How to Track Emails: 11 Simple Methods

No, we’re not talking about football or MasterChef: we’re talking about sales emails.

This aspect of sales isn’t getting any easier: in fact, the average open rate for an email campaign is just 20.81%.

Whether you’re sending cold emails to new prospects or trying to set up a meeting with a lead, the same worries remain:

Did they see my emails?

Have they looked at the proposal yet?

Why aren’t they responding?

Thankfully, sending an email isn’t like sending off a carrier pigeon: there’s a way to know exactly what happens to your email once you hit send.

Tracking the emails you send to prospects and leads gives you valuable insights that allow you to work smarter, worry less—and ultimately, close more deals.

Here are 11 simple methods to track your emails and use those insights to close more deals:

When you send out emails, how much information does your default email client provide you?

Probably very little.

That’s why the first step to tracking your emails is setting up an email tracking tool.

This kind of tool is specifically designed to get you the kind of insights you need to close more sales.

With an email tracking tool, you’ll know exactly what’s going on with every email you send out. You’ll be able to analyze and act on information such as:

• If your email is opened
• When it was opened
• Who opened the email
• How many times your email has been opened
• When the prospect clicks on a link
• When the prospect views any attachments you included

For the purpose of this guide, we’re going to show you screenshots of how to track emails in Copper.

If your team works mostly within your CRM, you should be able to set it up to send and receive emails directly inside the platform:

Or, if you prefer to use Gmail when sending emails, you can set up the Copper Chrome extension, allowing you to track all the emails you send directly inside Gmail. (More Gmail tips here.)

Using this kind of email tracking tool gives the whole team the ability to send tracked emails. That way, every email that your sales team sends will provide you with valuable insights into your prospects.

And acting on these insights is the key to closing more deals.

Here's a tip: before you send out emails with a new email tracking tool, make sure you run a few tests.

First, send emails with attachments and links to another member of your team. Then, have them open the emails, check out the attachments, and click the links.

This way, you’ll make sure that everything is set up correctly and that your emails are being properly tracked. Testing will also give you an overview of how the system works and better prepare you to use the insights you get from real emails.

Email tracking and information sharing go hand in hand.

The great thing about using a CRM with email tracking capabilities is that you have the information you need without having to switch screens or open another window.

For example, let’s say you need to send a follow-up email to a prospect. Use your CRM email tracking tool to get these important details at a glance while writing:

• The contact’s name
• The company they work for
• Their title in the company
• Their email, phone number, and social profiles
• The type of contact (potential customer, current customer, etc.)

You can also see any recent activity you’ve had with this prospect.

And, since everyone on the sales team has access to these details, you’ll always be up-to-date on any contact your teammates have had with this prospect. That helps you avoid stepping on someone’s toes or repeating the same questions.

Don’t waste time checking back constantly to see if that lead opened your email, or if that prospect viewed your proposal yet.

Your email tracking tool gives you instant notifications that allow you to stay on top of what’s going on with your prospects and leads:

Instant access to this kind of information gives you an incredible advantage against your competition. It’s like having a sneak peek into the minds of your prospects.

The only thing you have to do is be ready to act in the moment you receive those notifications.

Knowing what’s going on with your emails helps you time your follow-up emails just right.

For example, imagine you send an email to a lead. Two days later, you get a notification that the lead has opened your email. An hour later, you see that they’ve opened the email again, and now they click through to your website.

This means that you’re on their mind, and they’re interested in what you have to offer.

Now is the time to act!

To really take advantage of the timing, prepare a follow-up email in advance and be ready to send it as soon as you see activity from your prospect. That way, you’re getting in contact just as they begin to realize how much they need your product.

When you’re prospecting, it’s far too easy to send out hundreds of emails and then get stuck waiting to see who responds. Or, even worse, you could waste time sending follow-up emails to all of these leads without knowing which ones are warm.

Instead, use email tracking to find warm leads faster.

Knowing these facts, you can focus your efforts on the leads that are actually receptive—and stop wasting time following up with leads that haven’t even seen your first email.

Sending personalized emails is a must, but you also need to save your valuable time.

That’s why your CRM should allow you to send (and track) bulk emails to different segments. If you can use pre-made templates or create your own, even better as it allows you to scale your prospecting efforts while still personalizing each point of contact.

And remember: every email you send gets tracked individually. That means you won’t need to waste time checking in on every lead. Instead, you’ll be the first one to know when they open your emails or check out your website.

You can easily cut down the time you spend prospecting by putting these bulk email campaign insights to good use. As mentioned above, this allows you to narrow in on the warmest leads and close more deals.

When you’re prospecting, it can sometimes be hard to know if you’re contacting the right decision-maker off the bat.

Tracking your emails can help you discover who the decision-maker is in a company, and get in contact with them.

For example, let’s say that one of your leads has opened the email more than five times in one day. You can be almost positive that this email has been passed around, and many email tracking tools even allow you to see who opened the email.

Take this data and put it to good use.

For example, now you know that the prospect is interested enough in your product to mention it to others in the company. This is the perfect time for a follow-up call with the goal of setting up a meeting or sales demo.

Or, since you’ve seen who the email has been passed on to, try sending a follow-up to that decision-maker directly.

By taking appropriate action based on these insights, you’ll be more likely to get a meeting with the main decision-maker, bringing you closer to a deal.

What is your company’s email response rate?

If you’re looking to improve your response rate, use email tracking insights to help you find and fix gaps in communication.

For example, imagine that a lead was keen on the phone, but hasn’t opened any of the last three follow-up emails you sent them.

It’s easy to assume they’ve lost interest in the product, but could the problem be the method of communication?

This might be a good time to call back and ask what they’re preferred method of communication is.

When your email tracking tool tells you that your emails haven’t even been opened, use another outreach method and close that deal.

It’s always frustrating when a prospect goes dark.

However, email tracking alerts you to when these prospects start to take an interest in your business again.

For example, perhaps there’s been complete silence for a few weeks. Then, your prospect checks your email again, opens the attachment you sent, or clicks through to your website.

Maybe this time apart has given them time to think it over, or maybe an advocate within the company has started to become more vocal about moving this decision forward. Whatever the case, without email tracking, you’d never know that this prospect was starting to warm up again.

Using these insights, jump in with a follow-up email and catch this prospect while they’re thinking about you and your product.

After all this hard work, it would be a shame to lose important information in an email thread.

Don’t worry: your CRM has you covered.

When you integrate Gmail with Copper, for instance, you’ll be able to see every point of contact (including every email) right within your CRM. This real-time activity feed allows you to look back over each contact you’ve had with this prospect and draw relevant information that could easily be lost otherwise.

No more manual data entry—each email is automatically logged into your CRM.

Best of all, these conversations are available to the whole team. That means each rep working with this particular prospect is fully aware of all that’s going on, and you don’t have to remember to bcc them.

Are you ready to:

• Send your follow-ups at just the right moment?
• Quickly find main decision makers?
• Be instantly aware of warm leads?
• Close more deals and become a super seller?

Then it’s time to get on board with email tracking.

The great thing is that using your CRM to track emails is easy to set up, and easy to maintain. Just activate your sales email tracking, send a few test emails, and get started on creating great campaigns. You can even send bulk campaigns with unique personalization, and you’ll see all of the results tracked automatically in your CRM.

Don’t forget: email tracking alerts allow you to be a sales hero by jumping in to seal the deal at the exact moment the prospect takes action with your email.

It’s clear: tracking your sales emails is essential to getting ahead in the competitive world of sales emailing.

Ready to track emails and close more deals?