diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ac4afda..2eda757 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name='yappa',
-    version='0.4.20',
+    version='0.4.21',
     url='https://github.com/turokg/yappa',
     description='Easy serverless deploy of python web applications',
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
diff --git a/yappa/handlers/common.py b/yappa/handlers/common.py
index 4b621fe..f455ab2 100644
--- a/yappa/handlers/common.py
+++ b/yappa/handlers/common.py
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ def get_encoding(response):
     for re_ in ENCODED_CONTENT_TYPES:
         if re_.match(content_type):
             return True
+    return False
 
 
 def patch_response(response):
@@ -75,9 +76,10 @@ def patch_response(response):
      'headers': {}
     }
     """
+    is_encoded = get_encoding(response)
     return {
         'statusCode': response.status_code,
         'headers': dict(response.headers),
-        'body': response.content.decode(),
-        'isBase64Encoded': get_encoding(response),
+        'body': response.content if is_encoded else response.content.encode(),
+        'isBase64Encoded': is_encoded,
     }