Track your sales emails within the CRM

Before the proliferation of email tracking software, we’d send out emails and follow up on them until we got a response. We are now in a digital social landscape that allows us to see whether our emails were delivered and if so, who read our emails, when they read it, and how many times. Email tracking tools have become a crucial part of reaching prospects and customers — old and new — at every scale. And using a CRM with email tracking capabilities has become all the more essential for businesses to reach out to their prospects at the right time and with the right context. 

Before we dive deep into how email tracking within the CRM works, let’s understand a bit about email tracking and its impact on businesses.

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So, what is email tracking?

Email tracking is the ability to monitor the status of emails that you send, to improve your consumer reach and business. By using an email tracking software, you will be able to receive real-time email alerts for every event associated with your email. It also lets you continuously review your high-funnel email metrics like email opens and click-through rates, so you can make informed business decisions.

Email tracking has been taking over the web since the early 2000s. The practice became more pervasive as email became more of an online sales notification hub for consumers, and less of an interpersonal communication tool. According to a 2017 study by OMC, 85% of the emails received are marketing materials, newsletters, notifications, etc initiated by sales and marketing teams, and a whopping 99% of these emails are tracked. This directly translates to more business.

How can an email tracking software help your business

Most established sales teams use some form of email tracking. It helps determine the engagement levels of your customers and prospects with your company and identifies the ones who are most interested in what you are selling. In this era, the availability of an array of email tracking software allows sales teams to have more control as well as access to valuable data. With the right email tracking tool, sales teams will be able to nurture leads, influence decision makers, and close deals. Here’s how email tracking software can drive your sales:

Identify your potential customers 

Email tracking lets you connect with your customers and prospects directly by helping you see the moment they receive and open your emails. When your prospects open and click the link on your emails, you know when they are actively engaging with your company. You also get to see the number of times your emails are opened and track the links they have clicked. This allows you to identify your potential customers so you can reach out to them at the perfect time or send the next follow-up email, and drastically increase your chances of gaining their business.

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Engage with relevant context

Data doesn’t amount to much without the right context. With email tracking software, you can use context to your advantage. Tracking emails provide sales teams with insights into every email exchange with their prospects and customers. This allows them to contact prospects with relevant information or respond according to their needs. For instance, if your prospects have clicked on a case study or demo link that you shared in the email, you know how to steer your next conversation with them. Similarly, by gaining intelligence about the prospect’s behavior, you get to learn about their likes and preferences. This, in turn, lets you nurture relationships that convert to sales.

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Leverage data-driven insights

With an email tracking software, you will be armed with the knowledge of which of your emails worked, and which struck a nerve and were not helpful. By using the right strategy, you can personalize your email messages and time follow-ups with concrete data, so every touchpoint is meaningful and relevant. Make use of the insights you get after every email you send and review the results so you can craft email templates accordingly.

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Increase sales productivity

Email tracking is all about strengthening sales productivity. By reaching out to prospects when they are ready, sales reps save time on follow-ups. Apart from that, they can even automate follow-up responses based on your prospect’s behavior on email. This way, your reps don’t have to add follow up tasks or indiscriminately send follow-up emails manually. It’s a win-win for saving time as well as nurturing relationships.

Learn to increase sales productivity using CRM

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Prune your email list

Email engagement metrics help identify emails and patterns about disengagement to your emails. From tracking emails that don’t get delivered due to invalid email addresses to those that simply don’t yield to engagement emails, an email tracking software helps you prune your email list. By removing the ones who are not the right audience, you’ll be gaining meaningful contacts. You’ll also be less likely to be reported as spam. Having a good sender reputation is crucial for emails to reach your target audience.

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Tips to ensure your emails go to the primary inbox

To leverage email tracking or to even begin using it, you need to make sure the email you send reaches the prospect’s primary inbox. The key to ensure that is by learning how spam filters work. These strategies can help you prevent your sales emails from landing in spam.

