Shocking discovery about autoresponders

13 replies
There stats are all incorrect if you are sending out text emails , which 90% of marketers are . One of their support guys told me today that if you are using text emails, the stats will show up incorrectly. In order words you might think you have many people opening your emails when infact only a few are and visa versa . I was checking one of my lists today and the stats said that on one of the emails , i had only 200 people open the email and had 1400 click on the link in the email. Here is what the aweber support guy said.

"I see what is happening. Click tracking will be accurate. Open rate will not. Open rate tracking only applies for messages in HTML format. Click tracking applies for messages in both formats. Open Rate tracking applies for messages in HTML format. I am sorry, but anybody here will inform you of the same thing. Accurate results cannot be obtained for open rate tracking for messages in plain text format only. The reason why open rates are even recorded for messages in plain text is because I see you have the analytics package. When the analytics is on your page the open rates are captured whenever a link is clicked. As I stated before, I apologize for the inconvenience"

Its pretty scary to think that aweber is probably the leading autoresponder system online and that there tracking is all wrong when you use text emails.

Getting your subscribers to open you emails takes a lot of time, effort and testing and if aweber cannot give accurate results it makes the job impossible to improve on.
#aweber #discovery #shocking
  • Profile picture of the author Ron Douglas
    From my understanding, tracking open rates for an email requires some type of hidden image placed in the message. The open rate counts how many times that image is viewed.

    No email program can track open rates for plain text emails. It's not an Aweber specific issue.
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    • Profile picture of the author jonnoryan
      Ok but then they should not show any stats at all for open rates if you are using text emails. I would assume 90% of people using text emails when they are list building. They check their stats in aweber and start tweaking their subject lines, content etc accordingly . However the stats they are using as a reference are all wrong . This can be very damaging in any list building campaign.
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      • Profile picture of the author Justin Jordan
        " Ok but then they should not show any stats at all for open rates if you are using text emails."

        Actually, no. What the tech guy told you is that the opens that are recorded for plain text are inferred from clicks, so you know at least that many are being opened. It's not as if they're just giving you a random number - the number is the minimum opens.

        You can use that information to tweak your campaign, but you'll never know the exact numbers. If the open rate for plain text goes up or down, you'll know whether your changes are working for against you. You do not need to know the real numbers, only the relative numbers.

        The point is the clicks, anyway.

        It would be nice to know exact numbers, but that's not information anyone can give you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Ummm... You're shocked because they can't do the impossible?

      I would suggest, in this case, that you go find one autoresponder service or list host that claims they can track open rates on plain text emails.

      If you do, please let us know. I'd like to add them to my lying sacks of twit list.


      Paul
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      Stop by Paul's Pub - my little hangout on Facebook.

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  • Profile picture of the author YiKeS
    G`day,

    I`m sure if you can devise a way to track open rates in text emails
    you`ll make a furtune Even HTML email open rate tracking will be
    incorrect for the simple fact there are things beyond the control of
    aWeber.

    I don`t allow attachments or images ... so no tracking is recorded
    when I open aweber email ... maybe i`m wrong ... heck I don`t even
    need to open the email to read it ... and no tracking could be recorded
    when I do it this way ... (for the "suss" ones )

    Use the stats as a guide, not a rule .. you know whatever
    stats you have are below what actually should be recorded.


    YiKeS
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    AUSSIE MADE
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    Shock and awe indeed
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  • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
    Here's a thought...

    Send the emails in HTML but make them look like text.

    Problem solved... carry on.

    Tsnyder
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    If you knew what I know you'd be doing what I do...
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  • Profile picture of the author jonnoryan
    ok, ok, I will eat some humble pie

    But what is all the stuff about people increasing open rates on their emails if they have no accurate way of tracking these rates ? i have seen many times on this forum people giving % open rates for particular broadcasts etc,
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    • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
      Originally Posted by jonnoryan View Post

      ok, ok, I will eat some humble pie

      But what is all the stuff about people increasing open rates on their emails if they have no accurate way of tracking these rates ? i have seen many times on this forum people giving % open rates for particular broadcasts etc,
      See the post I just made directly above yours...

      Tsnyder
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      If you knew what I know you'd be doing what I do...
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    • Profile picture of the author Justin Jordan
      Originally Posted by jonnoryan View Post

      ok, ok, I will eat some humble pie

      But what is all the stuff about people increasing open rates on their emails if they have no accurate way of tracking these rates ? i have seen many times on this forum people giving % open rates for particular broadcasts etc,
      It's the relative numbers that are important. If you're sending plain text emails and aweber is reporting you have an open rate of, say, 10%, and you tweak the headline and get 12%, you don't really need to know the true, absolute number of opens to know you've improved.

      But it's the clicks that matter, yeah? As long as you're able to improve that number, why worry about the open?
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  • Profile picture of the author mmurtha
    Originally Posted by jonnoryan View Post

    Its pretty scary to think that aweber is probably the leading autoresponder system online and that there tracking is all wrong when you use text emails.
    I find it pretty shocking and scary that people like you run around the WF stating things like this when you have no idea what you are talking about.

    I dare you to find any autoresponder that is able to do what you claim Aweber does not. JUst one will do.

    Oh, you might want to change that subject line of yours too to read something like this, "Shocking discovery about autoresponders" taking out the name of Aweber. Unless you are deliberately trying to give them a black eye.


    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Anna Johnson
    Here's a thought...

    Send the emails in HTML but make them look like text.

    Problem solved... carry on.

    Tsnyder
    Problem is, because the email looks like text, people who have images off by default won't load them... which means your open rate may be lower than if the message looks like there are images in it. I'm not saying don't go down this path, but the stats may be misleading.

    ok, ok, I will eat some humble pie

    But what is all the stuff about people increasing open rates on their emails if they have no accurate way of tracking these rates ? i have seen many times on this forum people giving % open rates for particular broadcasts etc.
    They are referring to HTML emails. Btw, where did you get '90% of marketers use text emails'?
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