Opens, Clicks, and Forwards are important metrics to understand when you review your mailing reports. These metrics are the indicators of:
- whether your recipients are interacting and engaging with your mailing and
- how your recipients are interacting and engaging with your mailing.
It's important that you review and understand these metrics so that you can, if necessary, make changes to your mailings in order to increase engagement. Consider:
- Opens: Is the Subject of the message engaging so that recipients are enticed into opening the mailing?
- Clicks: Are the links poorly placed or too obscure such that recipients aren't clicking them?
- Forwards: Is the content of a mailing engaging enough such that recipients are inspired to share it with others?
These are only some of the questions you should consider as you review a MAR — especially if you're not getting the engagement you expect.
This article describes what Opens, Clicks, and Forwards are and how they are gathered by Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional).
Opens
An Open is recorded when a recipient either opens the mailing or views the mailing in the preview pane.
Notes
- Opens can be recorded because a 0x0-pixel tracker image (in the HTML version of mailings) gets downloaded and registers back to an ASP page, letting Thrive Marketing Professional know that a recipient has opened the mailing.
- If the tracker image is not downloaded, Thrive Marketing Professional cannot register the Open — unless the Open can be inferred due to a Click or a Forward action.
- Opens are recorded for HTML versions of mailings only because Text versions do not include the tracker image.
Duration
When a recipient opens a mailing, a connection is established between the server and the email. Thrive Marketing Professional will check three times to see whether the connection is still active, and will then assign a status based on the duration of the active connection.
The status assignments are:
| Connection Check | Occurs | Finding | Status Assigned |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | Upon initial open | Message open | Open |
| Second | Three (3) seconds later |
Connection still active = No Connection still active = Yes |
Open Skim |
| Third | After ten (10) seconds have elapsed from the initial open |
Connection still active = No Connection still active = Yes |
Skim Read |
Thrive Marketing Professional will stop tracking time after the mailing is recorded as Read. For example, if a recipient clicks a mailing in an email client and this causes the mailing to remain open in a preview pane, the mailing connection will be counted as Read as soon as ten seconds have passed.
There are additional considerations when assessing these statuses. For example, image downloads could increase the length of time that the mailing (and therefore, the connection) is open, resulting in the mailing being assigned a misleading status of Read. Thrive Marketing Professional can also determine and report on the type of device (mobile or desktop/laptop) that was used to open the mailing.
Clicks
When recipients click a link in a mailing, Thrive Marketing Professional records a Click for the mailing (this excludes "bookmarks" in a mailing). When Thrive Marketing Professional records a Click, it also automatically records an Open, because you have to open a mailing in order to click a link.
Forwards
Forwards are recorded when recipients forward a mailing. Thrive Marketing Professional records a forward when a mailing ID is detected as an Open or Click from a second IP address.
Thrive Marketing Professional infers an Open action on the part of the original recipient because most email clients require users to open a message before forwarding it.
Improve your communications
Use the Opens, Clicks, and Forwards metrics to better understand how recipients interact and engage with your mailings. Then, use this information when you design templates and mailings so that you can get the most out of your efforts. If you periodically check these metrics, you might find that you're sending mailings that your recipients interact with more.