Tracking each PDF downloading through TEXT Email

[Anonymous]

Hi Community,
 
Wondering if it is impossible to track each PDF downloading through TEXT email (not HTML)?

     - I uploaded several PDFs on Design Studio and want to know which PDF is most downloaded.
     - I understand it is possible to set "clicks link email" in smart list and maybe I should set
       "add constraint" with "contains pdf." but it can't well work.

Any insights are welcome

Tad

[SanfordWhiteman]

In the text variation of the email put the [[http://example.com/1.pdf]] in square brackets.

[Anonymous]

try adding more of the unique pdf link name.
if the link is something like this: example.com/infographic_web_DC_LPR.pdf
Use constraint: link contains: infographic_web_DC_LPR.pdf

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Sanford. But I've already tried but it coudn't work. There should be some diffrent reason.


Thanks Karen. Will come back with the feedback.

p.s. It might be because pdf files have spaces for their file names???  

Thanks for both!

Tad

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hey Tad, just as a general best practice, I would remove all spaces from the file names before uploading to the design studio as I've found that spaces can get a little messy. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dory. Yeah it is. I'll do so. Ps I've not found the reason, though. Will be back.

[Jenn_DiMaria2]

You may want to try using a URL shortener like goog.le. I know it's another system to keep track of data in, but if it's a text email, then the end user isn't downloading the information needed to track activity within the email (at least, to my understanding).

I've done this in the past, however, and sometimes the link breaks. But if it's a text email anyway, they're most likely going to need to copy+paste the URL no matter what.

[SanfordWhiteman]

It seems like people are talking about two different things.

One is tracking clicks on links within text-only emails.  If you enclose the link in [[square brackets]] then Marketo will make it a trackable link, i.e. users will bounce off http://click.example.com and then get redirected to the PDF.  Therefore the link will show up in the lead's Activity Log.  If it doesn't show in the ActLog there's no reason to try to find it in a Smart List.

The second question is how to match URLs in a Smart List. But I'm not clear on whether @Tad his seeing the first part succeed.

P.S. I don't agree with @Jenn that people need to copy-paste URLs in plain-text emails.  Plain-text mail apps can still offer clickable links -- mine always have.  You don't need HTML support to have clickable link support.

[Jenn_DiMaria2]

Depending on how long the link is, the plain-text URL has sometimes broken in my users' email systems after splitting into two lines, requiring them to copy+paste. If the PDF's URL is quite long, this could be the case.

[Anonymous]

Dear All,

Thanks for your time and reconfirmed that the community is such a great place to share the problem!

Now after several times of try and error after getting advices from you, I could solve the problem. The reason I had not selected each PDF in smart list (Click Link Email & Link as added constaint) is following:

      - I didn't fill out antything on contents area of HTML version since this case it is the only TEXT version that I have to send. That is, I filled out each PDF's URL only on Text version directly. That is the reason. The correct way is to fill out each URL and then click the button "Copy to HTML" and then each URL should be enclosed [[    ]].

Thanks Again, Jenn/Sanford/Dory/Karen!

Tad