Email tracking is a useful feature that allows you to know when your recipients open your emails, click on links, or download attachments.
Email tracking is a useful feature that allows you to know when your recipients open your emails, click on links, or download attachments.
However, sometimes you may encounter false positives, such as when you open your own email in the sent folder or when your email client automatically downloads embedded images. This can skew your tracking data and give you inaccurate insights into your email performance.
Fortunately, there is a way to prevent false email tracking with Nylas, a platform that provides email, calendar, and contacts APIs for developers.
Nylas offers a tracking pixel that is created in a certain format: [US] or [EU], depending on the region of your account. This format allows Nylas to distinguish between the sender and the recipient of the email, and to avoid counting the sender’s actions as opens or clicks.
However, this does not mean that you can completely rely on the tracking pixel alone. There are some scenarios where you may need to take additional steps to ensure accurate email tracking with Nylas.
Here are some of them:
– If you are loading the email via your application, using the Nylas API, then you can programmatically hide the URL of the tracking pixel from the sender. This way, the sender will not trigger the tracking pixel when they view their own email in the application. This is something that the application developers will need to do, as Nylas does not provide this functionality out of the box.
– If you are opening the email on the provider’s web interface, such as Gmail or Outlook, then you will need to use a tool that blocks URLs like an adblocker, or disable the downloading or opening of embedded images in your email settings.
This will prevent the tracking pixel from being loaded when you open your own email in the sent folder. However, this may also affect your ability to view images from other emails, so you will need to weigh the pros and cons of this approach.
– Another way to handle false tracking is by disregarding the open recorded against the account’s IP address. For this to work, you will need to know the client’s IP address and filter out any opens that match it. This can be done by using the Nylas webhooks feature, which allows you to receive notifications when an email is opened or clicked. You can then compare the IP address of the webhook event with your own IP address and ignore any matches.
By following these steps, you can avoid false email tracking with Nylas and get more accurate data on your email performance. You can also use Nylas to access other features such as sending emails, syncing calendars and contacts, and integrating with various providers. To learn more about Nylas and how it can help you with your email needs, visit their website.
Comparison with other solutions
Nylas is one of the email tracking solutions that you can use to monitor your email performance. However, there are other alternatives that you can compare with Nylas to see which one suits your needs better. Here are some of the features and prices of different email tracking software:
– EmailAnalytics (Gmail & Outlook): This is an email activity monitoring app for teams that tracks metrics such as emails sent and received, email response time, emails by label, popular times and days, top senders and recipients, hourly traffic breakdown, and team email tracking. It does not track opens and clicks, but it provides web push notifications for them. It offers a 14-day free trial and then costs $15 per user per month¹.
– RightInbox (Gmail only): This is a Gmail productivity plugin that tracks email opens and clicks, as well as offers features such as email scheduling, reminders, recurring emails, sequences, signatures, templates, and more. It offers a free plan with limited features and then costs $7.95 per user per month for the unlimited plan².
– MailTracker by Hunter (Gmail only): This is a free email tracking tool that tracks email opens and clicks, as well as provides information on the recipient’s location, device, and browser. It also integrates with Hunter.io, an email finder and verifier service³.
– SalesHandy (Gmail & Outlook): This is an email outreach and sales engagement platform that tracks email opens and clicks, as well as offers features such as email scheduling, follow-up automation, templates, mail merge, document tracking, live meeting, and analytics. It offers a free plan with limited features and then costs $9 per user per month for the regular plan or $20 per user per month for the plus plan⁴.
– Mailtrack (Gmail only): This is a simple email tracking tool that tracks email opens and clicks with a double-check mark system. It offers a free plan with limited features and then costs $9.99 per user per month for the pro plan or $19.99 per user per month for the unlimited plan.
– Vocus.io (Gmail only): This is an email productivity suite that tracks email opens and clicks, as well as offers features such as email scheduling, reminders, templates, mail merge, sequences, attachments tracking, meeting scheduler, CRM integration, and analytics. It offers a 30-day free trial and then costs $5 per user per month for the starter plan or $10 per user per month for the professional plan.
– Yesware (Gmail & Outlook): This is an email tracking and sales productivity platform that tracks email opens and clicks, as well as offers features such as email scheduling, reminders, templates, mail merge, sequences, calls tracking, meeting scheduler, CRM integration, and analytics. It offers a 14-day free trial and then costs $15 per user per month for the pro plan or $35 per user per month for the premium plan.
As you can see, there are many options to choose from when it comes to email tracking software. You should consider your budget, your goals, your preferences, and your compatibility with each tool before making a decision. I hope this comparison helps you find the best tracking solution for you.