You can put encoded links into the e-mails that are sent using the OMC. By means of a coded link, the OMC is able to record whether and when the e-mail recipient uses the link. To this end, the encoded link includes, in addition to the link destination, the ID of the person to whom the e-mail was sent, the mailing ID, and the sequential number of the link in this mailing. The URL parameter used for this data is _cc, its value is encrypted. The parameter is not included in test e-mails.
The OMC not only records the use of the link in the diary of the person concerned. It also uses it to update the statistical data of the corresponding mailing.
A coded link can be created by inserting a Liquid instruction,
{{"destination_url"|tracked_link:"Statistics display title"}}, into an e-mail. In this instruction,
destination_url stands for the link address. You
can also specify a
Statistics display title to have the
OMC display this title for this particular link in the mailing
statistics overview. This title is optional. If it is not specified,
the sequential number of the link appears in the statistics overview
instead. An example:
{{"http://www.example.org/index.html"|tracked_link:"Home page"}}
Please note that all Liquid instructions for generating tracked links merely generate a URL. In HTML e-mails this URL must be made clickable by means of a link (using an a element, for example). See the example below.
Coded Links with Hidden URLs
The URLs created with tracked_link are visible. For hiding the URLs, redirected_tracked_link is available. Example:
{{"http://www.example.org/offer.html"|redirected_tracked_link:"Special offer"}}
This creates a URL that points to the tracking URL specified in the
system settings section, tracking_redirect_url. To this URL,
the destination URL (www.example.org/offer.html in the
example above) as well as the ID of the person concerned is
appended as an encoded parameter.
On the tracking page, you require Javascript code to decode the URL on the client side, and to redirect to this URL. We provide this code on request.
Checking whether E-Mails Have Been Opened
By means of an image link inside in an HTML e-mail you can check whether and by whom an e-mail sent in the context of a mailing was opened. For this, the system setting parameter tracking_image_url is available. Make this URL point to a small transparent image and insert HTML text into your e-mails with which this image is requested. Example:
<img src="{{tracking_image_url}}" width="1px" height="1px"/>
As the e-mails are generated, the OMC automatically appends a parameter to the URLs that specifies the respective recipient and mailing.
A contact person's data include the want_email field. You can use this field, for example, to send your mailings only to persons for which this field is set. This can be specified when generating the list of recipients from a stored query.
Furthermore, persons can be put into collections that serve as recipient lists for subscribable mailings (newsletter).
For these two methods of recipient selection (via
want_email or assignment to a collection), you can have
the OMC generate personalized unsubscription URLs in your mailings. The
following Liquid code, if placed into an e-mail, generates a URL the
recipients can use to stop being sent e-mails. Thus, if the URL is
opened, want_email is deactivated for the corresponding
person.
{{"ALL"|unsubscribe_tracked_link}}
To enable the recipients to unsubscribe from a newsletter, use the subscription name of the the collection instead of "ALL". An example:
{{"product_news"|unsubscribe_tracked_link}}
Since unsubscribe_tracked_link (just like
tracked_link and redirected_tracked_link)
only generate a URL, you also require a link in HTML e-mails:
<a href="{{"product_news"|unsubscribe_tracked_link}}">Unsubscribe from newsletter</a>
The generated URL corresponds to the URL that has been set for
tracking_redirect_url in the system settings. To this URL,
the OMC adds a parameter that allows it to process the unsubscription
request and to update the link statistics of the mailing concerned.
Furthermore, the unsubscribing person can optionally be redirected to
the URL specified in the tracking_unsubscribe_receipt_url
system setting.
In contrast to the URL defined in
tracking_redirect_url, the OMC adds the value specified in
the Liquid code (i.e. ALL or the subscription name,
respectively) to the tracking_unsubscribe_receipt_url.
Using this value, additional actions can be triggered on the target
page or on the page opened subsequently.
For the unsubscription process to be successful, the JavaScript code
provided by us must be included in the page opened via the
tracking_redirect_url. Furthermore, log file upload to the
OMC must be operational.
For the standard filters available in Liquid, please refer to the Liquid documentation at http://wiki.shopify.com/UsingLiquid. The most important standard filter is date. As shown in the following example, it creates a formatted string from a date:
{{inquiry.new_diary.created_at | date:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'}}