How to know when a shopper opens the car link you sent

Not from the text itself. On an iPhone, a read receipt shows up only if the shopper has turned read receipts on, and that's their choice, for everyone or one contact at a time. Even then it says they saw the message, not that they opened the car.

So the link has to do the work. Send each shopper their own link to a page about the car, and use a tool that tells you when a person opens that page, how long they stay and what they look at. That's what vehicle page tools are for: Car Pages by CarShots, iPacket and Protomiq's AutoBio all alert a salesperson when a shopper engages, each in its own way, and the table below sets them side by side.

One catch first: plenty of opens aren't people.

Three things get between you and a real answer:

• Email security scanners. Microsoft's Safe Links, part of Defender for Office 365, scans the links in an email before delivering it, and Microsoft's recommended setting holds the message until that scan is finished. So a machine can visit your link before the email even lands. Other business email filters can do the same.
• Apple Mail. Apple says Mail Privacy Protection keeps senders from seeing whether you opened their email, so a CRM's email open report means little for shoppers on Apple Mail. Apple also says the protection doesn't extend to links, so a real visit to the page still tells you something.
• Link previews. Apple's Messages app shows a preview of a link by default, built from tags on the page itself, and Apple's notes say the preview reads the page without running its JavaScript. So the page gets fetched for the preview whether or not the shopper ever taps it.

A plain click counter, or a tracker that counts every load on its server, can report an open the moment a message is delivered, before anyone has looked. Before you trust an open alert, ask whether it counts the view in the shopper's own browser after they've looked, and whether it leaves scanners and previews out.

Here's what each option shows you, what to watch for and what it costs.

An alert is only useful if it tells you what to do next. Look for these six things:

• Who. One link per shopper, so every open has a name on it. A link you share with everyone only tells you that someone looked.
• That it was a person. The view is counted in the shopper's browser once they've had the page on screen or tapped it, with scanners and link previews left out.
• When they came back. A second visit is often the moment to call, because the car is still on their mind.
• What held them. Time on the photos, the video, the window sticker, the history report or the price tells you what to talk about.
• Another device. The same link opening on a second phone or computer can mean a spouse or co-buyer is looking too.
• One place to see it all. An email or text to your own phone, plus a list of your hottest shoppers across every car, so nobody has to remember to check.

Car Pages Pro does each of these. iPacket says its live view alerts and heatmaps show the parts of a packet shoppers engage with most, and Protomiq says AutoBio alerts your team when a past lead returns.

Car Pages come with every CarShots plan, and Pro adds who's looking and live alerts. Here's the routine.

An open is a reason to reach out, not a reason to pounce. A simple routine:

• First open: send a short, useful text rather than calling straight away. Answer what the page can't, like when they can come see the car.
• Back again: this is the moment to call. They're still deciding, and your car is one of the options.
• Long on the price or the history report: that's the question on their mind, so lead with it.
• A second device: someone else is in the decision. Offer to send the page to them too, or set a time when both can see the car.
• No open after a day: resend with a different photo or the walkaround video, or try another channel.

The page matters as much as the alert. Studio photos and a walkaround video give shoppers a reason to stay, and every minute they stay tells you more. Our walkaround video software guide covers the video side.

If you only need to know that a link was loaded, the click count from a free link shortener will do, as long as you remember that scanners and previews inflate it.

If your team texts shoppers cars every day, you want one link per shopper and alerts that count only people. iPacket is built around packets sent from your CRM or its app, and it comes after a demo, with no published price. Car Pages Pro has a published price, $149 a month per rooftop, and you turn it on yourself in CarShots with no demo to book. The page every shopper sees leads with studio photos and a walkaround video made in CarShots. AutoBio fits a store that wants a fuller report on its own website's car pages and alerts when past leads return. Our iPacket alternatives guide covers the rest of the field, and What is an iPacket? explains the packet itself.