Make sure your emails are personal and compelling

Spam filters work to ensure you’re acquainted with the recipients. By personalizing emails and crafting engaging content for your audience, your emails are more likely to reach their primary tab. Do address them by their names and send your emails from a recognizable and credible email address. Send relevant content and don’t add too many links or images that could make your email look generic and cluttered.

Avoid ‘spammy’ subject lines in emails

Capitalized words, too many punctuation marks, and even the cliched ‘Re:’ should all be avoided in subject lines as well as the body of the email. These are indicators for spam filters to know a spammy sales email from an actual one. Keep your emails succinct, and hold off on the exclamation points in your sales emails for optimum deliverability.

Send individual emails or send in small batches

Blast emails are a thing of the past, and major email providers consider them spam. By sending trigger-action based emails to prospects, you’re more likely to see your emails land in their primary inbox.

Make the email short and concise

Keep the email conversational and get to the point. Unless absolutely necessary, don’t use spam trigger keywords like “urgent,” “free,” etc. While sending promotional emails, use alternative words to replace those that are identified as spam patterns. By sharing only relevant and valuable content to your audience, you are sure to see more engagement.

Keep up with your email sender reputation

When a recipient marks your email as spam, it affects your email sender reputation (a score that an internet service provider (ISP) assigns to an organization that sends the email). Not only does it prevent your emails from being delivered to the primary inbox, but it can also reject your emails outright. The higher your score, the more likely your ISP will ensure deliverability. Having a good sender reputation comes down to the validity of your email address, the way you track your emails, and the kind of interaction your recipients have with your emails — or not— which can negatively impact your sales efforts.

Send plain text or light HTML email

Keep the number of links to a minimum of one or two links. It should ideally have only your call-to-action, work sample, or links to downloads. By sending plain text emails or ‘light HTML’ emails, your emails are more likely to land in the primary inbox. Light HTML emails are technically HTML but the content is mostly just text; no images, links, or CSS.

How to track sales email within the CRM 

Most email tracking software can track email opens, clicks, and responses by sending a unique tracking link along with the email. When the recipient gets the email, the tracking tool automatically identifies if the email has been received, opened, the links downloaded, as well as where, when, and how many times. These email links are then measured to review the open and click-through rates.

Email tracking is fairly simple when done right, and doing so within the CRM helps you make the most of it. Here’s how email tracking within the CRM works:

Choose a CRM with email tracking 

You don’t need yet another tool just to track emails. Modern CRM software like Freshworks CRM comes with email tracking capabilities that allow you to track email opens and click-through rates. It also comes with 2-way email sync, and integration with various email clients, so you can send and receive emails within the CRM while tracking them too.

Sign up for a CRM with email Tracking

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Compose and enable email tracking

Compose your email within the CRM with more context. With access to their contact details, you can view the details of their company, sales activities, and the deals they are involved in so you can personalize emails to suit your needs. By choosing an email tracking tool that allows you to enable or disable the ‘track’ option, you get to choose your privacy settings. Freshworks CRM, for instance, makes email tracking and following-up simpler with the ability to create email templates.

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Get real-time email alerts

Within the CRM, you can receive notifications in real-time every time your prospect or customer opens an email and clicks on links in the email. This makes tracking effortless — allowing you to engage with the recipients better and save time.

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Gain insightful email metrics

By using a CRM that comes with built-in email tracking abilities, you can get insights into all emails that are being sent and received. Similarly, learn how well your sales campaigns are performing by seeing which emails are getting the most clicks and open rates, and which ones to modify or discard by tracking email engagement metrics. With the help of analytics, you can stay on top of email open rates, clicks, replies, bounce-rates, the number of unsubscribes, and even the number of delivered emails.

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Clear visibility of rep’s activities 

Drive productivity among teams by getting clear visibility into your reps’ email activities with Freshworks CRM. Dashboards with email engagement metrics can help managers stay on top of their reps’ interactions with prospects. With insights into how the sales teams are engaging with prospects, managers will be able to assess which lead needs persuasion and which team member needs assistance.

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