Email tracking is the process of tracking emails that you send to your customers through mass mailings or individual emails. When a user receives an email, they take certain actions with it: they may open it, read it, click on a link, or simply delete it without ever knowing what it says. An email tracking service helps you track these actions and use the information you receive to make informed, data-driven business decisions.
What can be tracked using email tracking?
There is a lot of data that can be obtained using email tracking. In particular, email tracking provides the following information:
Was the email opened?
Did the recipient click on any links in the email?
Was the letter delivered?
Did the recipient unsubscribe from the newsletter?
Whether the recipient marked the email as spam.
Did the recipient respond to your email?
How email tracking works
The popularity of email marketing and, consequently, email tracking continues to grow. The software market is actively developing tracking technologies. However, regardless of the mechanism used, the general principle used in the email tracking process remains the same.
Open email tracking: To track the number of times an email is “viewed,” email tracking services use what’s called a tracking pixel. The system adds a very small, 1-pixel-wide, 1-pixel-high image that’s invisible to the human eye at the bottom of the email. As soon as the recipient opens the message, their ISP makes a request to the server to retrieve this image. This request means that the user has viewed the email and is recorded as a “view.”
Click tracking:
In order to be able to register a click on a link, each link in the email is converted into one that first leads to the email system and then redirects to the actual link. This allows you to track clicks.
Unsubscribe Tracking . When a user unsubscribes from a newsletter, they also click on a link. So the same technology is used to track unsubscribes as it is to track clicks in email lists. The only difference is that the system knows that it is an unsubscribe link.
Response tracking can be implemented in different ways across email systems. The most popular methods include using mobile phone number data updated 2025 an open tracking pixel and comparing email subject lines.
Why is email tracking needed and how is it useful for a seller and marketer?
It’s a given that analytics are necessary. But let’s see what email tracking specifically provides and whether it’s worth using it.
Email tracking allows you to find out how many emails were actually delivered and read . You can have a large but inactive email address base click-through rate (CTR) and time spent on page and send emails over and over again, concluding that email marketing is ineffective. Or you can interact only with an active audience, thereby tracking the real results of your emails.
Email tracking software provides insights that can be used to optimize your email campaigns . You can assess which content types, topics, and attachments are most engaging to your target audience.
You can use these insights to improve your next email campaign
With the help of an email tracking service, you will not only find out if the email was opened, but also how many times it was opened . Thus, it can be assumed that users who actively and repeatedly view the email are the most interested in bfb directory the offer. It may make sense to prepare a separate mailing for them.
Overall, email tracking data is used to develop a more specific and personalized offer for interested users, which means saving time, effort, and increasing conversion. Instead of sending emails to nowhere again and again, you can consciously manage your mailings, basing your business decisions on real facts.
Learn about the most common cold email mistakesarrow right
How to set up email tracking using NetHunt CRM as an example
When choosing an email tracking service, you need to make sure that the tool you invest in is suitable for your current business tasks and provides exactly the capabilities you need to track emails.
NetHunt CRM is a customer relationship management program that provides a wide range of features, including free mass mailings via Gmail and email tracking.
Setting up email tracking in NetHunt CRM is extremely simple.
Step 1. To get started, go to the Settings menu. From the drop-down list, select Preferences and Email Open/Click tracking. Check if tracking is enabled by default:
If you don’t want to track certain domains or links, you can add them to the exclusion list:
Step 2. When creating an email, there are two icons on the bottom panel. The eye means that opening the email will be recorded. The icon with the index finger gives access to information about link tracking. Here you can see which links clicks will be tracked and disable tracking of unnecessary ones:
Conclusions
Email tracking is a must-have for companies that use mass mailings. Email tracking services offer a variety of options. However, if you don’t plan to set up end-to-end analytics in the near future, we recommend opting for simple and inexpensive solutions that provide enough functionality for your current business needs.
Email tracking is free for NetHunt CRM users, as is unlimited mass mailings via Gmail. Of course, NetHunt’s functionality is not limited to email tracking.
