How do I know when a lead ACTUALLY opens the email?

[Anonymous]

I understand that Marketo has a way to track opens, but we've been getting feedback from our lead gen team that many of them never heard of us and deny they even received an email.

I'm well aware that during the call, we need to be able to train our lead gen specialists to avoid being the least bit presumptuous, but I just wanted to see if anyone else has had similar results with opens.

Thanks,

JK

[Anonymous]

I would first see if they are opening the email just to unsubscribe and work from there.

You can drill into each lead record to see when they opened the email.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The way we track opens is whether or not an image in the email loads. This can happen when an email is previewed or actually opened, and you can also get some false positives from some automated mail filtering software. Also, it is pretty common for folks to not load images and therefore NOT trigger opens even if they do them.

Sierra's comments are good for finding the when. My other advice is to use Click Link in email instead, it implies a high level of engagement and is more of a reliable event. 

[Anonymous]

Didn't know that previews were reading as opened too. Thanks for clarifying.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the email client, but it can work that way.

[Andy_Varshneya1]

I'm having a similar issue, and am trying to figure out the right way to build the smart lists. I've noticed on a couple emails we've sent out that every contact in the company (approximately 30 people) has reported clicking on the CTA in the same minute, which tells me that their mail filtering software is trigering the false positive.

However, I want to isolate only those who have truly clicked the CTA in an email. Knowing that people also click on the CTA without loading the images on the page, what would be the best way to go? A few options I'm considering:

1) Use only the filter Clicked Link in Email
2) Use the filters Opened Email and Clicked Link in Email
3) Use the filters Clicked Link in Email and Visited Page

Any feedback?