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Our company delivers leads via email to our customers from our website. So we store those leads in our database. I want to be able to track if the email is received by the destination, opened, or if its bounced back or considered spam. I then want to update the database entry so I can quickly see if the lead made it through. A buddy suggested SendGrid as a SAS or PowerMTA as a exim replacement. I was just curious if anyone else had any good ideas?

Thanks,

Chris Edwards

+2  A: 

Although this won't work for everyone, it's quite a neat little trick that will tell you that some people have definitely opened their emails...

put an img tag in your email as so:

<img src="http://yourserver.com/emailOpened?userID=[[theUsersID]]" />

When the email is opened, a request is made to your server for the image. you can match up the [[theUsersID]] with the user in your database, and you know they have received and opened the email.

As stated - it won't work for everyone - a lot of email clients will not open images by default, but it will tell inform you that some people have definitely opened the email, and you will know who they are.

Paul
As you said, most e-mail clients block this sort of thing now - because most people don't want you to know whether or not they've opened your e-mail.
Dominic Rodger
Now that's a sneaky little trick, but I like it!
Mitchel Sellers
It is a little sneaky - used to use it for marketing emails I sent out - the emails were very picture heavy - and the mailing list was opt in - the people wanted these emails... the vast majority clicked the download images link - worked surprisingly well!
Paul
If you use this for unsolicited mail, it's a sure-fire way to get on the kill list.
Aaron Digulla
Absolutely agree - you need to be very careful if you are doing anything like this, and make sure your customers want the correspondence you are sending them. no one wants another unwanted mail clogging up their inbox
Paul