Forms & Actions > Maintain recipient's profile with actions > Linking actions and trackable links

Linking actions and trackable links

Now you have finished preparations for the start of dialog marketing which allows you to send out targeted and customized mailings. You must, however, still define the links recipients can click on to trigger actions you have defined. To do this, you create a normal mailing containing trackable links within the mailing text (see chapter "Using trackable links"). Those links will trigger the actions you have defined in the preceding chapter "Defining actions".

1.Create a new mailing as described in chapter "Mailings - Sending out newsletters". All options described there are at your disposal. Specify Normal mailing as the Mailing type.
2.In the Content tab, insert a trackable link as described in chapter "Using trackable links". The trackable link must point to an existing URL, for instance a page on your web site featuring a special offer connected to the topic. The reason is that if a recipient clicks on the link, the OpenEMM registers the click and then forwards it to the original URL. If that URL does not exist, the recipient’s browser produces an error message – which does not look very professional. It is sufficient to create a simple page thanking the recipient for his or her interest.
Fig. 8.31: The mailing contains a trackable link (highlighted).

Fig. 8.31: The mailing contains a trackable link (highlighted).

3.Select the Trackable links tab. The OpenEMM displays all trackable links included in the mailing. In the overview, click on the link you would like to use to trigger an action.
4.Now, the system displays details on the selected link. Enter a Description in the relevant box, and select whether the link should be trackable or not. To trigger an action, a link must be trackable.
Fig. 8.32: Select the trackable link that is to trigger an action.

Fig. 8.32: Select the trackable link that is to trigger an action.

5.In the Action drop-down list you set which previously defined action should be triggered by a click on that link. All previously defined actions are displayed in that drop-down list. Please note that each link can only trigger one action. If you need to trigger several actions, for instance changing several profile fields, you need to define a multi-step action.
Fig. 8.33: Select the action which should be triggered by the trackable link.

Fig. 8.33: Select the action which should be triggered by the trackable link.

6.Once you have made all your entries, clicking on Save will store them in the system.

Now that you have defined the action connected to the link, the newsletter is ready for sending. If you click on the Statistics button in the navigation bar, a list of click statistics is displayed (see chapter "What are the available statistical functions?").