The 7 Best Email Tracking Tools For Sales Professionals Using Outlook

Ever hit “send” in Outlook and wonder if your email went straight to the trash or if your prospect is reading it right now? You’re not alone. Sales reps, marketers, and even customer success teams waste hours chasing down leads and clients without knowing whether their emails are being opened, clicked, or ignored.

That’s where an email tracker for Outlook might come in handy. By showing you who’s engaging with your emails (and how), they help you prioritize follow-ups, close deals faster, and stop guessing what’s happening in your inbox.

In this guide, we’ll break down how email tracking works in Outlook, the best tools available, and why Cirrus Insight is the #1 choice for sales professionals who need more than just read receipts.

Contents:

• What are Outlook Email Trackers?
• How Does Tracking Emails Work?
• The 7 Best Email Tracking Tools for Outlook
• The Limitations of Outlook Email Trackers
• Why Do You Need To Track Emails In The First Place?
• How To Choose The Right Email Tracking Tool

What Are Outlook Email Trackers?

Normally, when you hit send from Microsoft Outlook you have no idea what your customers do with it. A lot of questions are unanswered:

Do they open it, leave it unread, junk it immediately? Which customers are more likely to read them? Do they click on any of the links inside your email? If so, which ones? What device did the customer use to open your mail?

Email tracking refers to any method of monitoring how recipients interact with emails. Microsoft Outlook trackers not only send you read receipts and other information about customer behavior, some can integrate into your CRM to help you put that knowledge to use. Cirrus Insight's Buyer Signals feature bridges the gap between email and Salesforce, giving sales professionals an optimized selling experience.

With a wide range of free and paid email tracking tools, anyone can track responses to email in Outlook. The people who benefit the most from this process are business owners, marketing professionals, sales representatives, and customer support staff, however.

Who Uses Outlook Email Trackers?

• Sales reps: Know when a prospect is engaged so you can time your follow-up perfectly
• Marketers: Measure which campaigns drive the most clicks and engagement
• Customer success managers: Ensure onboarding emails and support resources are being read
• Operations & finance: Track whether invoices, proposals, or contracts have been opened

How Does Tracking Emails Work?

Despite sounding complex, email tracking in Outlook is simple. Most tools add a tiny, invisible tracking pixel to your message. When your recipient opens the email, the pixel loads, and you’re notified.

What You Can Track

• Opens: See when and how often your email is opened
• Clicks: Monitor which links are clicked inside your email
• Attachments: Some tools track if a file was opened or downloaded
• Device & location (optional): Many trackers can show whether the email was read on mobile, desktop, or tablet

What to Watch Out For

• False opens: Previews or spam filters can sometimes trigger “open” events
• Blocked pixels: If the recipient uses an ad blocker, tracking may not work
• Limited scope: Native Outlook read receipts only confirm a message was delivered, tools like Cirrus Insight provide much more detail

Of course, this is just a basic overview of the inner workings of Outlook email tracking. More sophisticated and advanced systems use a mix of different technologies to provide you with the data you’re looking for, tracked automatically.

The 7 Best Email Tracking Tools For Outlook

Outlook Email Tracking Tools at a Glance

1. Cirrus Insight – The Premier Outlook Solution

Price: Three different pricing plans are available, ranging from $10/mo to $29/mo.

More than just an email tracking software, Cirrus Insight comes with a whole host of features. Beyond tracking email opens and customer activity, users can create individualized sales sequences, sync their inbox and calendar with Salesforce, and more.

Cirrus Insight's email tracking feature, called Buyer Signals, gives users more than just the ability to see email opens. By measuring all activity, including link clicks and attachment opens, Cirrus Insight is able to score and rank every single customer. Once a customer's activity reflects an ideal behavior, users will be notified that their leads are ready for a sales push.

Taking away the need to guess, Buyer Signals gives reps total visibility on their pipelines. Try the Buyer Signals feature today with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

Check out this video tutorial to see exactly how Cirrus Insight works!

2. Yesware – Powerful Email Tracking Software

Price: Three different pricing plans are available, ranging from $15/mo to $65/mo.

Yesware is a powerful email tracking software that lands your messages in the inbox, not in the spam folder. With valuable integrations with LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Salesforce, reps can use Yesware to bring their email marketing to the next level.

With over 6,000 partners, Yesware is designed to help teams sell better with the key features they need.

3. BananaTag – Drag-and-Drop Email Building

Price: Three different pricing plans are available, quoted for each customer/company.

Like its contemporaries, BananaTag allows users to track emails, measure customer activity, and identify noticeable trends among leads and customers.

What sets BananaTag apart, however, is it's drag-and-drop email builder. With a simple design, the solution allows you to create beautiful, responsive, multimedia-rich emails with easy. Users can also schedule emails, track attachments, and access detailed email analytics.

This add-on is perfect for users focused specifically on email marketing campaigns.

4. HubSpot – Full CRM With Email Tracking

Price: Three different pricing plans, ranging from $45/mo to over $800/mo depending scale.

In addition to providing companies with the ability to produce website content, such as blogs and landing pages, HubSpot gives users tools for email campaigns. While more expensive than other solutions, HubSpot is not your run-of-the-mill email tracker. Unlike its competitors, HubSpot is a full CRM with powerful email tracking capabilities. The software also has calls, chat, scheduling, and tons of other functionalities.

HubSpot is best for companies looking to improve their entire digital marketing strategy, along with simply tracking emails.

5. SalesHandy – Unlimited (Free) Email Tracking

Price: Free plan available; Regular plan starts at $9/month

SalesHandy is designed specifically to improve cold email campaigns and outreach.

