Tag Archives: Email

News

Tech Insight : How To Know If Someone Has Read Your Email?

In this tech insight, we take a look at the better-known ways of being able to tell if someone has read your email.

The Usual Suspects

The main ways to tell if a person has read your email include:

– Request a read receipt when you compose the email.  The read receipt is then sent to you as an email with the time and date of when your message was opened.  For example, in Gmail, when composing the email, bottom right, click “More options” > “Request a read receipt”. In Outlook, Go to File > Options > Mail, and Under Tracking, select “Read receipt” which confirms that the recipient viewed the message checkbox.

– Delivery receipt. This is a way of confirming (by receiving an email back) if an email message has been delivered to the recipient’s e-mail server.  In Outlook, for example, go to File > Options > Mail, and Under Tracking, select “Delivery receipt”. Although it will directly confirm if the email has been read, it will confirm if the email address you sent to exists.

– Tracking pixels. A tracking pixel / marketing pixel / spy pixel is a 1×1 pixel graphic that can be hidden in anything from banner ads to emails and used to track user behaviour.  Tracking pixels can be inserted in emails and used to log if and when an email is opened, how many times it’s opened, and what device / devices are used. It can also use the (IP) address to get a rough idea of the recipient’s physical location.

– LinkedIn’s Inmail.  This service, within LinkedIn, allows one LinkedIn member to directly message another LinkedIn member that they aren’t connected to. LinkedIn allows read receipts on its internal messages so that the sender can see if the email has been read.  These receipts can be requested by clicking on the ‘Me’ icon at the top of the page, and selecting “Settings & Privacy” (dropdown list), “Communications” > “Messaging experience” > “Change”, and next to “Read receipts and typing indicators” turning the toggle to ‘on’.

– Third-party mail marketing programs and CRMs. Mailchimp, for example, can track who opened your marketing email (sent to their email address), and how many times. Zoho can track emails but requires a read-receipt request to see if the email has been opened (using the “Ask Receipt” feature).

– Third-party email tracking tools/ apps. Many of these work as an extension in Google Chrome, for example, Right, SalesHandy, Mailtrack, Streak, or MailTracker.

– Using codes. With Campaign Monitor, for example, UTM codes can be set within the emails to tell the analytics tool which recipients visited from your email campaigns, thereby confirming that the email has been opened.

Fooling Read Receipts?

App security and the option to opt-out/turn-off features like receipts mean that in many cases, it’s possible to fool these features. There are, however, some ‘hacks’ and methods for some apps posted online. One example involving WhatsApp, involves recording a voice note (in WhatsApp), where a sender can see if a recipient has played the recording, even if the recipient has disabled the ‘Read Receipt’ feature.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For business, marketing (and sometimes legal reasons), it is often important and helpful to know if a person has seen and opened your email. Emails, however, are private communications involving the management of personal data and, as such, there are relatively ways to monitor email openings (e.g. requesting a read receipt or other methods described earlier). For businesses, this may be an ongoing marketing challenge but, as individuals, there is value in maintaining our own email privacy and security.

News

Tech Tip – Using The Spacebar To Speed Up Email Reading

Here’s how to use the Reading Pane and Spacebar in Outlook to sort through your daily emails more quickly:

– In Outlook, select “View” and “Reading Pane.”

– Select the Reading Pane to sit on the right-hand side.

– Select the top email in your inbox.

– Press the Spacebar so that Reading Pane will scroll down to reveal the lower section of your email and email chain.

– When you have reached the bottom of the email, the Spacebar will then take you to the next email in your inbox.

– Use the “Delete” key as you go through to remove emails that don’t need to be actioned.

– Use the Spacebar rather than the mouse to go through your remaining emails.

News

Top tips to stay on top of your email security

 

Incoming email display

A crucial factor for any business is email security and here at SMY, the main question clients ask is: is this genuine? Nine times out of ten, if you find yourself asking the question, then it probably is not!

Below are some questions we would encourage you to think about before assuming the email or link is safe.

Are there any inconsistencies?

Firstly, we encourage you to look for inconsistencies within the message. Do you recognise the sender and were you expecting the email? Even if the senders name is one that you recognise, be sure to click on the email address as it can often be similar but not quite right.

You can always pick up the phone to verify the sender is who they say they are; this will usually always give you an immediate answer. You should also check that the FROM address and name match.

Does the email look legitimate?

Another clear sign is the formatting. When hovering over a hyperlink, it should show a reasonably recognised URL. Attachments should be titled in relation to the email content (such as invoice or attendee list) and they should all have standard file extensions such as .pdf or .jpg etc.  There should also always be an email signature with company contact details.

Are you expecting it?

We encourage you to think about whether the content of the email is what you would usually expect from this contact. Is the subject matter something you would usually hear from them on?  Is their tone like previous exchanges?

Are there any errors in the email?

Check if the content is specifically tailored to you and keep an eye out for formatting errors with fonts, sizing, and spelling mistakes.

Malicious links are becoming harder and harder to identify. Once opened or clicked on, your device may be subject to the installation of malware such as viruses. Viruses cause sensitive information to be accessed and shared. Once an email phishing attack has taken place, this can all happen behind the scenes without your knowledge.

If one or more of the above points alarm you, act very cautiously, it is likely to be spam or malicious. If in any doubt, do not open it or any attachments. Contact the sender via telephone to verify the email and\or delete it.

If you need more advice on this topic, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, our team of experts are always happy to help.