Well, I had similar questions about tracking open e-mails (my list is just over 5,000) and have now read all the posts on this thread. I am very encouraged by the reasonable answers recently post by Jonathan. I have over 35 years experience in IT and his responses sound like they come from a true professional (I cannot say the same for the prior posts from other CC staff in this thread... they sounded like 'B' team responses to me... good but not great!). Good luck Jonathan... I look forward to your improvements in 2012... BTW, can you also fix the KLUDGY editing features for e-mail marketing, it's a PITA. So, until improvements are made, here's my take on managing e-mail lists: 1. Do not trust the 'open' statistics... they are not accurate and can only be used as a relative guide to your previous mailings. 2. Do not believe the 'Bounce' statistics... I do not think they are 100% based upon limited testing on my part... Jonathan, I would appreciate your comments on this item. 3. Trust your customers to delete themselves from the lists until the above two items get addressed. 4. In terms of cost: That is dependent upon the individual business model and their expectations. For my business (a restaurant), a penny or two for a monthly mailing is a very good deal... sure beats snail mail... and I have no plans to change vendors given that all services are not fully mature from a technical viewpoint and Jonathan's posts give me hope that CC might now have a solid technical leader with common business sense. So, that's my 2 cents.
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