How can I tell how many people receive text vs html versions of emails?

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to configure an Email Performance Report to show data on HTML vs Text versions of emails? It would be useful to know how many people are receiving our text versions and how they perform vs HTML. Any way to do this in Marketo?

[Josh_Hill13 · Accepted solution]

No, there is not a way to do this right now. Think of it this way - all leads receive both versions using the MIME format. Their email viewer is set to read HTML or Text version. Some old clients like PINE will only see the text version. Thus, everyone receives both. I would expect the number of text only viewers to be in the 10% or less range for most businesses. For people like sysadmins or security folks, it's possible this is higher.

If you want to test this, i would create a Text Only email and a regular email, then do a whole email test. I know of pro-bloggers who write only in text or mostly text and it works well. Your audience may feel otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Okay. Thank you, Josh. I do understand how it works and there are lots of email platforms that figure out which version is received and report on that. I wanted a feel for how much of our audience was receiving the text-only versions vs HTML so sending a text only email wouldn't answer the question. Thanks again.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Denise, not only is Josh correct, but there are no email platforms that can figure out which version is read by recipients who do not take any actions and do not read the HTML version with images enabled.

The only unattended user action that can be logged is downloading a tracking pixel (which only works for HTML recipients with images enabled and without any other firewall restrictions).  Text readers who only read the email but do not follow your CTA can't be logged, period.  No magic can tell you that I read your text version in my email client, nor that I read your HTML version (since I disable images by default).  (Not to mention that you won't know if I read thoroughly or just lingered for an extra sec while deleting.)

If you're willing to restrict your test population to only those who positively click a link, then have different links in the HTML and text versions.

[Mihai_Bejgu]

@ Sanford Whiteman I would like to disagree with you. I have used a platform in the past, that could tell me exactly how many people received the text vs the HTML version and this happened 5 years ago... If you're interested of the name of the platform I can tell you which one, but I don't think it's relevant right now.

The point is, I need the same thing right now, to see the impact of a newsletter that was sent out and the text version wasn't updated.. so there's no way I can tell who those people are, to re-send an apology email?

Kind regards,

Mihai

[SanfordWhiteman]

There's no room for disagreement.  If the links in the text and HTML versions of the email are identical, and the lead doesn't download a tracking pixel, there is no difference in the resulting HTTP request to the tracking server.  If an HTML viewer does not download the tracking pixel and does not click a link, there is no activity of any kind sent to the tracking server. If a text-only reader takes no action, there is no activity sent to the tracking server. These are non-negotiable, absolute network-level realities.

Now, if you vary the links in the text and HTML versions, and someone does take action, naturally the tracking server can tell the difference.

There's also no such thing as "receiving" the text or HTML version for a multipart message: everyone receives both parts.  But if you send different emails, one that's HTML only and one with text only, then the links could be the same and the emails will be tracked differently (as all Marketo emails are).  But there must be activity to track.  Viewing an email without downloading any remote content by definition does not fetch data over the network.

By all means, tell me the platform, and I'll tell you what it actually was doing.