Email has been a useful sales tool for prospecting for decades. however, today’s digitally savvy buyers expect more personalized approaches to vendor outreach.
Salesforce’s 2018 Sales Status Report reflects this: 72% of business buyers expect personalized engagements that fit their needs.
One powerful strategy to give prospects the experience they desire, and supercharge your email campaigns, is implementing email read receipts.
g suite offers a cost-effective solution via gmail read receipts, although the feature has its limitations.
You’ll want to implement an email tracking tool like cirrus insight for a more robust and sophisticated experience.
To help you get familiar with gmail read receipts and share a better email tracking solution for sales, we’ll go over:
- what is a gmail read receipt
- how to request a gmail read receipt
- how to return a gmail read receipt
- how to send discreet read receipt in gmail with cirrus insight email tracking feature
what is a gmail read receipt?
a gmail read receipt is a tool in the inbox that allows senders to receive an email notification if a recipient opens that specific email. is a powerful sales tool that allows you to gain insight into whether your prospect is opening the newsletters you send, including information about what time they open the emails. With this data, the sender can tailor email follow-ups accordingly.
To use this function as a sender, you must:
- use a work or school gmail account, not a personal gmail.com address
- have your g suite business account admin enable access user
Only then can you request a read receipt when composing an email — which we’ll explain how to do shortly.
Please note, read receipts must be enabled each time you send a new email, and Gmail will only deliver receipts for messages sent to individual addresses in the To and cc fields.
will not send read receipt requests to a mailing list, aliases or recipients in the cc field.
Usually you can get a gmail read receipt without the recipient knowing you requested it. however, some email clients require the recipient to manually return a receipt. in this case, they would be notified of your request and select whether to send you that information.
advantages of gmail read receipts
- cost effective – This is a native gmail feature for g suite accounts and does not incur additional costs like an email tracking tool would.
- Delivery Insights: Find out who opened your email newsletter and what time it was opened to help tailor your follow-up approach.
- More timely follow-ups: Understanding when a potential customer has opened your message allows you to send more timely follow-ups when they are considering working with your company.
disadvantages of gmail read receipts
- Administrator Controlled Access – The ability to use this feature relies on administrator controls, which complicates the process.
- No return notification guarantee: If the recipient’s admin controls do not allow automatic receipts, there is no guarantee that they will manually approve the request.
- Takes a lot of time: Without mass sending or automation options, enabling the feature for each individual email and address can take a long time, even if you remember to do it in the first place.
how to request a read receipt in gmail
To request a read receipt in gmail, follow these simple steps:
1. open gmail on your computer and sign in to your work or school account.
2. Click the compose button with the + icon in the top left of your inbox.
3. Add the appropriate recipient email addresses in the To and cc fields (if applicable), then add your email subject line and body copy.
pro tip: To save time, use a carefully designed cirrus knowledge email template and customize accordingly.
4. click the three vertical dots icon at the bottom right of the compose window to display more options.
5. Select Request read receipt from the pop-up list.
6. Click the blue Send button at the bottom left of the Compose window to deliver your message.
Important: If you received a reply to an email, but the gmail read receipt is not showing, gmail offers a read receipt troubleshooting list.
how to return a read receipt in gmail
Depending on your g-suite organizational settings, your account may automatically send read receipts.
If you receive a read receipt request and need to approve it, here’s how to return the request:
1. open gmail on your computer and sign in to your work account.
2. check your emails.
3. if a read receipt is requested for a specific email, a popup will appear after opening the email with the message: one or more senders in this conversation have requested a read receipt.
4. click the blue send receipts button to send the notification to the sender immediately.
You can also select the gray not now button to be prompted again the next time you open the email.
how to send discreet read receipt in gmail with email tracking
The read receipt feature in gmail is a great sales tool for beginners and small teams.
but how can you tell if an email has been read in gmail without a read receipt?
Here’s the good news:
If you’re looking for more functionality, less noticeable tracking, and more intuitive email insights, email tracking is a great alternative.
what is email tracking?
email tracking is a standard sales and marketing strategy that uses software to monitor and analyze the delivery of an email to an intended recipient.
It differs from a gmail read receipt in that it works in the background to discreetly send notifications to senders. it usually offers more insightful details (i.e. open rates, times, and link click rates).
How do software tools track an email?
An invisible tracker, actually a pixel-by-pixel image, is downloaded when a user opens the message.
cirrus insight offers email and link tracking to help you determine when a lead is hot with insights to help you customize your follow-up strategy and close more deals.
the benefits of email and link tracking for sales
Link and email tracking offers many invaluable benefits for sales teams.
here are some key advantages to consider:
- context-specific: If a potential customer opens your email or clicks on a link multiple times, it may indicate increased interest.
- Custom Tracking: If you notice that a potential customer has clicked on a specific link, you can provide more personalized information about that content.
- outreach perspective: If you notice that a potential customer never opens your email newsletters, you can suggest that cold calling that contact is a better outreach method .
how to enable email and link tracking with cirrus insight
Here’s how to send a discreet read receipt in gmail with cirrus insight.
first, you need to enable the feature in your inbox:
1. Click the wrench icon at the top right of the blue cirrus insight sub-navigation bar. this will take you to settings.
2. In the email section of the left side panel, click follow-up.
3. Check the boxes for both Enable Email Tracking and Enable Link Tracking.
You will now receive relevant data from both functions.
4. To turn on email tracking by default, instead of enabling it for each email, check the box that says: track emails by default.
5. To receive real-time notifications when a recipient opens your email, check the box that says: enable real-time notifications.
You will now receive browser push-notifications when an email has been opened.
6. Send your message to your prospects as usual.
Once enabled, these are just a few metrics you’ll get with cirrus insight email receipts:
- when an email was opened
- how many times an email was opened
- how many times the email was opened or a link was clicked
- the location of the recipient when the email was opened
- the response rate
For an overview of overall email performance, cirrus insight offers an analytics dashboard in the blue tracking tab at the top of your inbox. here, you can analyze open rates, response rates, and click rates.
broaden the search or get more granularity by changing the timestamp to display:
- last seven days
- last 14 days
- last 30 days
- last three months
This information is provided solely to allow marketers to personalize interactions and create more intuitive and efficient outreach strategies.
final thoughts: how to send a discreet read receipt in gmail
read receipts are an effective sales tool to power your email campaign strategy. gmail read receipts is a great option for small teams or budget businesses.
but, if your question is “how can you tell if an email has been read in gmail without a read receipt?”, there are other better selling alternatives that offer better functionality and data insights.
with email tracking through cirrus insight, you can send a discreet read receipt in gmail and get access to detailed tracking analytics. start your 14-day free trial.