Summary
Email engagement tracking data is saved on the EmailEngagement model (as well as some related data being saved on the Conversation/Workflow models, and the Sendout model for marketing emails)
You can view emails in Inbox Pages, applying filters (e.g. referring to the EmailEngagement model) to see specific groupings (e.g. emails that haven't been replied to, or emails that have been clicked on)
You can also use chart widgets in Dashboard Pages to perform calculations on email engagement data and visualize trends etc. There is a Global Template (Page Template) called "Email Engagement Analytics" that's a great starting point
Who is this article for?
All Planhat Users
It's particularly relevant if you or your team send external emails, and you would like to view and analyze email engagement tracking data
Series
Visualizing and analyzing email engagement tracking data ⬅️ You are here
Article contents
Introduction
Email is a key method of communication for organizations, whether that's:
Emailing prospects, customers or other contacts
Emailing an individual person or a group of people in bulk
Sending emails automatically (via a Workflow) or manually
Discussing technical details, asking for feedback, organizing a meeting, announcing an event, or many other use cases
When you send an email, you will often want to track and analyze it. For example, did the recipient open the email? Did they click on a link in the email? Did they reply to the email? Did they unsubscribe? And so on. This enables you to fully understand the situation and respond appropriately, from knowing whether or not to send a follow-up chasing email to a particular person, to assessing whether you need to change your marketing email strategy (e.g. subject wording) in future to achieve better engagement.
📚 Further reading
For an introduction to email engagement tracking in Planhat, check out our overview article here.
To read about marketing emails (a specific type of email with unsubscribe functionality and tracking via Sendouts), you can refer to our separate series of articles starting here.
To learn about viewing and analyzing email engagement data in general in Planhat, read on.
In this article, we take you through how to view email engagement tracking data in Planhat. We'll show you what the relevant records look like, and how you can view the data in both tables and charts (in Pages), so you can gain maximum insights, and can take action with your data as appropriate.
📌 Important to note
Be aware that it's not always possible for email engagement tracking to be 100% accurate - e.g. there can be false positives for opens if a recipient's email client pre-open emails for security reasons, and there can be false negatives for opens if a recipient's email client doesn't download images (including the pixel used for tracking).
Background information - relevant models
In Planhat, data is saved in various data models - similar to the "objects" you may be familiar with in other tools. For example, the Company model is used for all organizations that you deal with (customers or prospects) - Company records could be Zoom, Pfizer, Apple, BMW, and so on.
Planhat includes a range of:
"business models" (such as Company), which you can view in Data Explorer, build Data Table Pages for, and configure in the "Data" ("Data Model") Global Tool
"system models", which are more "behind the scenes" - e.g. EmailEngagement, which we will look at in this article in the context of building filters and charts
In the context of email engagement tracking, the most significant models to be aware of are:
End User
A "business model"
This is the Planhat model that represents external people - people who are your customers, prospects and other contacts
E.g. an End User record could be "Becky Smith"
You send emails to End Users
Conversation
A "business model"
This model is used to record your logged (rather than planned) "conversations" with your End Users / Companies
A Conversation record can correspond to an email, a ticket, a chat, a call, or a meeting (such as a training session, a kick-off call or a QBR, etc.)
EmailEngagement
A "system model"
This model is used to record email engagement tracking data
Each EmailEngagement record is created by an email being sent with any tracking enabled
It has the following fields: Click Rate, Company, Conversation, Email Opened, Email Replied, Email Template, End User, First Clicked, First Opened, First Replied, Link Clicked, NPS Campaign, Open Rate, Reply Rate, Send Date, Trigger, Unsubscribe Rate, Workflow, Workflow Step, and Workflow Template - you can refer to these in filters and charts, which we'll discuss below
Sendout
A "system model"
This model is used to record marketing emails - a specific type of email that is (usually) sent to multiple End Users at once, and has unsubscribe options; typical use cases are product and event announcements
You can read about analyzing marketing emails via the Sendout model in our separate article here
Workflow
Viewing engagement on individual emails (Conversation records)
You can view emails in a variety of places, including Company and End User Full-Page Profiles, and Inbox Pages (which we'll talk more about later in this article).
If you click on an email Conversation, you'll be able to see some email engagement tracking data on the record - e.g. whether a link within the email was clicked.
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This shows that some email engagement tracking data is saved on the Conversation model itself. For deeper analysis, you can refer to the EmailEngagement model, which we discuss next in this article.
🚀 Tip
In addition to some email engagement tracking data being present on the Conversation model, you will also find related fields on the Workflow model - Sequence Workflows being a way that you can automatically send series of emails. We go through an example of using the "Reply Rate" field on the Workflow model here.
Viewing email engagement data in tables
As a system model, you don't view tables of EmailEngagement records, but you can refer to this model in cross-model filters when viewing tables of Conversations or End Users. These can either be built on the relevant Pages themselves, or in a Global Filter configured in the "Data" ("Data Model") Global Tool for admins and then applied to the Page.
Here's a couple of examples:
A filter referencing EmailEngagement built on an Inbox Page of Conversation records
🚀 Tip
When you want to display tables of emails like this, where different emails have been sent to different Companies (as opposed to viewing the emails for one Company on its Full-Page Profile), we recommend the Inbox Page type rather than a Data Table of Conversations.
