E-MAIL - E-MAIL USE - 22.11.2019

E-mail tracking: do or don’t?

Do…

There are obviously many situations where you will want to know if your e-mail has actually been read. For example if after sending a request to a supplier for the umpteenth time you still haven’t received a reply. Or if you want to find out whether a message containing very important information has been read.

You can find this out by using a mail tracker. If you decide to track a message, this tool will insert a link pointing to an invisible image into your message. When the recipient opens the message, their mail app will retrieve this hidden image. In this way, the tracker can tell exactly when the message was opened and notify you. By inserting other web links into a message containing a tracking code, the mail tracker can gather even more information about what the recipient does with your e-mail.

Most mail trackers only work with Gmail, e.g. Mailtrack ( https://mailtrack.io ), Gmelius ( https://gmelius.com/email-tracking ) or Hunter ( https://hunter.io/mailtracker ). The free versions of these tools are sufficient for tracking the odd e-mail. Note. Hunter is completely free.

Boomerang ( https://www.boomerangapp.com ) runs both in Outlook and Gmail, and on your smartphone via an app, while Bananatag ( https://bananatag.com/email-tracking ) also supports Outlook. A universal and free tracker is GetNotify ( https://www.getnotify.com ), which allows you to track an e-mail message by pasting .getnotify.com behind the recipient’s address. Tip. Free trackers sometimes insert a signature which tells recipients that you are using a tracker. It’s best to try this out this in advance.

For more intensive tracking, or if you want more in-depth analysis, turn to a customer management tool such as Streak ( https://www.streak.com - Gmail + Gsuite) or SalesHandy ( https://www.saleshandy.com - Gmail + Gsuite, Outlook + Office 365).

To track newsletters, we recommend that you send your mailings through a specialised provider such as MailChimp ( https://mailchimp.com ) - analysis reports are included in the service. For smaller mailing campaigns, i.e. up to 2,000 contacts, MailChimp is free.

Don’t…

Mail trackers are used very frequently. You can bet that every promotional e-mail message you receive will contain one or more trackers. However, in the case of personal messages this is not always immediately clear. Do you get the uncomfortable feeling that you are being watched? You can do something about it by taking a few simple steps.

Gmail users can install the Gmail plug-in Ugly Email ( https://uglyemail.com ). It displays an eye icon next to each message that contains a tracker. You can open messages marked like this safely, because Ugly Email blocks the detected trackers automatically.

By not allowing your mail app to automatically download images in messages, you can thwart a lot of trackers. This setting is possible in most mail apps (but not in the Gmail app on iOS).

Finally, you can use Email Privacy Tester ( https://www.emailprivacytester.com ) to find out what kind of trackers your mail app is sensitive to. This will show you whether you should change the privacy settings, or whether it’s best to switch to another app altogether.