Most outreach reports lead with an open rate. It is the easiest number to produce and the least useful one to read. We do not track opens, and this note explains why the numbers we report instead are harder to earn and more worth having.
Where an open rate comes from
An open is counted when a hidden image in the email is loaded from the sender's server. That is all it measures. Since Apple's Mail Privacy Protection began pre-loading images in 2021, a large share of opens is reported whether or not anyone read the message. Corporate security gateways load images and follow links to scan them before delivery, which registers as opens and clicks from people who have not seen the email. The result is a number that moves with the recipient's technology, not with their interest.
What the pixel does to the relationship
A tracking pixel sends the time of reading and technical details about the recipient's device to a third-party server. In the markets we work in, that is a data-protection question in its own right, and it is the kind of thing a careful buyer notices. A first approach to a senior person should not begin by measuring them.
The numbers that cannot be dressed up
A reply is a fact: someone read the message and decided to answer. We classify every reply, including the negative ones, because a clear no with a reason is market feedback that a silent open never provides. A live conversation is a fact. A meeting that took place is a fact. An agreed next step is a fact. Each of these is recorded against the account, with date, person and content, and each can be checked.
What this means for the report
Every fourteen days the client sees replies by category and by segment, conversations held, meetings against the definition we publish, and the next step for every account. The reply rate for a segment that does not respond is reported as it is, because the point of the report is to decide where to concentrate, not to look busy. The numbers are smaller than an open rate. They are the ones a sales leader can act on.