Hello @SherryF2 ,
If their network or email program uses some kind of security tool that "opens" emails and "clicks" their links to check for malware, it can result in that kind of data. You can try setting up your account for self-authentication. This can show the security algorithms that emails being sent through us by you are effectively coming directly from you, and avoid triggering the clicks/opens from bots, but it's unfortunately not a guarantee as some security programs are simply built to function like this.
If these contacts' networks / security programs are using bots to scan for malware, or they're distribution lists / auto-forwarding to larger groups of people, then the numbers are going to be skewed regardless, and those contacts will simply never provide consistently viable reporting info.
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If you're wanting to keep the contacts but separate them for the sake for your reporting, then I'd advise isolating them to a new list (or lists) meant for contacts that auto-forward or use bot security checks. You can then send copies of your emails meant for those bot-types to the corresponding lists. That way your main emails to your direct, human contacts will have more accurate reporting.
If you'd like the step-by-step process of what I'm describing:
- Identify the contacts that are causing these bloated open and click statistics. Consider tagging them for quick referral when you identify them, as this can quicken the list creation.
- Create a new list, call it something obvious like "Suspected Bot / Auto-Forward Contacts," then add the suspected contacts to that list. If you need to be particularly granular with the list memberships, then I'd advise instead making "suspected..." copies of each of your lists, and applying these suspected contacts to the applicable copied lists.
- Consider making a note in the suspect contacts of what lists they were previously on, or use the tags mentioned earlier, in case you decide later you don't like this setup and want to put the suspect contacts back into the main lists.
- Once the suspect contacts are on the suspect list(s), remove them from the normal list(s) they're on.
- From here on, you'll need to send two versions of the emails you'd normally be sending to these lists - one for the seemingly normal contacts, and a copy that you send to the suspect lists.
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Beyond that, there's not much else you can do from your end. Our devs are constantly trying to identify the various programs that utilize this functionality, so they can set our system to ignore the behavior and triggers from these particular programs. If, after setting your account up for self-auth, the click rates continue to be inflated or worsen, then it may be worth calling in. That way our general support or higher level technical team can see if there's any further info that can be gleamed from the content of the emails with you live on the phone, or to see if the domains of the contacts that are seeming to bot-click them show any other particular consistencies we can track.
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William A
Community & Social Media Support
