email with button doesn't show in campaign

[Jason_Terrell]

In a campaign email, I have 3 buttons.  One for scheduling a call, one for immediate contact, and one for loading a landing page with a form.

if the lead clicks on the immediate contact button, the immediate contact campaign shows them as a member.

But neither of the other two buttons do that.

The schedule button works otherwise.  It loads the site and creates the schedule.

The third one works similarly. It loads the form and updates the data but it doesn't update them as a member.

I have each campaign set the same way, but the schedule goes to another site, and the update button uses a token for the link in the email instead of a template button with a normal link. (because the form wouldn't pull up the customer's details)

Are there any known gotcha's that can be causing this?  Are emails only able to use one button? 

[SanfordWhiteman]

Are emails only able to use one button?

Emails can contain multiple buttons!

Sounds like your 2 bad buttons are constructed in a way that leads to them not being tracked (rewritten to bounce off your branding domain). As a result, the clicks will not be logged, even though the link is otherwise functional.

Have to see the exact HTML (please use syntax highlighting if you post it here!) for your buttons to be able to see what's going wrong. Also see this blog post for an example: http://blog.teknkl.com/those-bulletproof-buttons-are-also-tracking-proof/

[Jason_Terrell]

Sanford Whiteman wrote:

Sounds like your 2 bad buttons are constructed in a way that leads to them not being tracked (rewritten to bounce off your branding domain). As a result, the clicks will not be logged, even though the link is otherwise functional.

Well, the schedule button is virtual identical to the contact button, except that it directs to another site for scheduling.

In the email, the links themselves go directly to the same address except for the token that the system uses.  I'm not using anything on these except the standard marketo buttons with urls.  There's really no special html to debug.    The schedule button opens up the link, so that means that the email link is successfully bouncing off the branding domain.  The only thing I can figure is that the campaign trigger is somehow wrong, but that is identical to the first one which works, except that the matching link is to the external site.  On the first one, it's to the target landing page (the thank you page).

below is not the literal but it's the structure:

contact button:  url: go.mydomain.com/systemtokenaddedbysystem   which redirects to pages.mydomain.com/thankyouwewillcontactyou.html

schedule button: url: go.mydomain.com/systemtokenaddedbysystembutdifferentfromabove  which redirects to external site.

The update  button is constructed differently and doesn't bounce off the branding domain but it does go to a landing page. But the url is constructed manually in a token.  I'm not sure how to make it bounce off the branding domain first though.

[SanfordWhiteman]

The schedule button opens up the link, so that means that the email link is successfully bouncing off the branding domain

Merely opening the final destination link doesn't mean it's tracked. Being tracked means it's tracked.

Anyway, if you're saying the click is being tracked to the lead, that one has nothing to do with your buttons (you should open another thread for it). It must be at the Smart Campaign level.

the url is constructed manually in a token. I'm not sure how to make it bounce off the branding domain first though.

In a Velocity token? In a Text token?

If the first, you have to output a fully-formed <a> tag from VTL.

If the second, you have to make sure the http​:// is not included in the token but is hard-coded in the href (<a href="http​://{{my.token}}").

[Jason_Terrell]

Sanford Whiteman wrote:

Merely opening the final destination link doesn't mean it's tracked. Being tracked means it's tracked.

I'm not sure what you mean.  The link in the email goes to the identical domain as the first button which is getting tracked, and they both have some kind of system id which is added by the system to track the button press.

"Anyway, if you're saying the click is being tracked to the lead, that one has nothing to do with your buttons (you should open another thread for it). It must be at the Smart Campaign level."

I'm not sure what you're asking here.  I'm saying that if the one works just from that tracking id, then the other should too.

the url is constructed manually in a token. I'm not sure how to make it bounce off the branding domain first though.

"In a Velocity token? In a Text token?"

The url for the update button is coming from a velocity token.  I'm trying to see if I can change it to a normal button but the landing page isn't showing regular tokens and I'm not sure why.

