Outlook Preview Pane - Counts as Open?

Ayan_Talukder · ‎03-10-2016

Not entirely a Marketo question, but was curious how Marketo reads emails that are "read" when viewed in the Preview Pane in Outlook.

Does an "Open" count when an someone has an email marked as read / viewed in the Preview Pane? Couldn't find an answer online that verified this, so I wanted to see how Marketo handles this.

I assume links clicked from the Preview Pane get counted, but does that skew the Click to Open % if the Preview Pane does not count? I read somewhere inputting a 1 x 1 tracking pixel / web beacon inserted into an email can help verify the true open number. Any validity to this?

Thanks in advance!

Dan_Stevens_ · ‎03-10-2016

Any time an email - when images are turned on in an email client - contains a hidden tracking pixel and has the opportunity to ping the originating server (Marketo), it will be tracked as an open. So yes, viewing the email in a preview pane will count as an open. Which is why "opens" aren't a very reliable metric. An email that someone deletes - but still has time to render quickly in the preview pane - will be counted as an open. Which is why I would love to see a report like this available in Marketo someday - where it breaks down the types of opens by the length the email is being viewed:

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