Make data-driven decisions with Email Tracking

When sending a tracked email, an invisible image (a so-called tracking pixel) is inserted and sent together with your email. As soon as the recipient of your email opens the message in their email application, the application automatically loads our tracking pixel.

To do this, a request must be sent to the web server which stores the invisible image. As the invisible tracking pixel is uniquely associated with your email, our web server can expect the email to have been opened, because only then the invisible image would have been requested.

Each time the tracking pixel is requested from our web server, Mailbutler stores the information about the request. This request then contains some information, such as the requester’s IP address, from which Mailbutler can derive the country of origin, as well as the email application used, the device, and the operating system.

Yes, Mailbutler’s Email Tracking solution still works with Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, introduced in the Apple Monterey update to better protect Apple Mail users’ privacy. You’ll still always be able to see if and when your email was opened by your recipient.

However, if the recipient is using the latest Apple Mail version and has Mail Privacy Protection enabled, location and device type information might be missing from the Email Tracking feature.

For a more technical explanation of how Mailbutler will work with Mail Privacy Protection, you can check out this blog post from our CEO & Co-Founder Fabian.

Yes – absolutely. Mailbutler is 100% compliant with all European data regulations (GDPR), and we take your privacy very seriously. Through Mailbutler’s Email Tracking solution, the sender obtains the information when the recipient opened the email. We only store the mail-ID, optionally the email’s meta information (subject, recipients) together with the corresponding opened date and time, device information, and the general location of the receiving device. We do not collect further data and we don’t access or store your email content. For more details, check our privacy policy.

Email Tracking is a standard feature of Mailbutler, and is available for all three of the clients we serve: Outlook, Apple Mail, and Gmail. Even if your email client has read receipts as standard, Mailbutler’s Email Tracker is easier to use, totally integrated into your inbox, and gives you more detailed insights than your client’s native functionality!

It’s a good question – if your client already has a form of email tracking, why do you need Mailbutler? Well, Mailbutler’s Email Tracking for Outlook is far more powerful than Outlook’s email tracking! As stated on this page, it provides you with useful insights into when, where, and how often your email was opened. But that’s not all: Outlook’s read receipts function usually requires the recipient to agree to send you a read receipt. With Mailbutler, your recipient doesn’t have to confirm – you will simply get a notification when your email is opened. This is why Mailbutler for Outlook’s read receipts are better than Outlook’s own, native read receipts. Finally, Mailbutler also offers Link Tracking, which notifies you when a link is opened in one of your sent messages. No other client currently has this functionality! And all of this is right at your fingertips, seamlessly integrated into your existing inbox, whether you’re using Outlook, Gmail, or Apple Mail.

For those using an iCloud, Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL, or IMAP email account within Apple Mail, it is possible to see exactly who has opened your email or link. Mailbutler is able to show this with its innovative Per-recipient Tracking feature, which shows you specifically who has opened your message, even if your email was sent to multiple recipients. This feature is available on our Smart and Business plans.