Setting up open tracking consent

Follow these steps to start collecting open tracking consent and to stop tracking opens for contacts who haven't consented. Work through them in order.

See also: Open tracking consent

Before you start

• To view the setting, you need permission to view general settings. To change it, you need permission to edit channel settings and general settings. Without view permission, you see "You don't have permission to access this setting."

   

• Ask your CSR to review your preference centre, especially if you use a separate page for each language you send in.

Step 1: Add and enable countries

1. Go to Settings > Channel settings > Email.
2. Select the Open tracking consent tab.
3. Select Add a country. Search for the country and select it. The list only shows countries on Ometria's list that you haven't added yet.
   Ometria adds the country as Disabled, with its Effective date. Ometria sets this date and you can't edit it.
4. Repeat for each country you need. For France, add France and each overseas department you send to separately: Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Mayotte.
5. Switch each country to Enabled.

6. Choose what happens to contacts who haven't given an answer:

   • Contacts acquired before effective date stay opted in and contacts acquired after are opted out (default): contacts acquired before the effective date are treated as consented. Contacts acquired on or after it are treated as not consented.
   • Contacts acquired before and after the effective date are opted out unless they change their opt-in status: every contact without an explicit yes is treated as not consented.

   These options appear once the effective date has passed. They're greyed out while the country is disabled. Before the effective date, you see "No action needed" and the default applies.

7. Select Save. You see "Channel settings saved successfully".
8. A message reminds you that your preference centre may need an update. Select Ok.

Changes apply as soon as you save. From then on, Ometria stops tracking opens for contacts in these countries who haven't consented. Changes to this setting show in your audit log as "open tracking".

See also: Channel settings

Step 2: Build two segments

Build one segment for contacts Ometria treats as opted in, and one for contacts it treats as opted out.

1. Create a segment with the filter Customer is opted in to non-native channel and the channel Email open tracking.
2. Create a second segment with Customer is opted out from non-native channel and the channel Email open tracking.

Right after you enable a country, no contact has given an answer yet. Under the default option:

• The opted-in segment holds contacts acquired before the effective date
• The opted-out segment holds contacts acquired on or after the effective date

Contacts outside your enabled countries aren't in either segment, because Ometria tracks their opens as normal.

To find contacts you still need to ask, combine the opted-out filter with a country filter and a date acquired on or after the effective date.

See also: Customer filter

Step 3: Draft a consent notice email

Write an email that tells contacts about open tracking and lets them choose. Agree the wording with your legal team. Cover:

• What open tracking is and what you use it for
• That it's separate from their marketing subscription
• What happens if they don't answer
• How to change their mind later, for example in your preference centre

Give a clear yes and a clear no, with equal weight. Use the one-click merge tags for the links:

<a href="{{ email_open_tracking_optin }}">Yes, you can see when I open your emails</a>
<a href="{{ email_open_tracking_optout }}">No, don't track when I open your emails</a>

You may want two versions: one for the opted-in segment, telling contacts tracking continues unless they say no, and one for the opted-out segment, asking contacts for a yes.

See: Collecting open tracking consent

Step 4: Send the notice email

1. Send the notice to your two segments as a transactional email, so it reaches contacts whether or not they're subscribed to email marketing. Check with your legal team which contacts you can send it to.
2. Keep a record of who you sent it to and when, for example by exporting each segment on the day you send.

Step 5: Update every saved overlay

Add the open tracking consent checkbox to the email screen of each overlay that collects email addresses. Saved overlays don't update on their own, so open and update each one.

1. Open the overlay in the overlay builder and go to the email screen.
2. Add the Open tracking consent element.
3. Under Who sees this checkbox, select Visitors in countries that require consent. The default is No one who sees this overlay, so the checkbox stays hidden until you change this.
4. Check the text in Checkbox label and change it if your legal team asks you to.
5. Save and publish the overlay.

Changes can take up to 30 minutes to show on your website. If the checkbox still doesn't appear, ask your CSR whether your overlay tag needs to be rebuilt.

See also: Overlays: Content and style

Step 6: Update your preference centre

Contact your CSR to add the open tracking checkbox to your preference centre. Make sure every language page includes it.

Pages created with No template get the checkbox automatically. Pages copied from the default template, and custom-built pages, need Ometria to add it.

See also: Ometria's preference centre

Expected result

• Your countries show as Enabled on the Open tracking consent tab.
• Ometria sends emails without the open-tracking pixel to contacts in those countries who haven't consented. Emails still send and clicks are still tracked.
• Contacts can say yes or no in your notice email, overlays and preference centre. Answers show in your segments and on the single customer view.

Turning a country off

To stop applying a country's rules, switch it to Disabled and select Save. You can also remove the country from the list.

Ometria then tracks opens as normal for contacts in that country. It keeps every answer contacts gave. If you enable the country again, those answers apply again.