Tracking methods for email "opens"

can you do it for plain text emails?

[tedster]

I've never tracked "opens" before - even though I can see how that would be valuable information on how good the Subject line is. Many of the big boys track "opens" as a given. But I've only ever measured click-throughs, so far.

I assume that with HTML email it's easy to see the server hits from included graphics - perhaps including a webbug in the email.

But what about text-only emails? That's my preferred marketing method, and I'm at a loss to see how I might track opens.

[Mikkel Svendsen]

As far as I know there are not a secure way to track text e-mails. You can ask the e-mail client to respond to your e-mail but there is no way to tell how many of the users will let the client respond. I, personally, allways say no to it when my Outlook ask to send responses but I actually don't know the avg. percentages that do as I do or have it completely turned off or are using clients that don't support the request type.

... Except maybe for this method:

Link: Click here to confirm you recieved this e-mail and I'll pay you $100 cash!

:)

[sun818]

Depending on the mail server you are sending your e-emails to, you can request a "delivery receipt" and/or "read receipt". In Outlook, it is the Options button when you are composing an e-mail. I once had an eBay buyer who "claimed" he never received the e-mails I sent him, but I knew he was lying because I had "read receipts" for all the previous e-mails!