Many of you already know the common definition of assume; if not, look at the word again and break it into smaller pieces: ass_u_me because that’s just what happens when you “assume” something.
ACT E-Marketing is a wonderful tool. It’s easy, inexpensive and it works directly from ACT. And, as is the case with all e-mail service providers (ESP’s) there is a wealth of data that we can collect on our e-marketing campaigns. One of the most important pieces of data is the “read rate” percentage which shows you the overall success of your ACT E-Marketing campaign. Unfortunately, those read rates are often much lower than we would hope for. Don’t “assume” that this is because people aren’t reading your message.
In a nutshell, there are a few rules as to what does – and does not – constitute an opened or “read” message.
The following scenarios constitute an open for ACT E-Marketing reporting:
- If the recipient opens an email and views the images within an ACT E-Marketing message. That means if the recipient has graphics disabled in Outlook the message is considered unopened and unread.
- If the recipient clicks on a link.
- If the recipient views the message from within the viewing pane of Microsoft Outlook provided that viewing images is enabled.
- If the recipient forwards the message to other people.
The following scenarios do *not* count as opens for ACT E-Marketing’s reporting:
- Viewing a plain text message (An ACT E-Marketing template saved as PlainText_templatename.)
- If the recipient’s email reader is set to show all email as plain text.
- Viewing an ACT E-Marketing e-mail with images disabled and not clicking any links.
- Viewing a Swiftpage email from a PDA (such as a Blackberry or other smart phone) or phone that does not allow images and/or html.