A Global Filter built in the "Data" Global Tool and applied to an End User Data Table Page
Applying filters to tables of Conversations (or End Users) is a great way for you to identify where further action is required. For example, if you've sent an important announcement email, you can use filters to quickly establish who in your audience has opened/seen the email, or who has interacted with it (clicked/replied) - versus who has not and may need a follow-up.
🚀 Tip
When you've created Inbox Pages and/or Data Table Pages like in the examples above, remember that you can then organize them into suitable Views/Sections.
Filters
Let's take a deeper look at how these filters are structured.
To reference EmailEngagement in a filter on the Conversation or End User models, you need to use "Id" and "Match By", the same as you would with other cross-model filters - the first line of the filter will be "Id / Match By / EmailEngagement".
For example, this could be a filter built on an Inbox Page to filter Conversations:
You can also include additional properties in your filters - for example the below Global Filter built for the End User model is used as exit criteria in a Sequence Workflow, as detailed in a separate article here.
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How to create an email engagement filter on an Inbox Page
As an example, let's go through how to build a filter referencing EmailEngagement on an Inbox Page.
A cross-model filter like this is classified as an "advanced filter", so on your Inbox Page, click on "+ Filter" and then "Advanced filter", as shown in the screenshots below.
Next, click on "+ Rule", and fill in the first line to be "Id / Match By / EmailEngagement", as shown below.
Then click "+ Rule" within the box (annotated below), and fill in your desired rule - example shown in the second screenshot below.
If you would like to add additional EmailEngagement criteria to your filter, you can do so by pressing "+ Rule" in the box (the top/indented one) again - for example:
You can also include rules based on Conversation properties (as this filter is on an Inbox Page of Conversations) by clicking "+ Rule" at the bottom, outside of the box.
🚀 Tip
For more general information on designing and building filters, check out our separate article here.
Viewing email engagement data in charts
While in the previous section we discussed displaying and analyzing email engagement tracking data in tabular form via Inbox Pages and Data Table Pages, what about when you want to perform calculations on that data and visualize it in charts/graphs?
Dashboard (and Presentation) Pages are the answer here. The chart widgets within these Pages can perform calculations on email engagement tracking data (e.g. averages), as well as visualizing trends over time. This helps you to see if email performance is improving (perhaps in response to a strategy you have implemented) or an issue may be developing. Dashboard (and Presentation) Pages are also great for "telling stories with your data" - displaying your data in a clear and engaging way, which you can show to wider audiences, e.g. reporting to your senior management team.
Page Template (Global Template)
To get you up and running really quickly, there is actually a Planhat Global Template (Page Template) called "Email Engagement Analytics", which you can use as-is, edit, or simply use for inspiration.
You can access Page Templates via:
Either going to add a new Page to a View or Section, and selecting "Browse Planhat Global Templates"
Or in Content Explorer, selecting "Page templates" on the right
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Either way, you can search for and select the Page Template called "Email Engagement Analytics" within the Pages Library.
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Widget examples
Let's take a quick look at some of the charts present in this Page Template, as they are good examples of the analysis/visualization that you could build.
Remember, this are just examples - this is by no means an exhaustive list! You can refer to the "Email Engagement Analytics" Page Template for more examples, and come up with your own designs too.
KPI Widget built on EmailEngagement model
You can easily create KPI Widgets to calculate and display key figures. For example:
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The screenshot above shows how to configure this typical example of an email engagement KPI:
Select "EmailEngagement" as the "object" (i.e. model)
Select "average" for the "value" (operation)
Select your choice of EmailEngagement "property" (field) - "Open Rate", "Click Rate", "Reply Rate" or "Unsubscribe Rate"
You can additionally apply a filter (via the "Add filters" button at the top of the screenshot above) to be more specific in your analysis - e.g. you could calculate/display click rate for a specific Email Template.
Single Bar Chart built on the Workflow model
If you're running Sequence Workflows to automatically send emails, you can analyze the performance of different Workflow Templates using charts. The screenshot below, showing a simple Single Bar Chart, illustrates an example. This has been built on the Workflow model ("object"), and you can see the fields available in the "property" dropdown menu.
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Multi Bar Chart built on the EmailEngagement model
For even deeper analysis, you could use a Multi Bar Chart built on the EmailEngagement model and split/grouped by Email Template and Workflow Template, to help you understand in which particular Sequence Workflow each Email Template is most effective. The screenshot below shows the configuration panel with an example of this setup.
Cohort Bar Chart built on the EmailEngagement model
With a Cohort Bar Chart built on the EmailEngagement model, you can visualize performance by groups of emails sent. For example, Marketing can track how their email campaign data changes over time. You can apply filters to this graph (e.g. a specific Email Template or Workflow Template) for more granular and actionable analysis.
🚀 Tip
Again, remember these are just a handful of examples, which we have mentioned briefly. You can refer to the Page Template for further details, and check out our wide range of Page Widget articles in this Help Center for more detailed instructions and use cases. You can also speak with your CSM or TAM, or reach out to our Support team, if you need further assistance.