General Questions

Does Certain use a 3rd party email service for sending email?

Yes. We use www.sendgrid.com and send email via SMTP. SendGrid/Twilio is an industry leader in sending in providing Email Marketing and transactional email solutions to businesses of all sizes.

Email Analytics Event Dashboard & Tabular View

How often is the Email Analytics dashboard refreshed?

The dashboard is refreshed every 10 minutes.

What time zone are the time stamps in the dashboard reflected in?

Pacific Time zone which is consistent with other timestamps in the Certain platform.

When I move my event from ‘Testing’ to ‘Live’ status will the dashboard totals be cleared out? 

No. Totals reflected include emails sent to both test and live registrations in the event as well as any deleted emails. As a best practice, we recommend including ‘Test’ in the name of any mass action emails so they can be excluded via filters on the dashboard.

What do each of the email statuses mean?

• Sent – the message has been prepared and processed for delivery.
• Delivered – the recipient's email server has accepted the message; % delivered = number of emails delivered/ number of emails sent.
• Total Opens – total number of times the email was opened by recipients. One recipient may open the same email multiple times; % opened = total number of times emails were opened / number of emails delivered.
• Unique Opens – total number of recipients who opened the email
• Total Clicks – total number of clicks including multiple clicks by the same recipient
• Unique Clicks – the count of recipients who clicked on at least one link
• % Not Opened = total number of unread emails/number of emails delivered.
• Undeliverable – number of emails that were undeliverable. The reason could be bounces (where the recipient's email server rejected the message), dropped emails (which are no longer processed as they had previously bounced), spam, etc. % Other = total number of undeliverable emails/number of emails sent.

Registration Email Activity Summary Totals and Timeline

How often is the Email Activity list and timeline updated within a registration?

Unlike the dashboard, the list and timeline within a registration are updated in near real-time.

Email Opens

What is the difference between Total Opened and Unique Opens?

A recipient can open an email one or more times which is reflected in Total Opened. For Unique Opens only one open is counted for a recipient that opened the email more than once.

How are opens tracked?

To track opens, an invisible, one-pixel image is added at the end of each email. If the email recipient has images enabled on their email client (or they select to view images in the email) and a request to SendGrid’s server for the invisible image is executed, then an open event is logged.

Note that opened emails sent as text (not HTML) will not be recorded in the Opens totals because of this.

Is there anything else I need to know about open tracking?

Due to the nature of internet routing, load balancing among servers, corporate firewalls, and spam filtering, some opens can be recorded multiple times within 0-30 seconds so when we see multiple opens of the SAME link in an email recorded within 30 seconds of one another we only display a single open in the reg timeline.

Click-Through Tracking

Are link click-throughs tracked?

Yes. This was added as an optional feature that can be enabled at a portal // sub-account // event level.

How do I enable click-through tracking on my portal and sub-account(s)?

It is enabled by default on all portals and sub-accounts and can only be enabled or disabled by Certain. Contact helpdesk@certain.com for assistance.

How do I enable click-through tracking on my event?

The same as any other module within an event. An administrator must navigate to Plan>Configure>Options>Functional Areas Needed by This Event>Event Module and select ‘Email Click-Through Tracking’. If you do not see this option, it is not enabled as a product on that sub-account or for your portal so please contact help@certain.com. 

How does click-through tracking work?

As stated above, we use industry-leading 3rd party provider SendGrid to send emails. Click-through tracking on emails is an optional feature that when enabled overwrites links with a SendGrid domain that is only visible when the recipient mouses over the link. See the example below. Upon click of the link, the user's browser opens the website so other than the overwritten URL being displayed to the user the experience is seamless. 
 

Will recipients be concerned about the overwritten link and think it is a phishing email?

This is a valid concern; however, this technique of using overwritten URLs is typical of email providers that track email clicks. : https://docs.sendgrid.com/ui/account-and-settings/tracking#click-tracking

Can the domain displayed in the overwritten links match that of my portal?

Yes. This is possible but requires some coordination between Certain and your team that manages the Domain Name Service (DNS) for your portal. Some best practices must also be followed by your users who configure emails. Documentation on these best practices is forthcoming, however in the meantime contact your CSM regarding your interest in branding click-tracking URL’s.

Where can I see the link that a registrant clicked on?

Drill into a registration and navigate to the Email Activity timeline where you will see the link that was clicked with a corresponding time stamp.

What if a recipient clicks on multiple links in the same email?

Each click will be tracked and recorded in the timeline including multiple clicks of the same link.

Is there anything else I need to know about click-through tracking?

Due to the nature of internet routing, load balancing among servers, corporate firewalls and spam filtering, some single clicks can be recorded multiple times within seconds so when we see multiple clicks of the SAME link in an email recorded within 30 seconds of one another we only display a single click.

Should I have any privacy concerns regarding enabling click-through tracking in my emails?

As a best practice, we always recommend that all registration forms include your organization’s (or your client’s organization) privacy policy that outlines how registrant data is managed. As part of that policy, we suggest including verbiage that mentions they may leverage 3rd party technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts to analyze trends and track user movements on websites and in emails to gather engagement data and provide a more personalized experience to their end users.

Single Send Emails

What emails are considered Single Send?

• Confirmation emails triggered when a registrant completes registration and lands on the ‘Confirm’ page of a form. This includes single sends of event confirmations, form confirmations, and email templates.
• Any single email sent from the Registration>Email or Profile Email pages.
• Forgot Password Emails
• Digital Emails that include a Join URL
• Think of these as running totals for one-time, single-send emails. 

Mass Action Emails

What emails are considered Mass Action Emails?

• Email sent via mass action from the Report Results window. This includes Event Confirmation emails, Form Confirmations, and Email Templates.
• Scheduled Emails

Miscellaneous

What emails are not tracked?

Emails sent to Speakers and Reviewers and messages sent as a CC or BCC.

How many emails can I send in a single mass action?

5000 is the max number of records that can be sent in a single mass action. If you have more than 5000 records, you will need to break that up into smaller sends. Setting a custom registration property or putting a registration on the ‘To-Do List’ can be used to track who an email has been sent to.

How are emails that include a CC or BCC handled?

Emails sent to CC and BCC as well as additional and assistant emails are not tracked.

Is email sent from Certain CAN-SPAM compliant?

No. However, that does not mean you cannot implement CAN-SPAM compliant requirements into your emails. To learn more about CAN-SPAM compliance click here.