[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Have you been noticing \u2018triangle warnings\u2019 against some clicks in your reporting? Well, these are bots and actually not humans who are clicking your beautifully crafted email campaigns.<\/p>\n
These bots are not only a pain in the proverbial, but more importantly skewing the performance of your campaigns. Yes, that\u2019s right, your open rate (don\u2019t get me started on open rates \u2013 one of the worst email marketing metrics ever invented) and CTRs (click through rates) are actually worse than you already thought it was!<\/p>\n
So, from February 2022 you will start to notice a decrease in your email opens\/clicks. Spotler is rolling out (rolled out if you are reading this after February 2022) an update which will drastically impact your email KPIs.<\/p>\n
The latest update to our Spotler software will detect all clicks from the same contact in the same contact on any link. Where the click from one link to the next is under 100 milliseconds the software will flag those event records as bots and remove them from your overall campaign results.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t panic though \u2013 this is really good news, I promise!<\/strong><\/p>\n Companies of all shapes and sizes implement anti-virus and spam blocking services, in order to reduce the amount of spam that gets through to their employees.<\/p>\n In most cases these anti-virus\/anti-spam tools have little or no impact as you send out your email, sending out the odd \u2018click\u2019 here and there. However, some of these tools are overly-aggressive and do more than gently click a few links. Sometimes they check all the links in the email, which registers as a full\u00a0link click in your email campaign.<\/p>\n That is how a fake click (a bot) can throw off your real email CTR.<\/p>\n Our methods:<\/strong><\/p>\n It is hard to determine, generally, what percent of email link clicks are performed by real people versus bots. However, they are becoming more and more common, and we are seeing them more frequently within the campaigns that are being sent out.<\/p>\n If you are using this metric as an indication of email effectiveness, then your output will be flawed. If you are sending follow-on campaigns automatically to those that have \u2018clicked\u2019 then most likely you are sending it to people who haven\u2019t actually engaged. If you use clicks in your sales process\/pipeline, that will explain why your sales teams say they have called \u2018X\u2019 but the say they have never received the email.<\/p>\n Ultimately clicks are just as useless as opens in email marketing.<\/p>\n So more than likely your email click rates are bloated by bots clicking your links. Fortunately, this new update from Spotler will help reduce the amount of bot clicks you see within your campaigns.<\/p>\n The outcome?<\/strong><\/p>\n We control bots in 3 ways;<\/strong><\/p>\n Unfortunately not. We cannot completely eradicate all bot clicks, simply because we do not know every bot clicker. There are always new anti-virus\/anti-spam tools, but once we identify them, they will be removed from campaign reporting.<\/p>\n However, we are cutting out a huge portion of bots by removing anything we know to be bot activity.<\/p>\n No.<\/p>\n From a reporting standpoint, you want only legitimate clicks in your system \u2013 not fake clicks. Fake clicks can astronomically inflate activity CTRs and if these are part of your sales process, lead you to turn over \u2018hot\u2019 leads to your sales team that are not actually hot leads.<\/p>\n Now that your email campaigns will be showing their true CTR and you know opens are completely worthless, what should marketers be reporting on, especially when lead generation is a core focus of their email strategy?<\/p>\n The answer is quite simple. Rather than, for example, an email with a 5.2% open rate and a 0.45% CTR (but wait, \u201cwhat about CTR I hear you cry?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Well, I won\u2019t even entertain that with an answer!) you should be concentrating on the percent that lands on your website (let\u2019s coin that \u2018click to web rate\u2019 \u2013 CTWR) and then score their engagement to create leads of varying degrees.<\/p>\n Luckily as a Spotler customer we have you covered, as the tool set at your disposal will not only make you a better marketer, but it will also help you prospect, nurture and qualify your leads better.<\/p>\n So you can send out your email campaign, report on the correct CTR (if you must), but now, and the most important part, also report on the CTWR and how many of these went on to become hot leads. And if they don\u2019t engage on the website, you can try to nurture them with popups and remarketing to them with predefined automated workflow campaigns. You might even start creating bespoke landing pages for your email campaigns that are designed to convert\u2026 and yes that can be done in Spotler too.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s to the brave new world of lower CTRs but better reporting and understanding of what in reality is on in your email campaigns, and in turn a more accurate view of demand generation from the marketing department.<\/p>\nHOW DO BOTS CLICK LINKS IN MY EMAIL CAMPAIGNS?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
HOW DO WE IDENTIFY A BOT CLICKING AN EMAIL LINK?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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DO I REALLY NEED TO WORRY?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU AND YOUR EMAIL SENDING?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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HOW IS THIS CONTROLLED?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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IS IT THE END OF BOTS CLICKING MY EMAILS?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
CAN I TURN IT OFF?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
WHAT SHOULD I REPORT ON?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
More resources<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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NEED HELP? WANT US TO CHECK YOUR EMAIL KPI\u2019S AND SEE IF THEY ARE PERFORMING WELL?<\/strong><\/h3>\n