Sales Intelligence & Automation Blog

Email Tracking FAQ | Cirrus Insight

Written by Erika Desmond | Jun 17, 2014 4:00:00 AM

How does Email Tracking work?

When you enable Email Tracking on an email, Cirrus Insight will embed a small, transparent image in the email. The embedded image does not contain any personally identifiable information about you. When a recipient opens a tracked email, Cirrus Insight’s servers are notified. This notification includes the recipient’s approximate location (based on their IP address) and the type of device (i.e. web browser, mobile phone, tablet, etc). No personal information of any kind is included in this notification. To read more about our privacy policy, visit the Trustpage on our website.

What does Email Tracking track?

Cirrus Insight’s Email Tracking tracks when, where, and (in most cases) by whom an email is opened. Email Tracking will keep track of:
  • How many times the email was opened
  • When the email was opened
  • Where the email was opened
  • Which Salesforce record the tracked email was sent to

Also, our free Cirrus Analytics reporting app is able to tell you exactly which users and email templates are the most effective.

What does my recipient see when I send an email with Email Tracking?

Your recipient will see nothing out of the ordinary. They will not be aware that the email is being tracked. It will look exactly like a standard email message. Some email clients disable images by default. Due to the tracking technology that we use, this will make email tracking NOT work unless they click “Show Images” (or the equivalent option). In this case, the only thing “extra” in your email will be the option on their end to click “Show Images”.

Why am I being notified that “someone” opened my e-mail?

When a tracked email is opened, we can see only the approximate location of the open. If you send an email to multiple recipients, Cirrus Insight doesn’t know which recipient opened the email, so we report that “someone” opened it. In order to see individual names, send the email to one recipient at a time.

Why does Email Tracking require additional permissions?

Cirrus Insight will request additional permissions for Email Tracking so that it can prevent “opens” when you open an email you’ve sent. Without these permissions, the tracking pixel embedded in the email will notify us of an open, even if your recipient hasn’t opened the email yet.

What does ‘Mute All Notifications’ do?

The “Mute All Notifications” will turn off notifications for all emails you’ve tracked in the past. New tracked emails will continue to send you notifications.

What is the difference between the ‘Enable Real Time Notifications’ and ‘Mute All Notifications’ settings?

The “Mute All Notifications” will turn off notifications for all emails you’ve tracked in the past. New tracked emails will continue to send you notifications. Turning off the “Enable Real Time Notifications” setting will disable notifications entirely.

What does the ‘speaker’ icon do in the Open History dialog?

The small “speaker” icon in the lower-right corner of the Open History dialog (displayed when you click the tracking icon next to sent emails) controls whether or not Cirrus Insight will notify you about email opens. If real-time notifications are enabled, you’ll receive a pop-up notification every time a recipient opens your tracked email. You can disable/”mute” email open notifications one-by-one using the “speaker” icon. You can mute all notifications at once by clicking the “Mute all notifications” from the Email Tracking Settings area. Note: you can re-enablenotification one-by-one by tapping the speaker icon again:

Does Email Tracking work if notifications are disabled?

Yes! If you disable notifications, it simply means you won’t be notified. When you track the email and save it to Salesforce using “Quick Send & Add” or “Send & Add” via the orange Cirrus Insight button, the tracking information will automatically be saved into Salesforce. You can also access it by clicking the Email Tracking icon in the Cirrus Insight sidebar.

Do I have to save the email to Salesforce for Email Tracking to work?

No, but it’s highly recommended that you do save the email to Salesforce. First, it’s just good CRM practice. Second, if you also save it to Salesforce, you’ll be able to take advantage of our free app Cirrus Analytics, which is able to tell you exactly which users and email templates are the most effective.

Do I have to enable the ‘Undo Send’ Gmail Labs feature?

It’s highly recommended. There are some situations where Gmail will not tell Cirrus Insight the unique ID of a sent email. Without that ID, most features of Email Tracking will continue to work, but you’ll lose some functionality. With the “Undo Send” Gmail Labs feature, we can always get the email ID. To watch a video on how to enable the ‘Undo Send’ feature, click here.

Does Email Tracking work in plain-text mode?

No. Since our tracking is image-based, you will not be able to use Email Tracking in plain-text mode. Plain-text mode strips all formatting and images, preventing us from embedding the tracking image. If you would like to switch from plain text to rich text formatting in Gmail, open up a new compose window, click on the down arrow in the Compose toolbar, and uncheck “Plain Text Mode”: