Understanding how to track email opens is crucial to your email marketing success. However, tracking email opens is not a stand alone strategy; you also need to learn how to build a smart list from the email opens you have.
Your email marketing strategy starts with building an email list. While this can be achieved with a very enticing lead magnet, it takes much more to retain these subscribers.
You need to understand the content type that resonates with your audience, the more compelling CTAs, and the resources your audience needs. You can only get this information if you know how to track email opens.
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Ways to track email opens
There are different ways to track email opens, including:
1. Read receipts
Some email clients, like Gmail and Outlook, provide features like read receipts. When enabled, this feature gives you an instant notification that allows you to track email opens from each user.
The disadvantage is that it is based on individual mail settings. If a user disables the read receipts feature from their mail, you will be unable to track their email opens, leading to inaccurate data.
2. Email tracking tools
Some tools provide a more personalized and accurate way of tracking email opens. These tools use advanced techniques to gather real-time data on user engagement.
For example, email tracking tools use pixel tracking and link click tracking to track email opens.
Pixel tracking involves embedding certain images in your emails that, when downloaded, are fetched from a server and tracked. Link click tracking works when you include a trackable link in your mail, and you can track whether a reader has clicked on the link.
3. Unique tracking links
This is similar to using an email tracking tool.
However, the main difference is that unique tracking links give you more information on user engagement by allowing you to include multiple trackable links unique to each part of your content.
With this data, you can determine how many people interact with each part of your content and which part of the email drives the highest engagement.
4. Email client settings
Some email marketing platforms and services, like MailChimp, Gmail, etc., offer additional built-in features that enable you to track email opens, clicks, and other metrics.
You can check with your email marketing provider to confirm if they offer additional features for tracking email opens besides read receipts.
5. Third-party plugins and extensions
Some third-party plugins and extensions offer tracking features. These plugins can be integrated into your email marketing platform to help track email opens. For example, WordPress has an email tracker that allows you to track email opens and clicks along with the date and time. Mailtrack and Yesware are among other third-party plugins and extensions that can be used to track email opens.
Why is building a smart list of email opens important?
- It improves subscriber engagement
- It helps with targeted follow-up
- It helps improve your return on investment (ROI)
- It provides data-driven insights
- It leads to higher conversion rates
Best practices for building a smart list
Here are some of my best practices for creating targeted smart lists:
1. Choose a credible email marketing platform
Many email marketing platforms allow you to create a smart list that helps segment your subscribers. When choosing a platform, consider the overall goal of your business and how it can help you achieve that.
This will make curating your list, properly segmenting your audience, and creating email campaigns easier.
A platform like MailDrip makes it seamless for anyone to get started regardless of their marketing knowledge. All you have to do is create an account and start customizing your sign-up page.
2. Segment your email list for personalized offers
Email marketing segmentation is akin to planning a party and dividing your guests into groups based on their personalities and interests. You group them into smaller, more personal groups, each consisting of individuals with similar interests in cuisine, hobbies, or music.
With email marketing, you can create segments based on subscribers’ interests.
For example, as a digital marketer, you can create a segmented list based on the different digital marketing interests of your subscribers, such as blog marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, paid advertising, etc. You can also create segments based on subscribers’ actions—those who clicked on a product but didn’t make a purchase, those who have made a previous purchase, those who have items in their cart, etc.
3. A/B testing for email performance optimization
Consider employing the A/B testing method in email marketing.
In A/B testing, you draft two versions of an email, one with a few minor adjustments—a distinct subject line, revised text, or a different call-to-action button.
For example, we once discovered that personalizing the names of each recipient—on a first-name basis—increased the email open rates. Using a more direct subject line also seemed to impact subscribers positively, leading them to more open rates.
Twerk the testing mode and check which one works well for your campaign, then go for it!
4. Update your list frequently
Ensure that the smart list of everyone who opened your outreach email is constantly updated. This will prevent accidental email opens from being mixed up with active ones.
Updating your smart list of email opens will also ensure that you can detect emails that have been deleted, inactive, or unsubscribed.
Track the inactive ones, follow up, and improve engagement on the active ones to increase leads and conversion rates.
How to track email opens with MailDrip.
Here’s how you can track your email opens using MailDrip:
- Login to MailDrip account
- Go to ‘instant emails’, then click on ‘detailed report’ of any completed mail sent.
- This brings you to the page showing the open rate, total mails opened and click through rate.
Conclusion
Tracking email opens helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your email campaigns and identify flaws in your subject lines or content.
When you understand how to track email opens, you can identify which email campaigns are welcomed and which are ignored.
By combining your open email tracking efforts with creating a smart list, you can effectively segment your subscribers into different categories and create targeted campaigns for each category.
Practicing the tips highlighted in this blog post can elevate your email marketing and increase your business’s engagement rates, conversions, and income.
Use MailDrip to simplify your email marketing strategies today!
READ MORE: 5 SHOCKING REASONS WHY YOUR EMAIL CLICK-THROUGH RATE IS LOW
