Warning on “Text Format” email blast

Good day,

I Just want to make people aware that if you choose to send your email out via the "Text Format", the critical tracking information including open rate, click through, and other info will not be made available to you.

I am actually hoping someone will tell me I am wrong. There is no information that tells you this extremely important information prior to sending out your email blast. I have contacted customer Service who just sent me to the “Knowledge Center” which to me just means “go look it up by figuring out what key words are going to prompt help on this matter.

Again, I hope someone tells me I just am wrong. You only get one shot to send out an email to your customers and get this feedback that you pay for actually. To find out after the email is sent that no reporting is available is just a dagger because you can’t resend it.

If I am right and you are new here, beware that you do NOT want to use the “Text Format” to send your emails unless you don’t care to know who opens it, who clicks through, and who reads it or doesn’t read it. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Chris Ewald on October 27, 2009 at 4:26pm: Hi Todd,

You're correct -- text-only emails do not generate reports; that's not unique to VR -- it's industry-wide. This is because the transparent tracking pixel that collects the data can only be implemented on HTML-formatted emails.

Going forward, it's always best to create a HTML version of your email. I use the canvas tool and both types of formats are created and sent; I format the HTML first, then import the content into the text version, do the formatting, send tests and then the actual mailing. Most people today are using email clients that handle and deliver the HTML version.

Here's a link to the intro tutorials on VR's How to Do Everything site:
New to VerticalResponse?, which covers the basics of the canvas tool and also detailed reports.

Hope that's helpful, --Chris.; ▶ Reply to This