Here is a closer look at open tracking within Zift123 including the use of web beacons and how we define an open. Opens refer to either email or campaign open rates. It is the number of times a recipient of an email sent from Zift123 was opened.

A web beacon is an invisible graphic, unique per email, that registers an open each time the graphic is downloaded. This technique is the industry standard for calculating opens and further reinforces that marketers should only be sending emails to people who desire your marketing (opt-in). However, there are limitations to this technique, as it will not work in plain-text campaigns or among recipients who have chosen not to download your images. Until the recipient clicks to show content or displays images (or even better, selects “Always show content from…”), the campaign won’t be recorded as opened. Encourage your recipients to whitelist your marketing to drive better open rate calculation.

An open is registered in your campaign report when a recipient opens a campaign or email that has images enabled.

An implied open happens when a recipient has clicked on one or more of the links included in your campaign, without having actually viewed or displayed any of the images. Contacts who receive the plain-text version of your campaign will also register as implied opens when they click a link.

An unopened email is a message that was never opened by the recipient, or a campaign that may have been opened but had no images enable and the recipient didn’t click on any links or perform any other actions.

Note: Sometimes aggressive destination email server diagnostic tools can artificially inflate your open count.

Learn more How does Zift123 track email opens.