Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Kathryn_Collin2
Level 3

Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Hi - in the plain text version of our emails we've always included the unsubscribe token as: [[{{system.unsubscribeLink}}]]

Using the [[  ]]  around the token would mean our plain text link would show nicely as: <http://go.caci.co.uk/THLEH00010000BK304009Z0> or similar.

Since turning on email editor 2.0, this no longer works, with the link showing as: <[[http://pages.caci.co.uk/UnsubscribePage.html?mkt_unsubscribe=1&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0dFeU9EYzJPRGcyWkRab...]]>

In the plain text that is received this link is also not clickable, but just text.  Removing the [[ ]] from around the link makes it clickable, but it still leaves a massive ugly URL at the top of our emails.

Does anyone know how I can get this to work again?

Thanks!

8 REPLIES 8
Josh_Hill13
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Why don't you put it at the bottom?

Also, how many people really see the text version?

Kathryn_Collin2
Level 3

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Hi Josh we have it in the top header to help with deliverability mainly, and because of the sectors we're working with many people receive plain text by default...

SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Do you have the same result if you omit the <> (which are just a formality, and are not required for plain-text clickable links)?

Justin_Cooperm2
Level 10

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

When you use {{system.unsubscribeLink}} the unsubscribe page's link will be placed in the email, but it will never be converted to a shortened tracking link. It will still work for the user clicking it, as it has the mkt_tok parameter appended to it. If you don't use the {{system.unsubscribeLink}} token, then Marketo will automatically place the unsbuscribe info (whatever you've specified in your Admin section) at the end of your email and it WILL be in the form of a shortened tracking link. This is not related to Email 2.0, it has always functioned this way.

Whenever you have a complete URL encapsulated inside of a token, Marketo cannot convert it to a tracked link. Try it yourself, put http://www.example.com inside of Text my.token. If you use that as the href of one of your links, it will be placed in the email, but NOT converted to a tracking link. And you will see the same behavior you're describing on the text version of your email. Note that it will be tracked if you make the token www.example.com and then specify the href of your link as http://{{my.token}}

Now, we should probably remove excess [[ ]] characters from the text version if we were unable to convert what was there to a tracking link, but that would just be a small improvement to this behavior. I would recommend you just remove the [[ ]] characters if you plan to use the {{system.unsubscribeLink}} token.

Kathryn_Collin2
Level 3

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Hi Justin - Thanks for the info. It's just a bit confusing as our Marketo instance was able to do this perfectly fine up until 2 weeks ago.

It was only after we turned on Email 2.0 that it stopped working.

Justin_Cooperm2
Level 10

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Kathryn,

Are you sure you were using the {{system.unsubscribeLink}} token before? I just went back to tons of tests I have from April and it behaves exactly as I've described. I don't believe anything has changed since Email 2.0.

Justin

Kathryn_Collin2
Level 3

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Hi Justin - Yes I'm sure the token was the same as our our template hasn't changed - That's why I was confused about why the link shortening was no longer happening. 

The last email I can find in my inbox shows the link shortening was working fine on the 9th of June, well after the security patch that was released in April.

Unsubscribe text.PNG

I don't believe this has anything to do with Email 2.0, it was just we only noticed the change after we turned this on, which is why I included it in the original question. We've since moved back to the legacy editor and the problem still occurs.

Justin_Cooperm2
Level 10

Re: Plain text unsubscribe token not shortening

Ok, email me with a link to your template and I'll take a look at the logs. It should have never worked as you described, so not sure how that happened. I have a few thoughts and I'll look into it.

jcooperman@marketo.com