Ask HN: What email tools do you use to track opens?
For some outbound email we use Mailchimp, but a lot of first time emails also go out through Gmail. What tools do you use and what are their pros/cons?
Seems liek they just embed an image in your email. When it loads, they have a unique ID so they know which email was opened. Now, most email apps are starting to block images from displaying by default. Wouldn't this HUGELY skew the open rates? And if these rates are inconsistent (image week 0 default gmail is to open images, week 3 it's turned off... how could you make that comparison?)
So you could have massive swings in open rates due to a specific provider changing their policies. Or any number of other reasons.
So why do you track opens at all? Isn't that metric so inconsistent and inaccurate that it'd be better to track something else entirely?
Tracking opens for 'cold emails' or even referral-based emails is important but can be replaced with persistence. As long as persistence is constrained with a measure of decency.
I get referrals from the businesses who join our site and use email to initiate outreach to them. I just want to know who's opening versus who's not as it affects what script we use for a follow up phone call.