Forwards and Open Rate

[BU_Entrepreneurship]

If an original recipient of an email forwards it to a friend, and the friend opens it, does the friend open affect the open rate in reports?

[William_A · Accepted solution]

Hello @BU_Entrepreneurship ,

Since the open tracking image is associated with that contact's email address, any forwards will also potentially affect the open rate, assuming the forwardee allows images to show.

It may be worth including a Forward to Friend share button in your email to avoid these tracking elements from being included, though it would still require the original contact to click the button in the email instead of their email program's forward button. This share button will also avoid the potential code-rewrite and formatting issues caused by email programs' forwarding functions, since it essentially just provides the email's permanent share URL.