Overview

Mail Reporting tracks the sending details of emails sent through the Compose Email function of the website. Mail tracking is an important feature to review the effectiveness of the emails.

Required Permissions

• Admin

• Editor

Accessing the Tool

To access the email creation tools, follow the steps below depending on your access role.

1. Admins: Hover over Admin bar in the left hand corner of the screen, select Mail Reporting.

2. Editors: Hover over Admin in the main navigation, select Main Tools, and then Inbox/Groups. Once in the compose email section, click the Mail Reporting link.

3. The Mail Reporting Interface will launch.

Mail Reporting Tools

Mail Reporting offers a variety of tools and metrics to track emails sent. Below will detail each tab and how to use the tab for gaining metrics.

Sent Emails

Sent Emails shows all emails that are sent for a selected date range.

1. By using the start and end date fields, you can choose what date range you would like to see.

2. Use the Subject text field to search for emails by subject line. Best used in conjunction with the date filter to find emails quickly. 

3. Sent Email Tab Overview:

   • The Subject column denotes the subject of the email.

   • The Send Option shows if the email was sent externally or internally. Since internal messaging is no longer available on the system, all send options should show the message as being sent as External Only.

   • Recipients Selected shows the total number of users the email was supposed to send to

   •  Send External is the actual number of emails sent out. This can be different from Recipients Selected.

     • When Send External is Lower than Recipients Selected: Indication of email bounces or other deliverability issues

     • When Send External is Higher than Recipients Selected: Multiple Email Addresses exist for a single account

   • Sent Internal is for email sent internally. Since this is no longer used, this column should be null. 

   • Opened is the number of opened emails divided by the number of emails sent. This is important for measuring member engagement.

   • Bounced denoted the number of emails that could not be delivered and the recipient’s email service sends back a message that the email was not delivered.

   • Link Clicks represent the number of clicks on the links in the email. This metric is important for measuring member engagement as those links should be taking members back to the website.

   • Links in Message is the total number of links in the email. Effective emails should at least have 1 link per message.

Message Details

1. To view details about individual messages, click the email subject from the Sent Emails tab, this will bring up the individual Email Details for the email.

   • Status is the breakdown of the recipient details for the message.

   • Sending Not Attempted For: anyone who opted out of receiving messages, blacklisted addresses, and those without an email address will show here. 

   • Recipients: total number of recipients to whom the message was to send.

   • Bounces: messages that could not be delivered.

   • Open Rate: number of messages opened divided by the number of emails sent.

   • Click Throughs: number of clicks on the links in the email.

2.  The first tab is the Preview of Email HTML. 

3. External Recipients shows details for email recipients, such as read time and click-throughs for each individual.

4. Click Throughs tab shows stats on the number of clicks per link in the email, along with a percentage of clicks per link.

   1. You can see click-throughs by clicking on individual’s emails, and if the message was opened. This will open the Click Through Detail for the user to see what the link address is and also the click time with the date and time. 

5. Bounces tab will show recipients for whom bounces occurred. This will list the member number, member name, email address, bounce reason, and bounce log time. Click on the member name in order to receive a detailed reason for the Bounce. 

   1. This report can identify the reason why the bounce occurred, so actions can take place. In most cases, bounces will occur if the email address is not valid so it is best to make sure email records are up to date.
      Scheduled Emails

6. Scheduled Emails shows all emails that are scheduled to be sent at a later date. This is not typically used for reporting, rather it shows what is on deck. From here, you may also edit or cancel Scheduled Emails.

Unsubscribe

1. By clicking on the Unsubscribe tab, we can see who has unsubscribed from email communication. This will list the member number, name, email, and when the member unsubscribed; along with when the member unsubscribed.

2.  By using the Search Field, you can search by member #, Name, or Email to locate specific users.

3.  Clicking View next to the member name will take you to the member’s profile to add back to the email list.

4.  Once on their profile, checkmark the “Receive Emails” checkbox enlist the member in email communication.

Bounce Blacklist

Email addresses that bounce two or more times will end up on the Bounce Blacklist. Most email addresses end up on a Bounce Blacklist if the service provider of the account believes that certain messages are Spam. This is used as protection by the email service provider for unwanted or even dangerous email communication. 

To keep bounces low, try the following:

1. Be selective with mass emailing. Continuous emails could look like Spam.

2. Use target marketing to ensure that the message is delivered to those who want to receive the communication.

3. Encourage members to add the email address that is sending the email to their Safe Sender List from their email provider.

4. Click the Bounces link next to the member’s name to view why the bounce occurred. This will bring up a detailed view of why the bounce occurred. Using this message, action can then take place to remove users from the bounce blacklist depending on the reason.

Actions to take if a user is on this list:

1. Verify that the email is correct and valid.

2. If the blast emails are being marked as Spam, contact the email owner to contact their email provider on steps to remove the blast emails from being flagged as Spam.

3. DO NOT send any further email communication to this email address until it is verified that the email will not end up on the bounce blacklist. If we keep sending to this email, it will negatively affect the mail server’s reputation causing future Spam issues.

4. Accounts like RoadRunner, AOL, and Comcast have a very low tolerance for blast email systems. Users with these accounts usually end up on the bounce blacklist. Clubessential has these accounts flagged as a ‘slow sender’ to reduce the amount of emails being targeted to these accounts, which helps reduce the amount of accounts that will be placed on the bounced blacklist.

5. You may manually remove a member from the Bounce Blacklist by clicking the Remove link next to their name, however, the email should only be removed if verified that the email will not end up on the Bounce Blacklist again.

Email Complaints

If a member marks a club communication as Spam, this will place that member on the Email Complaint list which will prevent them from receiving communication. 

To keep email complaints low try these following tips:

1. Use target marketing to ensure the message is delivered to the right group.

2. Try to only send a few email communications per week.

3. The email address that is sending the email should be a club email so the member recognizes this as a legitimate club communication.

4. Use clear subject lines of intent of the message.

5. To remove the member from the Email Complaint list, click on the link next to the user’s name to remove.

Single Email Report

This can be used to review single emails sent to individuals. This can be used by Admins to track emails such as reservations.

Best Practices

1. A day or two after sending any email communication, it is best to check the Mail Reporting feature to capture important information on the effectiveness of the emails.

2. Use the Bounce Blacklist and Email Complaint tab frequently to keep these numbers low. Look into why members are added to this list and how you can remove them from the list.

3. Use target marketing to increase effectiveness in emails, which should return better results seen in Mail Reporting.

4. If bounces occur due to being flagged as Spam, contact the email owner to facilitate help from the email owner’s email provider to allow emails to be delivered. Once an email is on the Bounce list, it is important to not email that account until it is verified that the email will not end up on the Bounce list in in the future.

5. Contact the member first before removing from the Email Complaint list. The member may not want to receive particular email communications. Remove the member from certain, or all, email communications to ensure they are not receiving unwanted emails; then remove the member from the Email Complaint list.

FAQs

1. I sent an email to a member, but they did not receive the email. Why? A.  Check the Bounce Blacklist or Unsubscribe tab first. If the member is on this list then they will not receive communication. Remove from these lists so members can receive communication. If the member is not on either of the lists, check the Sent Emails tab to see if the email is correct.