Signals email opened tracker does not work

[SteveBruceHKG]

HubSpot's email open tracking feature was always one of my favourite things about the platform. 

Seems it stopped working a while ago which is a shame. 

Some research reveals: 

When you send a marketing email, or a tracked sales email, HubSpot embeds an invisible one-pixel image into the email message once it is sent. When your recipient views the email and the images load, you will receive a notification that the email has been opened.

If the recipient's email client doesn't allow the track pixel to load, HubSpot will not be able to track the email open. HubSpot tracking can be deactivated in the following situations:

• The recipient formats their email in plain text.
• The recipient's email client doesn't automatically download images.
• The recipient's corporate filter strips away all images for incoming emails.

If the recipient has a very strict spam filter where they block any images or link tracking from loading in emails, your tracked email could be filtered as spam. However, email tracking tools are common, and the majority of email clients will not view your email any differently than before.

Anyone know if there is a workaround for this? 

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/connected-email/understand-hubspot-sales-email-open-and-click-tracking...

Looking forward to learning if there's a solution here. 

Thanks! 

Steve Bruce | LinkedIn Trainer

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @SteveBruceHKG,

As far as I know, there aren't any updates on this yet. It's constant negotiation between sales and marketing tracking tools one the one side and email service providers, IT departments and privacy legislation on the other side – with the latter group eventually winning.

I wouldn't consider this a revelation through research, this functionality and its limitation have been known for quite a while. What has changed recently is that the open data has become even more unreliable: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Email-Marketing-Tool/iOS-15-let-s-talk-about-it/m-p/499877 – in other words, even if you are able to capture the open information, it might not be valid.

In my opinion, it's less about trying to figure out a way to still track recipients and more about finding modes of working that don't require that information. I find it very unlikely that email service providers and IT departments chose to loosen their requirements and policies.

In terms of workarounds, here's what comes to mind:

• If contacts have accepted cookies and previously filled a website form, you'll see website visits in your CRM which can be used as a proxy for email clicks.
• HubSpot documents can be a way to know for sure whether a recipient engages with your content: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/documents/use-documents

So generally, you would try less to get the actual open and click information and measure a following conversion. It requires a shift in mindset however and stakeholders often obsess over open and click information.

Hope this helps!