General Questions
Does Certain use a 3rd party email service for sending email?
Yes. Certain uses www.sendgrid.com and sends email via SMTP. Certain uses SendGrid/Twilio for email marketing and transactional email solutions for businesses of all sizes.
How often is the Email Analytics dashboard refreshed?
The dashboard is refreshed every 10 minutes.
What time zone are the time stamps in the dashboard reflected in?
The dashboard time stamps use the Pacific Time zone, which is consistent with other timestamps in the Certain platform.
When I move my event from ‘Testing’ to ‘Live’ status will the dashboard totals be cleared out?
No. Dashboard totals include emails sent to both test and live registrations in the event. Dashboard totals also include any deleted emails. As a best practice, Certain recommends including ‘Test’ in the name of any mass action emails so filters on the dashboard can exclude those emails.
What do each of the email statuses mean?
- Sent – the message has been prepared and processed for delivery.
- Delivered – the recipient's email server has accepted the message. % delivered = number of emails delivered / number of emails sent.
- Total Opens – total number of times the email was opened by recipients. One recipient may open the same email multiple times. % opened = total number of times emails were opened / number of emails delivered.
- Unique Opens – total number of recipients who opened the email.
- Total Clicks – total number of clicks, including multiple clicks by the same recipient.
- Unique Clicks – the count of recipients who clicked on at least one link.
- % Not Opened = total number of unread emails / number of emails delivered.
- Undeliverable – number of emails that were undeliverable. The reason could include bounces (where the recipient's email server rejected the message), dropped emails (which are no longer processed as they had previously bounced), spam, etc. % Other = total number of undeliverable emails / number of emails sent.
Email Analytics Event Dashboard & Tabular View
How often is the Email Activity list and timeline updated within a registration?
Unlike the dashboard, the list and timeline within a registration are updated in near real-time.
Email Opens
What is the difference between Total Opened and Unique Opens?
A recipient can open an email one or more times, which is reflected in Total Opened. For Unique Opens, only one open is counted for a recipient that opened the email more than once.
How are opens tracked?
To track opens, an invisible, one-pixel image is added at the end of each email. If the email recipient has images enabled on their email client (or they select to view images in the email) and a request to SendGrid’s server for the invisible image is executed, then an open event is logged.
Opened emails sent as text (not HTML) are not recorded in the Opens totals.
Is there anything else I need to know about open tracking?
Due to the nature of internet routing, load balancing among servers, corporate firewalls, and spam filtering, some opens can be recorded multiple times within 0-30 seconds. When multiple opens of the SAME link in an email are recorded within 30 seconds of one another, Certain displays only a single open in the reg timeline.
Click-Through Tracking
Are link click-throughs tracked?
Yes. Link click-through tracking is an optional feature. Certain can enable link click-through tracking at a portal // sub-account // event level.
How do I enable click-through tracking on my portal and sub-account(s)?
Click-through tracking is enabled by default on all portals and sub-accounts. Certain can only enable or disable click-through tracking.
Contact helpdesk@certain.com for assistance.
How do I enable click-through tracking on my event?
Click-through tracking is enabled the same as any other module within an event. An administrator must navigate to:
Plan > Configure > Options > Functional Areas Needed by This Event > Event Module
The administrator must select ‘Email Click-Through Tracking’.
If the administrator does not see this option, then the option is not enabled as a product on that sub-account or for the portal. In that case, contact help@certain.com.
How does click-through tracking work?
Certain uses an industry-leading 3rd party provider, SendGrid, to send emails. Click-through tracking on emails is an optional feature. When click-through tracking is enabled, it overwrites links with a SendGrid domain that is only visible when the recipient mouses over the link.
When the recipient clicks the link, the user’s browser opens the website. The overwritten URL is not the link target shown to the user. The user experience is seamless.
Will recipients be concerned about the overwritten link and think it is a phishing email?
This is a valid concern. This technique of using overwritten URLs is typical of email providers that track email clicks. https://docs.sendgrid.com/ui/account-and-settings/tracking#click-tracking
Can the domain displayed in the overwritten links match that of my portal?
Yes. This is possible. This requires coordination between Certain and the team that manages the Domain Name Service (DNS) for the portal.
Some best practices must also be followed by users who configure emails. Documentation on these best practices is forthcoming. In the meantime, contact the Certain CSM regarding interest in branding click-tracking URL’s.
Where can I see the link that a registrant clicked on?
Drill into a registration and navigate to the Email Activity timeline. The Email Activity timeline shows the link that was clicked with a corresponding time stamp.
What if a recipient clicks on multiple links in the same email?
Each click is tracked and recorded in the timeline. The timeline includes multiple clicks of the same link.
Is there anything else I need to know about click-through tracking?
Due to the nature of internet routing, load balancing among servers, corporate firewalls and spam filtering, some single clicks can be recorded multiple times within seconds. When multiple clicks of the SAME link in an email are recorded within 30 seconds of one another, Certain displays only a single click.
Should I have any privacy concerns regarding enabling click-through tracking in my emails?
As a best practice, Certain recommends that all registration forms include the organization’s (or the client’s organization’s) privacy policy that outlines how registrant data is managed.
As part of that privacy policy, Certain suggests including verbiage that mentions leveraging 3rd party technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts to analyze trends and track user movements on websites and in emails. This gathering supports engagement data and provides a more personalized experience to end users.
Single Send Emails
What emails are considered Single Send?
- Confirmation emails triggered when a registrant completes registration and lands on the ‘Confirm’ page of a form. This includes single sends of event confirmations, form confirmations, and email templates.
- Any single email sent from the Registration>Email or Profile Email pages.
- Forgot Password Emails
- Digital Emails that include a Join URL
- Single-send emails are running totals for one-time, single-send emails.
Mass Action Emails
What emails are considered Mass Action Emails?
- Email sent via mass action from the Report Results window. This includes Event Confirmation emails, Form Confirmations, and Email Templates.
- Scheduled Emails
Miscellaneous
What is the retention policy for email analytics?
The retention policy for email analytics is consistent with the data retention policy for email history and credit card data. Email analytics retention lasts 90 days following the event end date. After that period, the data is archived for an additional 9 months before it is permanently purged from the database.
What emails are not tracked?
Emails sent to Speakers and Reviewers are not tracked. Messages sent as a CC or BCC are not tracked.
Email Analytics does not record any data when sent to test registrations.
How many emails can I send in a single mass action?
5000 is the max number of records that can be sent in a single mass action. If there are more than 5000 records, the emails must be broken into smaller sends.
A custom registration property or putting a registration on the ‘To-Do List’ can be used to track who an email has been sent to.
How are emails that include a CC or BCC handled?
Emails sent to CC and BCC as well as additional and assistant emails are not tracked.
Is email sent from Certain CAN-SPAM compliant?
No. However, that does not mean a user cannot implement CAN-SPAM compliant requirements into email content.
To learn more about CAN-SPAM compliance, see: click here.