Overview

Link tracking is a powerful tool that allows you to view the number of times a link is clicked in an email, who clicked on it, and answers many other questions related to what viewers are interested in within an email.  This article will walk you through the process of adding a trackable link around text and an image in your email template, and where you can perform analysis on those trackable links.

 

In many cases it’s useful to track links so that you can perform post Eblast analysis.  For example, targeting people who may have clicked on the donate link but did not actually donate.  In Trail Blazer you can view a list of all the trackable links you have created, and assuming you have sent at least one Eblast you can view how many times each link has been clicked.

 

Steps to insert a tracked link around text

First navigate to the Email Template you need to insert these tracked links into.  Follow Application Menu > Email Campaigns > Templates.

 

Click [Search] from the Search Tool Strip and select your Template from the list.  In this example I choose my template named “E-Newsletter #1”. If you need to learn how to create an Email Template, click here.

   

From within the Email Template either highlight the text you wish to set up as a trackable link, or type the text into the location of your choice and then highlight it, then click the [Insert Link] button located on the template tool strip.  In this example I will track the words “click here” and will link it to our Trail Blazer Facebook page as demonstrated in the photos below:

   

Fill out the Displayed Text and Page Address Location in the Insert Hyperlink window.

 

 

When you are finished creating the link you can click [OK] located in the bottom right to finish the process.  The text will turn purple and become underlined as shown in the picture below.  You are now finished inserting a trackable link around text, you can edit your links anytime.

    

Steps to create a tracked link around an image

You will follow the same process as before with a few slight variations.  Start by inserting the image you want to set as a link you can track. In this example I will insert a trackable link around the Facebook Logo in the upper right of my template.  Click this link if you want to learn how to prep, upload and insert an image into an Email Template. 

 

Click ONE time directly on the image you want to track as a link (so it looks like the picture below) and then click the [Link] Button.

   

Enter a single space in the Displayed Text field; replace the http:// with the page location that you want the Tracked Image Link to take your recipients.  Make sure the [Disable tracking for this link] check box is NOT checked.  These instructions are laid out in an example below:

   

Click [OK] located in the bottom right of the Insert Hyperlink window to finish.  In this example I created a trackable link around a Facebook logo that will bring the email receiver to our Facebook page.

 

Now you know how to create a trackable link around text as well as an image.  From here you can send out the Eblast and perform post email analysis.  Follow this link if you want to learn how to create and send and Eblast/Email Campaign in Trail Blazer.

 

Steps to perform post email analysis

You can view the trackable links you create in your database by following Application Menu > Email Campaigns > Tracked Links and click [Search] to populate the list.  You can sort by Tracked Link ID, the number represents when the link was created. (Lower numbers = earlier creation date)

 

   

   

 

You can view how many times a link has been clicked within each email campaign you send out by following Application Menu > Email Campaigns and clicking the [Search] Button to populate the list.  In this example I have many campaigns that have not been sent, however you can view the column headers that would allow you to perform analysis.

 

   

You can toggle between these two analytic windows to view how many tracked links have been click from the Email Campaign and specifically how many of each Link has been clicked for all time.

The only way an email will be registered as opened is if the recipient chooses to Download Images or clicks a Tracked Link within the email.  Some mobile email clients automatically download the images (iPhone) some do not (Windows 7) phone.