpret the absence of Opened Email as... well, anything.