tracking emails
ok clever people
i send out html emails from my mlm tool
i now want to be able to tarck the open rate
from what i understand the way to do this is to put an image in the html
that image call is what you use to track the numbe rof people that open the email you sent
what i dont get is how to to th ein between bit
how can my php track the number of image calls?
anyone?
JP
Mark Hensler posted this at 17:39 — 16th September 2005.
He has: 4,048 posts
Joined: Aug 2000
Make the img path to your php file...
your.com/fake_image.php
The php file can increment a number anywhere (flat file, DB, etc), then return the binary code for any image you want.
Mark Hensler
If there is no answer on Google, then there is no question.
Greg K posted this at 18:23 — 16th September 2005.
He has: 2,145 posts
Joined: Nov 2003
a better way of tracking that we use:
all e-mail addresses are in a database, each one has a unique ID #
then we call the image:
http://ourdomain.com/track/email.php?id=[ID #]
The email.php script goes into the database and sets a timestamp on a field to indicate it was read, then it feeds out an actual image.
This way we can know not only the # of people viewing it we can produce reports on certain markets only. Also with this way, if someone looks at the e-mail 20 times, it isn't recorded as 20 veiwings.
As with all tracking via e-mail (even the simple little RETURN RECEIPT), keep in mind that people can still view the e-mail without you knowing about it. (ie. I have Eudora set to not automatically download any images, or display it as a web page. If it is someone I turst and need it dispalyed as a webpage, I right click and choose OPEN IN BROWSER).
Good luck, let us know if you need more help!
-Greg
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