Anonymized statistic

How to anonymize the statistics of your subscribers

Data protection is an important topic and a central challenge for all companies, especially in email marketing. With mailworx, you have the perfect partner at your side – we provide you with some useful features to implement all the legal requirements easily in practice. In addition to a standardized double-opt-in proces including sample texts for your privacy policy, we also offer you the option of anonymizing your statistics.

Have you informed your subscribers about recording or processing their data and they have given you their consent? In that case, there is hardly anything that keeps you from a legally compliant email marketing in conjunction with the collection of personal data. However, the privacy policy of your company goes one step further? Try our solution for anonymizing the statistics of your subscribers.

Decide for yourself whether you want to anonymize the entire statistics in your email marketing system or let your subscribers decide on the anonymization of their behavior. The great thing about it is that you do not have to renounce on the most important key figures of your newsletter campaigns – personal statistics are only anonymized not none recorded.

How does the anonymous statistic of the eworx Marketing Suite work?

The anonymous statistic of the eworx Marketing Suite waive the personal references of the campaign reactions from your newsletters. If you or one of your subscribers opt for an anonymous recording of the statistics, the corresponding responses are recorded but anonymously documented in the subscriber database. For example, this means that you can of course still access the most important key figures of your email marketing campaign (opening rate, click-through-rate, etc.), but no longer have access to the corresponding lists of subscribers or some of the contained data is anonymized.

Where can I find the settings for the anonymized statistics in the eworx Marketing Suite?

In the system settings of your mailworx account, you can choose between the personal tracking and the anonymous statistic recording. The appropriate settings are available in the category „Tracking„.

Personal tracking

Personalized tracking is the default setting in
your eworx Marketing Suite account. This means that all campaign responses are recorded as usual and also maintain a direct connection to each subscriber. You can also view in the eworx Marketing Suite statistic tool which of your subscribers have opened, clicked etc. In addition, you can easily access the entire range of options for individualizing your emails based on the user behavior.

Anonymous tracking

If you choose to work with the anonymized tracking in
the eworx Marketing Suite, your subscriber’s campaign responses will still be tracked and you can access the key metrics such as the opening and click rate as known, but you won’t have the connection to each individual subscriber. You have to know, that this tracking option brings restrictions in the individualization of your campaigns. Which areas are affected, we have summarized here.

You have decided for your tracking option? What you have to look out for when changing over to your respective tracking can be found here.

How can I let the subscribers decide on the anonymization of their statistics?

In addition to the complete switch to anonymous tracking, mailworx also gives you the option to let your subscribers decide on their individual statistics recording. The corresponding decision is stored via the subscriber field „Tracking type“ directly in the metadata of the respective subscriber.

There are several ways how you can set the appropriate subscriber field – we want to introduce you in some of these below.

Set subscriber field via form

One of the most common use cases will include setting the subscriber field „Tracking type“ in the registration form for your newsletter. Your prospective subscribers can choose about how they want you to record their statistics at the moment you inform them about the collection of their data.

Set subscriber field via link click

You have the option to set the subscriber field „Tracking type“ – similar to other subscriber fields – via a link click in your email campaign. This makes sense, for example, if you want to let the recipients decide within a campaign whether their statistic values should be anonymized or recorded on a personal basis.

Set subscriber field via import/bulk change

In addition to the actions that allow your subscribers to directly set the appropriate value in the subscriber field „tracking type“, we also offer other options for you to make this setting for multiple subscribers at one time. Simply select the corresponding subscriber field in the eworx Marketing Suite import or bulk change.

Set subscriber field via automation

It is also possible to set the subscriber field „tracking type“ automatically via the eworx Marketing Suite workflow editor. Therefore, use the action „set subscriber field value“ and select the desired subscriber field at the appropriate point in your individual process.

Which areas do the anonymized statistics influence?

Data, or more specific personal data, is the foundation for email marketing activities. Therefore, anonymizing the reactions of your subscribers of course affects several areas in the eworx Marketing Suite. If you change your entire account to anonymous statistics or leave your subscribers the choice between an anonymous tracking or the classic recording of their data, you can no longer access the full functionality of some individualization elements. We have summarized the most important affected areas here:

Detail lists from the email campaign statistics are no longer or only partly filled with personal data – the remaining data is anonymized.
The creation of a subscriber group based on clicks or other reactions to a mailing is no longer or only limited useful – a similar picture is also when it comes to follow-up campaigns.
Campaigns that have been sent to subscribers with anonymous statistics are still listed in the subscriber module in the statistics tab, but without the detailed behavior of the subscriber.
All evaluations in the respective subscriber statistics are no longer or only partially available.
The statistics filter of the eworx Marketing Suite workflow editor can no longer be used or only to a limited extend.
Sending your email campaigns with the iRated® Technology makes no or only conditionally sense.

Hint
If you decide for a anonymized statistic, the campaign reactions of your subscribers will be anonymized. This doesn’t affect the master data or data of other subscriber fields that are filled with additional information of your recipients. Personalization elements based on this subscriber data can thus also be used as usual – even if you activate the anonymous statistic.

What exactly has to be done if I want to activate the anonymous statistic?

You have now informed yourself about the different options of tracking and decided on one of the variants for dealing with the anonymization of your statistics? Start directly with the changeover of your tracking. Among other things, you need to consider how to handle with the existing data in your subscriber database. For this, the eworx Marketing Suite has several solutions for you.

Anonymized statistics for all subscribers in your account

In order to decide for the anonymized statistics for all subscribers, make the appropriate settings directly in the system settings of your mailworx account. There are several ways for your existing subscribers.

Switch from PERSONAL to ANONYMOUS

If you switch from personal tracking to anonymous tracking, you have several options for dealing with existing subscribers. On the one hand, you can keep the current tracking settings of the respective recipient, but on the other hand, you can automatically change them to anonymous. In this case, the subscriber field „Tracking type“ will be automatically adjusted for all existing subscribers.

Switch from ANONYMOUS to PERSONAL

It is also possible to switch from an anonymous tracking back to the personal record. In this case, you also have the option to choose whether to keep the current tracking setting from the existing subscriber or to change the value in the subscriber field „Tracking type“ to „personal“. Once past statistic values have been anonymized, they can no longer be restored in the case of a switch to personal tracking.

Anonymized statistics for a single subscriber

If you let your subscribers choose the appropriate type of tracking, you or the subscriber can adjust the settings of the subscriber field „Tracking type“ in the master data of the respective subscriber. Tracking will be anonymous from the point of time you switch the value of the field – previous personal campaign responses will persist. If you also want to anonymize the past data from the subscriber, use the button „Anonymize personal campaign responses„.

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