What is reply tracking?
Reply tracking helps to understand the success of your campaigns and can be used as a trigger to stop the sequence.
How to set up reply tracking?
Required time is 5-10 minutes.
1. Navigate to Account > Email settings > Reply tracking
2. Copy the unique forwarding email address that looks like: forward.[userid]@outfunnelmail.com
3. Set up email forwarding in your email provider to the above address.
We recommend setting up the email forwarding on the admin panel or browser-based version of Gmail, Exchange, or any other email provider you are using. If you don't have access to the admin panel, it's also possible to set it up through an email client like Outlook although we don't recommend it for stability reasons.
Please see the instructions for email provider-specific setup below. If you are having issues with setting it up, please reach out to us on support@outfunnel.com
Note that Zoho email client forwarding nor Apple Mail forwarding are not currently supported
4. After you’ve set up email forwarding, we recommend sending a test email campaign to yourself and replying to it (make sure to use the same from email you set up the email forwarding for). If the Replied counter updates under the campaign reporting, you are all set up.
5. If you are using a CRM we also recommend configuring Outfunnel to sync the reply as an activity to your CRM. For Pipedrive and HubSpot CRM you can enable it through Email engagement automations. For Copper, this is automatically enabled.
Setup for Gmail
On your computer, open Gmail using the account you want to forward messages from.
In the top right, click Settings and click Settings again
Open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and in the "Forwarding" section, click Add a forwarding address.
Enter the unique email address you copied from Outfunnel, click Next, then Proceed, and then OK.
Once the pop-up closes, you'll see a new field that prompts to enter the verification code. Refresh the page and you should see it disappear as Outfunnel verifies the email automatically.
In the "Forwarding" section, select Forward a copy of incoming mail to option and choose the Outfunnel forward address you just set up. We recommend to also choose to Keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox.
Save changes.
If you are planning to send emails from other emails under your domain, please repeat the process for that email account.
If the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab is not visible for your account please contact your Google Admin as they would need to set up email forwarding in the Google admin Console.
Setup for Outlook.com
At the top of the page, select Settings Settings > View all Outlook settings.
Select Mail > Forwarding.
Select Start forwarding, enter the unique forwarding email address
Select the Keep a copy of forwarded messages to keep a copy of the original message in your mailbox
Save.
For more info please see Outlook support page.
Important: your organization's Exchange account might not allow external forwarding and each time an email is forwarded you will get back an error email. To fix, please ask your system admin to allow external forwarding on your Exchange account
Setup for Exchange Admin
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to the Users > Active users page
Select the name of the user whose email you want to forward to open the properties page.
On the Mail tab, select Manage email forwarding.
On the email forwarding page, select Forward all emails sent to this mailbox, enter the forwarding address, and choose that you'd like to a copy of forwarded emails. If you don't see this option, make sure a license is assigned to the user account.
Save changes.
For more info please see Microsoft 365 help page.
Important: your organization's Exchange account might not allow external forwarding and each time an email is forwarded you will get back an error email. To fix, please ask your system admin to allow external forwarding on your Exchange account
Setup for Outlook desktop
We don't recommend setting up email forwarding in the desktop Outlook email client as the emails only get forwarded when Outlook processes the Send/Receive action.
The below steps are based on Outlook 2019. If you are using an older version of Outlook the steps might vary slightly.
Select File > Rules and alerts > New rule
Under the Start from a blank rule section select Apply rule on messages I receive. Click next
You will then be prompted to select the conditions for the messages that get forwarded. If you have multiple email accounts in your Outlook, please check "through the specified account" and specify the email account. If you have just a single email account leave all options unchecked so all emails get forwarded.
Now, set up another condition so that only your recent messages would get forwarded: date received > is less than or equal to > 5 days. Once you activate the rule, last 5-day emails will be forwarded and any future emails will get forwarded
Hit next. You will be asked what you want to do with the message. Tick the box that says to forward it to people or public group.
Click on the underlined part of the text in Step 2, which will open a Rule Address window. Paste the unique email address you copied from Outfunnel under To field and click OK
You should now see this email appear under Step 2. Hit Next and Next
Enter a descriptive name for the new rule and make sure to enable Turn on this rule
Save changes
If you are planning to send emails from other emails under your domain, please repeat the process for that email account.
A couple of things to keep in mind
💡 Set it up for every email account. Email forwarding should be configured for any email that will be used to send out emails
💡 Data storing and deletion. Outfunnel does not store or process your email content, only the necessary metadata to identify email replies. All metadata related to reply tracking is purged within 7 days.
💡 Forward a selection of emails. While Outfunnel doesn't record your email content and also purges the email meta data in 7 days you can also set up a filter in Gmail or Outlook that would only forward emails to Outfunnel with a certain subject line. For example prior to sending out a campaign you can create a filter that would only forward emails that have this subject line. This would then need to be adjusted every time you send out a new email campaign.
💡 Alias emails. For Google alias emails, add the forwarding email to the alias group under Google Admin Console.
💡 Only real replies are counted. Out of office emails are automatically excluded and do not count as a reply
💡 Spotted an issue or need help? If you are experiencing any issues or have found a bug please reach out to us via chat or send an email to support@outfunnel.com