I'm continually confused by email marketers who place a lot of importance on open-rates. Open-rates aren't really a valid measurement of anything, are they? Someone looked at your email. Okay, good, but did they actually show any interest in anything? I think open-rates (and advertising impressions, for that matter) are the email equivalent of two single people making eye-contact. Sure, they acknowledged each other. So what? Did they speak? No. Did they exchange phone numbers (or MySpaces, depending on the age group)? No. Is there actually any interest, or was it just an inadvertent meaningless look?

Not only do I feel like open-rates are a relatively pointless KPI, but I also think their measurement method is too inaccurate to formulate any conclusions. I'll give you three scenarios:

• Preview Panes - I collect my personal email via Microsoft Outlook, on which I have my preview pane configured. (Yes, information security gurus, I realize that this is not an optimal practice.) So, in order to change the "unread" status of a message in my inbox, I click on its subject line. But, I don't remain on that email long enough to actually read the message, because there are more urgent emails to get to. I barely even wait for the first above-the-fold line of text to appear, and I certainly don't have images enabled (even for some of my favorite newsletters and retailers). All I care about is marking the non-urgent messages as "read" so I can get to the urgent ones. Of course, if I am scrolling through emails later in the day and I happen to click on that subject line again, that message will show up in an open-rate report once again. Marketers, I can click on your email a few times today, but that doesn't mean I actually read it. Keep in mind that Outlook users, while numerous, are not the only people whose preview panes are boosting your metrics. With Yahoo's new online email client and other ISP's following behind, preview pane "opens" are going to noticeably change your "results."

• Methodology - Almost everybody tracks opens by placing a clear 1x1 pixel image in the email. Of course, some of those recipients are getting the plain-text version of your message, so their opens can't be tracked by this method. Furthermore, most HTML email clients won't render images by default (as is also the case with many of your on-the-go subscribers who get your message on their Treo, Blackberry, etc.), so that impairs your open-rate tracking even more. Lastly, let's not forget that most email marketing platforms place the image at the bottom of the email, which means that a quick-clicking "reader" who lets the above-the-fold content download before he/she becomes disinterested and moves to another email will see your message without registering an “open.”

• Meaning - So, let's assume that there is a measurable subset of your "opens" that are genuine "readers." These people saw your amazingly-engaging subject line, double-clicked on it, and thoroughly perused your Pulitzer-winning content for six hours. So what? If they didn't take any action thereafter, who cares? You may have entertained your subscriber, and maybe that was your goal. But, for an action-oriented message, I would call this scenario a failure.

So, if you want to truly optimize your email marketing program, make sure to pre-determine your campaign goals, create clear calls to action, and measure the percentage of recipients who truly took that action. Open rates are a nice distraction, but so are two ships passing in the night.