Data Management Strategies – Managing Chronic Non-responders (never open or click) Part I

[Brian_Law_MKTO]

Whether you are a major enterprise or a small start-up, managing chronic non-responders, records who never open or click your emails, will help protect your sender reputation by reducing the chance for a spam compliant.

The first step is to identify the records who haven’t opened or clicked any emails during the past year or whatever timeframe you prefer.

Smart List - Not Opened or Clicked Any Email in Past Year

In this example I am setting the Min. Number of Emails sent to a record to 20.

FYI - It is possible to click an email without opening it.

Activity log example:

Here is an alternative way to get the same results.

Smart List #1 - Not Opened Any Email in Past Year

In this example I am setting the Min. Number of Emails sent to a record to 20.

Smart List #2 - Clicked Any Email in Past Year

Smart List #3 - Not Opened or Clicked Any Email in Past Year

In my next article I will demonstrate how to set the records to Marketing Suspended to prevent accidentally sending them a promotional email while you determine a strategy to get them to re-engage.

Here is Part II of this article.

By the way, here is a similar article about identifying your chronic non-responders and the importance of managing them written by Kristen Carmean.

[Anonymous]

Hi Brian Law​,

This is awesome! Just one question, what do you know about emails considered as Opened when you just scroll them down in your mobile device. Is that a myth or a fact? Have  you been able to test this?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Karina, any action that loads images counts as an Open.

[Brian_Law_MKTO]

Sanford is correct, once the tracking pixel image is downloaded Marketo counts the email as Open.

[Alex_Venus]

Hey Brian, thanks for these insights. Maybe I missed it, but how can someone click an email without opening it? (as seen in your activity log screenshot)

[Dan_Stevens_]

Alex - if the user's email client has images disabled, the Marketo tracking pixel will not render - and therefore will not register an open.  But the click activity will still be tracked.  Once Marketo registers a click, it will also consider the email to be "opened" for reporting purposes.  It just won't show up in the activity log.

[Logan_Paulich]

Thanks for the insight, Brian. Would you then be using this as an exclusion list for future sends or would you remove them completely from your data base?