Automation Example: Tag Contacts Based on Links They Click in an Email

Details

While you can use our reports to manually monitor email sends for links clicks at any time, our Advanced Automations take this to the next level by allowing you to perform actions based on contacts clicking certain links. 

Some example use cases could be:

• Tag a contact with specific data (in a field) based on what links they click in a specific email
• Notify an internal staff member if a contact clicks a sign-up button in a specific email
• Increase or decrease a lead score based on a contact clicking a certain link in a specific email (see this specific example)

What This Example Will Cover

In this automation example, we're going to use the first use case from above; change a data value on the contacts record, depending on what link they click on. For our example, we've also created four new fields to store the information. They are "Likes Donuts", "Likes Pretzels", "Likes Cakes" and "Likes Muffins".

When changing data on a contact's record, our automations can only replace the existing value in that field - they cannot add to it. Therefore, it may be better to have multiple fields to store tagging data ...otherwise only the information from the most recent action will be stored against the contact. This is how we'll be configuring the automation below.

Here's what our email looks like - each picture goes to a different link and we'll use this link to identify what the contact is interested in;

How-to Guide

Before you begin, you'll need to have created some fields on your list to store the tagging data in - even a simple text field will suffice.

Our automation will be configured to add the text 'YES' into these fields if the contact clicks the corresponding link. You will also need to have an email ready to monitor for link clicks. In the case of our example email (pictured above), we have a link behind each picture that goes to a different page on our online store.

1. Select Automation from the sidebar.
2. Select the Advanced Automation tab.
3. Click New Workflow.
4. Give the workflow a name and click Save.
5. Click New Step.
6. In the first section, set the action as The following message being sent and select the folder & email you'd like to monitor for clicks. In our case, it's our 'Email to set interests' message.
7. Also in this section, set the list accordingly. It should be the list where you added your new fields (as per the note at the start of these instructions).
8. In the second section, set the trigger as Link Click.
9. Also in this section, use the dropdown to select the link that corresponds to the first link click action you wish to monitor. In the case of our example, we're going to monitor clicks to the link that we've setup behind the donuts picture. You can optionally add filtering here too - such as filtering out contacts that already have an existing value in interests field (so as to not alter the existing data).
10. In the third section, leave all areas unchecked and scroll down to the area titled Change the following value(s) in the Contact record and click Add/Edit. A popup dialog will open.
11. In the first dropdown, select the field you'd like to edit when the contact clicks your selected link. In our example, it will be the 'Likes Donuts' field. In the second dropdown, select set to and in the last field, the value you'd like to write into that field (in our example, 'YES').
    
12. In the fourth section, configure the timing of when to make this change. In most cases, you'll probably want to set this to Immediately.
13. Click Save. You'll now be taken back to the first screen for the automation.
14. So far, we've told the system to flag a contact if they like donuts - but we have three other food-based images in our email to monitor clicks on; muffins, pretzels and cakes. Repeat the process from Step 5 onwards to monitor link clicks on your other links (you'll need a workflow step for each link you wish to monitor). In the case of our example, here's what our workflow looks like once its been setup...
    
15. When finished, click Save on the automation setup screen.
16. Finally, click … next to the automation and choose Activate. Your automation is now ready.

Once you have completed the setup process, you can test the automation by adding yourself to the list, sending the email to yourself, clicking a link and checking to ensure the data values are set, as shown.