How to apply a calendar event .ics link to an image within an email

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have created a calendar file token to add a calendar event (.ics) link to my Marketo email. This appear as text but how can I apply this feature to an image?

Caroline

[Josh_Hill13]

You cannot right now because the token appears as the Link text you selected in the token setup.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Prior to last May's update, you could simply send yourself a sample email, copy the URL of the calendar event and paste that URL onto your image.  But since Marketo includes tracking URLs even with sample/test emails, this is no longer possible.  A workaround would be to save the calendar event (.ics file) from the sample email (click on it and you should be prompted to either open/save it), upload it to to to the images/files folder in design studio and provide a link to this file (thanks to Dory Viscogliosi for this suggestion).

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Haha Dan Stevens​ I was just reading this thinking that I use that same method

[Anonymous]

Hi Dan,

I use the method you first mention - send yourself a sample email, copy the URL of the calendar event and paste that URL onto your image and that seems to work fine. Is this not a viable option anymore?

Also, I tried your workaround by sending myself a sample email with the ICS file, but I can only open it and don't have the ability to save it. How are you able to do this? 

Thanks,
Derrick

[Dan_Stevens_]

Derrick - how are you grabbing the URL from your test/sample email when all URLs are masked with a Marketo tracking URL?

Regarding your second point, when you send yourself a test/sample using the token approach, click on the link and you'll be prompted to either "save" or "open" the .ics file - choose "Save":



Upload this file to Design Studio, grab the URL of this file and apply it to the actionable text within the email.  Send yourself a test and it will work exactly as it does in the first example.

[Keith_Nyberg2 · Accepted solution]

You can just preview an email with the ICS token added to get the non-unique link for use. When viewing the preview you simply hover over the link to see the link which also allows you to "Copy Link Address". So it's annoying, but a viable workaround. Looks like Marketo generates a unique ID for the ICS token which the URL path references in addition to the value added to the "Title" of the token.

Example
https://subdomain.domain.com/rs/XXX-XXX-XXX/#####/[tokentitle].ics 
Where
- XXX-XXX-XXX represents your instances Munchkin ID
- ##### represents the tokens unique ID

I assumed the title was irrelevant but it is required to access the ics file (likely as an extra security measure so people with one event invite can't just guess ID's to see every event).

[SanfordWhiteman]

Nice one, Keith!

[Chrissy_Nemeth1]

This is the way that I would do it. You can even store the calendar link in a token (no https://) if you want to easily add it to multiple emails within an event program, or use the link in the text version of your email. 

[Anonymous]

Dan,

I was copying the URL from the browser and pasting it into my email invite for example. Is this not good practice? 

From your screenshot, which browser do you use? I use Chrome and I only have the option to open the file.