To send a proposal as a web page and see whether the client read it, upload the proposal as an HTML file and send the client their own link. The e-mail you get when they read it says how long they spent and on which sections, so you know whether pricing was read before you follow up. After a call you can replace the file, and the same link shows the new version.
An HTML report sent as an attachment is a file that may not open, may not render, and tells you nothing once it has gone. Sharing it as a link keeps the page a page, with charts, layout and links all still working, and turns “did they read it?” into a question with an answer.
You send the monthly report on the first. By the tenth nobody has replied, and on the call someone asks a question the report answered in its second section. An attachment gives you nothing to go on, so the honest answer to “did they read it?” is that you have never once known.
One link per client, reused next month
Upload the report once, then create a separate link for each client. Every link can ask for an e-mail before it opens, carry a password, or expire on a date you set. When the engagement ends, switch the link off and the report goes dark: it stops being served. Next month you replace the file rather than send a new link, so each client keeps one address all year and you keep one running record of their reading. The guide on updating a document after you have sent it covers what stays the same and what does not.
An e-mail when someone reads it.
On an ungated link, nothing is recorded until the visit has lasted five seconds, which drops quick bounces and most link previews. On a gated link the session starts when the client submits their e-mail. You get an e-mail when someone reads it, with how long they spent and which sections.
ruth@yourclient.com read Q3 client report for 8m 16s.
On the link for Ruth Osei.
Which parts of the report they actually read
A section only accumulates time once it has been at least half on screen for a continuous second, so a scroll-past shows nothing against it. What is left tells you which half of the report is doing the work: nearly three minutes on the results, nine seconds on the method notes. That is what to lead with next month, and what to stop writing.
See how your proposal was read.
You sent the proposal on Tuesday. It's Friday. Do you follow up, or is that pushy? If they spent four minutes on pricing yesterday, write this morning.
See which sections did the selling
Everyone who opens it at the gate appears by their own address, with the time they spent on each section. You see whether their finance lead ever reached pricing.
The SOW and the spreadsheet travel with it
Attach the files that go with it; readers download them from the page. Revise the proposal after a call and replace the file: the links you already sent serve the new version automatically.
Why HTML proposals?
Because that's what your tools produce now. Proposals drafted with Claude or ChatGPT, formatted as clean HTML pages, read well on the client's phone, where a wide PDF makes them pinch and zoom. If you still need a file for procurement, attach the PDF; the tracked link stays the front door.
What is recorded, and what is not
Recorded: the e-mail address a client types at the gate if you asked for one, a random identifier for the visit, which is not kept in their browser, when the visit started and how long they were active, how far they scrolled, which sections they spent time on, and coarse details: country and city worked out from the network address (which itself is not stored), browser and device, and the page they came from.
Not recorded: the raw IP address, session replay, or anything at all from outside the document you uploaded. We never record what a reader types or where they point; we only count whether the page is being read. Links on the free tier carry a small “Sent with HTMLRadar” line; paid links carry none. The full detail is on the privacy page, and you can open our public demo report to see exactly what a recipient sees before you send one of your own.