Technology giant Google, was the subject of many news articles last week; and it’s not just about their acquisition of a military robotics company. Google also announced that all images will now be displayed automatically when an email is opened on Gmail. What may be a great enhancement to consumers has left many marketers wondering; ‘how does this affect my open rate,’ and more importantly, ‘what does this mean for my email marketing strategy?'

From a high-level, this means that Google will handle emails through their own proxy server, so the images can be guaranteed safe for you to open. Since most marketing automation tools, from Mailchimp to Eloqua, use a single-pixel image to track opens in email metrics, this means that your tool can accurately track every open from a Gmail account. 

The downside of this new development may be that it’s more difficult to track unique opens in certain platforms, and geo-locations. The concern is that, because the image was initially used to track initial and multiple opens, some marketing automation platforms might skew their data for repeat opens, now that the image is ‘cached.’ This change has marketing automation professionals panicking—reminiscent of the impact of Gmail’s last enhancement; Google Tabs.

Is all this concern warranted? Let’s take a look at industry response:

Marketo has already reviewed this with their Engagement Team and determined that their open rates “will likely be more accurate because [Gmail] will automatically load images. Since we don't track multiple opens of emails or do anything with the IP information, you should not be impacted in any way by this change!”

Mailchimp has concerns over repetitive opens, but now you have better rates on opens than before. Like Mailchimp, Pardot says it will prevent reporting on repeat opens from the same sender, but recipients who do not use Google email clients to access their Gmail account (iOS Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) will not be affected. 

Depending on how many prospects in your company use Gmail, your open rates may increase, and you may also have more accurate numbers of when someone reads your message. As a result, this may place greater importance on the aesthetic of your messaging; now that images are automatically displayed visuals could play a greater role in your click through rates. 

If your database has many Gmail contacts, Google’s new enhancement to gmail plays a small but mighty role in aligning your email deliverability metrics. However, this won’t be the only development from Google in the near future; I’m looking forward to how Google's new acquisitions will run Adwords. 

Looking to expand on your marketing automation solution? Check out our free guide, The Three Pillars of Modern Digital Marketing.