"If the first, you have to output a fully-formed <a> tag from VTL."

I'll try that.  I'm not sure why the link works though. It opens the landing page.

"If the second, you have to make sure the http:// is not included in the token but is hard-coded in the href (<a href="http://{{my.token}}")."

I am using a link feature in the email, with both tracking checkboxes enabled.  I didn't have an explicit http:// in it but I added it now.

For some reason, my sample emails aren't working, even with the originals.  It's always something.

[Jason_Terrell]

I should be more explicit.  My samples just suddenly stopped working for the last half hour.

[Jason_Terrell]

Sanford Whiteman wrote:

If the second, you have to make sure the http:// is not included in the token but is hard-coded in the href (<a href="http://{{my.token}}").

Add that, but it ended up breaking the token.

I cloned the email and changed the link to have the http:// in front of the token.  Below is the generated html.

<a href="http://{{my.urllink}}" target="_blank"><span >Update property tax record</span></a>

The link initial works in the email, but it redirects to garbage if you click it.

The original email with the same token but without the http:// in front works just as it did before. It redirects properly but doesn't track the click.

[SanfordWhiteman]

The original email with the same token but without the http:// in front works just as it did before. It redirects properly but doesn't track the click.

I don't know what you mean by "redirects properly" here (since you aren't providing any actual URLs) but a link where the entire href is a token will not be tracked. This has always been a rule of trackable vs. untrackable links. (Obviously http​:// can't be both in the hard-coded part of the <a> and in the token text, or that's http​://http​://example.com which is invalid.)

If the first, you have to output a fully-formed <a> tag from VTL.

I'll try that.  I'm not sure why the link works though. It opens the landing page.

Opening the landing page isn't the same as the link being tracked. I never said the link wouldn't function as a link, I said it wouldn't be tracked.

I feel like there's a shifting meaning of "working" going on... a link that isn't tracked can still be viewed in a browser, a link that is tracked but not mkt_tok-enized can still be viewed in a browser, but those links aren't "working" from the fuller perspective of tracking Clicked Email and/or subsequent Visited Web Page Activity Log entries with the original recipient.

[Jason_Terrell]

"I don't know what you mean by "redirects properly" here (since you aren't providing any actual URLs) but a link where the entire href is a token will not be tracked."

http://go.mydomain.com/longtextwhichisprobablythemarketotoken

Clicking on that causes it to go to that address, and then redirects to the landing page.  go.mydomain.com isn't the landing page itself.  It's as you yourself initially described it as bouncing off the domain in order to track.

This is what both the first two buttons do, but the second button doesn't seem to actually get the trigger to work.

The third button, as I said isn't "working" in that if I add the http:// to the beginning, in the hyperlink, so that the draft email shows as <a href="http://{{my.urllink}}" target="_blank"><span >Update property tax record</span></a>, then the email sample shows that it has a marketo token (mkt_tok-enized) but clicking on that link in the email doesn't go to the landing page but to a garbage url.

"http://%24%7Bmy.vupdatepropertytaxrecordlink_30001%7D/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURRd1pETTRNMlkxTnpZNSIsInQiO..."

[SanfordWhiteman]

%24%7B is URI-encoded ${, suggesting the output from your Velocity token is incorrect (${} being Velocity formal notation).  If you copy and paste your Velocity token into a text file and attach it, I can look at it.

The ways the final URL is going to be corrupted are:

• corrupt output from Velocity; note you should only use real emails, never Send Sample, to check VTL.
• seemingly correct output from Velocity (i.e. no lingering source code output) but not an entire, fully formed <a> tag (and only an <a> tag). VTL is entirely space-preserving so be sure you aren't also outputting other text.
• multiple links being output from Velocity, which need to be handled in a particular way.

http://go.mydomain.com/longtextwhichisprobablythemarketotoken

The alphanumeric string here we'd call the "Tracking ID."

The "Marketo token" refers to the mkt_tok query parameter value on your website.