Track mass email campaigns

Question

Litmus released an email analytics service last month (may 2010).
See here: http://litmusapp.com/email-analytics

They boast a very cool "read rate" tracking: they can track normal reads, Skims, and Glanced/Deleted.

How can they track skims and glanced/deleted? This to me seems impossible :)

They also track forwards and prints. Prints are easy (they include a css @media print query with a bg image).

But forwards? I think this might be a combo between subsequent opens and different IPs/reffering URLs. However, this means that if I open my mail and re-read it from another computer, it counts as a forward. Any ideas on this one?

To summarize: Litmus Email Analytics says they can track email reads, skims, glanced/deleted, prints and forwards. How do they do it (skims, glanced/deleted and forwards)?

Tracking code: This is the code. You create a unique code for each list/campaign combination (so that you can track campaigns..) then you put the following html/css code before the tag of your email message.

<style>@media print{#_t { background-image: url('https://a6.emltrk.com/XX0000XX?p');}} div.OutlookMessageHeader, table.moz-email-headers-table, blockquote #_t {background-image:url('https://a6.emltrk.com/XX0000XX?f')}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div id="_t"></div><img src="https://a6.emltrk.com/XX0000XX" style="display:none" width="1" height="1" border="0" />

---

Test results:

With Gmail, print tracking works. Yahoo! somehow fails. Glances/Deleted actually works, I've tested.

Answer 1

The code works in the following way:

<style>
/* Print stylesheet */
@media print{
    #_t { 
        background-image: url('https://a6.emltrk.com/XX0000XX?p');
    }
}
/* Forward stylesheet */
div.OutlookMessageHeader, table.moz-email-headers-table, blockquote #_t {
    background-image:url('https://a6.emltrk.com/XX0000XX?f')
}
</style>

<!-- Extra DIV -->
<div id="_t"></div>

<!-- Main Image -->
<img src="https://a6.emltrk.com/XX0000XX" style="display:none" width="1" height="1" border="0" />

There is an image that gets loaded when the email is viewed. This counts the "opens" statistic.

There is also an extra div (with the id _t) which is referenced from a stylesheet. The @media print section applies a background image when the email is being printed. The url of the image has the additional p attribute, which probably tells Litmus that the email is being printed.

The forward statistic is calculated in a similar manner: a background image is loaded when certain elements are present. Outlook matches the div.OutlookMessageHeader, something else (looks like Thunderbird perhaps, given the moz) matches table.moz-email-headers-table, and everything else matches blockquote #_t (using the additional DIV again). These elements are created by the email client when the forwarded email is being composed. The image is this time loaded with the f flag, which tells Litmus to calculate the forward statistic.

These statistics must be taken with a grain of salt, however: most email clients will block images of any kind until the user decides to show them. Most webmail clients will completely strip out any stylesheets, which makes the print and forward statistics irrelevant for clients like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail.

I hope this makes sense! I haven't quite figured out the glanced/deleted statistic yet. When I do, I'll be sure to let you know.

Answer 2

How can anyone track skims? Is it that they track the open rate and no clickthroughs?

Answer 3

I wonder if for skims if it could request an image, but the src script sleeps for a few seconds, then does a 302 redirect to itself. It could count the number of times it got redirected, and stop redirecting after a certain amount of times to make sure the browser doesn't prompt with the redirect loop warning (but maybe browsers don't do that warning for images anyway, I've never tested it).