When campaigns are sent through Zift123, we embed a tiny invisible graphic (1×1 pixel) in the bottom of the HTML email. This open tracker graphic, or web beacon, is unique to each mailing you send. Each time someone opens your email and views the images within it, that open-tracker graphic is downloaded from our server. The first time that graphic is downloaded, we count that as an open on your campaign report.

Nearly every Email Service Provider measures email opens in this way - this practice is not unique to Zift!

Are you seeing an unusually high number of emails for a single lead in a short time frame? Here are some possible causes:

• It is commonly a result of the recipient's spam filter or virus scanner clicking and downloading links and images within the email in order to scan them for malicious content. This increases the number of times that the tracking beacon is downloaded and thus increases the number of emails opens that Zift reports. 
• An unusually high number might also happen if the email recipient's email preview pane is enabled in their mail client. In this case, the tracking beacon is downloaded every time the recipient clicks or scrolls within the preview pane. 

Are you seeing a lower than expected number of email opens? 

• In the event that the recipient's email client (Outlook, for instance) disables or blocks images, then we are unable to register the open, even if the recipient does open the email. In this case, if a recipient opens an email and then clicks on a link, we would register the click but not the open.

Learn more about How open rates are calculated.