Track Open Emails

You must have a web site in order for email open tracking to work.

If you have the web module installed, all you need to do is select "Manage" -> "Enable Open Tracking..."

The rest of this section explains how to implement tracking opened emails on your website. It is assumed readers have a good understanding of website setup and web programming.

The internet email protocol used everyday does not contain support for open tracking. In order to track when an email is opened, a reference to a small 1x1 pixel image is inserted into the email sent. Once the email is opened the pixel image is accessed. The web site that hosts the image then knows the email has been opened.

The pixel image is usually called a "pixel tag". It is so small that the image is usually not visible. Here are the steps:

1. BroadcastByEmail inserts an unique reference to the pixel tag in each email it sends
2. The email is opened and the pixel tag is accessed
3. The web site that hosts the image inserts the access count to its database
4. BroadcastByEmail checks the website database to see which emails have been opened

Please note that some email client programs are now disabling image access to combat email spam. So some emails cannot be tracked.