Whenever we send an email, we always wonder if the recipient has read the email or not. When he/she will read and reply back? There are actually some ways by which we can actually track emails in gmail. There are some extensions, google analytics, free and paid tracking services which can help you track emails in gmail. These apps are must for Account managers, businesses, sales teams and people with direct client relationships.
Do you want to track emails in gmail and want to know when your email was read? Then read on…
1. MailTrack for Gmail chrome extension
You can install the Mailtrack for gmail app on your chrome browser and can then track emails in gmail. When you send an email it will show a single green check to the email and a second check confirms your recipient read it. You can track who and when they read your email. The best part of this app is it is FREE for unlimited number of emails.
Features
> See which messages have been read, how long ago, how many times and which device they were opened on
> Access our dashboard that shows which messages haven’t been read yet.
> Receive email alerts telling you when your messages have been read. You can even store read receipts
> Desktop notifications so you can stay up-to-date in real time.
You can also pay nominal fee for some premium features like
> Link tracking
> Premium personal support
> Integration with your CRM: SalesForce, Sugar CRM, Zoho, etc
You can download this extension here: MailTrack for Gmail
2. Yesware Email Tracking
A similar extension is Yesware Email Tracking, it helps you to see who opens your emails and clicks on your links, with email tracking analytics and templates for Gmail. Yesware takes the guesswork out of email by instantly showing you when and how often your emails are opened.
Features
> Know what happens after you click send with automatic email tracking right in Gmail.
> Get notified when someone opens your email or clicks on your email links.
> See where, when, and on what device your email was opened.
> Create email templates inside Gmail to reuse again and again.
> View detailed reports on which email templates get high open and reply rates.
You can download this extension here: Yesware Email Tracking
3. Bananatag Email Tracking
Bananatag allows you to track and schedule emails, track files and create email templates right from within Gmail or Google Apps. See what happens to your emails after you press send. Get notified when a recipient opens your email or clicks a link.
Features
> Track emails
> Track Files *Beta
> Schedule Emails *Beta
> Email Templates *Beta
> Schedule recurring emails
> Snooze emails to be read later
> CRM integration
> Track and schedule as a team
> Email open notifications
> Link click notifications
> View awesome email metrics online
> Exportable / customizable reports
You can download this extension here: Bananatag Email Tracking
4. Mail2Cloud
Mail2Cloud helps you not only to track your emails but you can also set reminder for emails, send self destruct emails, schedule emails for delivery.
Features
> See “read receipts” (when the email is opened), as well as when users click any links you sent or view any files you attach.
> Set Email reminders.
> Send sensitive information with greater confidence using our self destructing email feature.
> Use the Send Later feature to send an email now, but have it delivered at a specific time.
You can download this extension here: Mail2Cloud
5. Streak for Gmail
It is full email management app which Enhance Gmail’s Interface. It keep track of status, notes and details of each customer, shares boxes within your team and keep everyone in the loop, see every email between a customer and your team, right in your inbox.
Features
> Enhance Gmail’s Interface, groups all emails from a customer.
> Keep track of status, notes and details of each customer.
> Speed up sending repetitive emails with custom templates.
> Schedule those crucial emails for the times when they’ll have the most impact.
You can download this extension here: Streak for Gmail
6. Google analytics
This method is bit pro and geeky. A basic knowledge of html, You might have heard about google analytics, it is basically a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.
So we will use this google analytics to track our emails. Here is quick overview of how to use it.
> First we need to create an account in google analytics if you don’t have one.
> Now setup an tracking ID for an event.
> We will add an image tag at the top of the HTML of email like
<img src="TRACKING_URL" >
> This url will have all the information related to tracking. It contains the account, campaign, your gmail account, event category, event action etc as parameters. The url will look like this
http://www.google-analytics.com/collect?v=1&tid=UA-XXXXX-X&cid=CLIENT_ID&t=event&ec=email&ea=open....
You can check more details here if you want to.
> Whenever the recipient opens the email, the google server is pinged instantly and you can track it on the google analytics dashboard.
Anyone want to learn more about it, can leave comments here. I will try to give more details about it.
People who want to track emails in gmail casually without any professional requirement can use the first chrome extension. However for pro users who want more insight into it and more features like scheduling, templates, CRM integration etc I would recommend Bananatag Email Tracking or Streak.