Unlike most of the other options on this list, SalesHandy offers free UNLIMITED email tracking with no strings attached. For an additional sum each month, users can get more in depth analytics and features.

Unlike some other add-ons, SalesHandy's focus is on its main feature: email tracking. Users that want more features, such as sales sequences and more, should look elsewhere.

6. Boomerang – A Free Email Tracking Tool

Price: Free plan available; Personal plan starts at $4.99/month

Designed to be affordable and concise, Boomerang for Outlook provides tracking capability for little to no cost. Basic Boomerang accounts get the most important features like response tracking, read receipts, and click tracking – completely free.

While the features are relatively similar to competitors, the lower cost does contribute to a less optimized user interface, leading to potential issues. This tool is best for those that are looking for a simple way to improve their email marketing campaigns.

Boomerang offers a companion product for Gmail users as well.

7. MailTrack – Yet Another Great Free Tracking Tool

Price: Free plan available; Pro plan starts at $4.99/month

As simple as its webpage, MailTrack gives reps and easy to use, free tracking tool. Leveraging a pixel-based tracking method, MailTrack can tell users who opened their emails, how customers interact with their messages, and more.

MailTrack's price reflects its bare-bones nature, as the product's sole purpose is tracking customer activity on emails. As a result, this product is best for those looking to dabble in email tracking, but are not yet willing to break the bank.

How To Choose The Right Mail Tracking Tool

While choices are great, they don't necessarily help the actual buying process. Every business has its own specific challenges and needs, meaning the perfect fit is different for every organization. Use the following questions to help guide your own decision:

1. Is the software easy to use, or does it have a learning curve? Do I have the time and resources to learn how to use the software to its maximum potential?
2. Does it track open rates and send read receipts? Can it also track link clicks, website visits, and attachment downloads? What other recipient behavior can it track?
3. Does it integrate into my current email client? Does it connect to my CRM and other business software?
4. Does the tracker also provide email templates that my team and I can use?
5. Can the tracker also automate workflows or trigger certain tasks based on customer behavior?
6. Does it provide detailed reports, analytics, and other insight?
7. Is it just an email tracker, or does the software boast any other functionality?

The Limitations Of Outlook Email Trackers

Even though this guide is about the benefits of using an email tracking software, it’s worth noting that even the best tools have their limitations. There are a few cases where email tracking will be inaccurate or completely unusable.

Here’s what you should know:

• Opens aren’t always accurate: Sometimes previews or spam filters register as opens, even if the recipient didn’t actually read your message
• Pixels can be blocked: Some recipients use security software or email clients that block tracking pixels entirely
• Replies aren’t tracked natively: Unless your tool integrates with Salesforce (like Cirrus Insight), replies won’t log automatically. Inaccurate tracking can also happen if the recipient has Adblock or another type of tracking blocker installed.
• Attachments are hit-or-miss: Many trackers don’t tell you if files were opened, Cirrus does.

Bottom line: Use email tracking for trends and signals, not as absolute truth. Cirrus Insight strengthens this by combining multiple signals (opens, clicks, attachments, replies) into one engagement score

Despite the limitations, however, email tracking is still an essential tool in any sales professional’s arsenal. Even without 100% accuracy, the information obtained provides enough information to reliably manage a pipeline.

Why Do You Need To Track Emails In The First Place?

Is email tracking really worth all the fuss? There are many reasons why having an email tracker for your Outlook can improve your selling experience.

First, it helps you keep track of the clients who’ve read your email and those who haven’t. From here, you can craft personalized follow-up emails that target the right person.

Second, based on your open and click-through rates, you can find out what sales tactics work and which ones don’t. Then you can refine your future emails so that they use more of the former and are more effective at addressing your customers’ needs.

Third, knowing how your clients engage with your emails can give you valuable insight into which prospects are the “warmest” leads. These are often the people who open your email multiple times and those who tend to open your emails quickly upon receiving them.

Lastly, email tracking can be helpful even on the business/operations side of things. If you send out invoices, contracts, and other important documents, those are things you definitely want to keep an eye on.

 Here are some additional reasons of why emails should be tracked:

• Faster follow-ups: Reps who track emails respond 27% faster than those who don’t
• Smarter prioritization: If a lead opens your email five times in two hours, you know they’re engaged and worth calling
• Better insights: You’ll learn which subject lines, content, or attachments resonate with your audience

Buyer Signals Is An Effective Way Of Boosting Your Business

Email tracking isn’t perfect, but it’s a pretty simple yet effective way to boost your business. Knowing what happens to your emails once you’ve sent them is the key to creating better email marketing campaigns, understanding what makes your customers tick, and improving you and your sales team’s performance.

Learn more about Cirrus Insight's premier sales management solution and its plethora of features (including email tracking)!

Email Tracking for Outlook: FAQs

1. Can Outlook track emails natively?

Yes, Outlook offers “read receipts,” but they’re limited and depend on the recipient approving the request. Most professionals use third-party tracking tools for reliability.

2. Is email tracking legal?

Yes, as long as it complies with privacy laws (GDPR/CCPA). Always respect opt-outs and transparency.

3. Will my recipients know I’m tracking emails?

Usually not, tracking pixels are invisible. However, some advanced users may have blockers installed.

4. What’s the best free email tracking tool for Outlook?

MailTrack and Boomerang both offer free plans, but they’re limited. For sales teams, Cirrus Insight provides far more value.

 5. Can I track attachments in Outlook emails?

Not natively. Cirrus Insight lets you track whether attachments were opened or links clicked.