When you insert links in your messages, it is usually because you want to entice readers to view other pages on your website, a promotion, a particular product, a survey or any other element of your choice. And when messages include links, the message results can tell you which links are the most clicked, that is the most popular, and what is the landing address of the clicked link.
However, just seeing an address in the results might not tell you much, and it could me more useful to know what type of link was clicked (call-to action, info, survey, etc.) or what position in a message generates the most clicks. To be able to see such results, you must add specific attributes to message links as to see those links attributes in the results.
Link attributes let you categorize your links based on your own criteria. Dialog Insight already has default values that let you group your links by category and sub-category. However, custom attributes allow you to go well beyond those two criteria. Here are a few examples:
- Position of the link in the message - to know if people are more likely to click on a link that is presented on the top of the page, or at the bottom, at the right or left
- Type of link - to know if people are more likely to click on a call-to action link (such as for downloading a document) or on an information link, or other type of link
- Instance - when multiple links land on the same page, you can know which one is the most popular
You can create all kinds of attributes to meet to specific needs. Attributes are created at the project level and therefore apply to all the messages in the project. Once created, the attributes have to be assigned to links. Know that you can apply attributes to links to messages that have been already sent in order to analyze the performance of links used and to help you to improve your next messages.
| Prerequisite | None - This feature is available to all users. |
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How To
To be able to assign attributes to links in a message, you must first create those attributes.
- Go to Communications > Messages > Link classifications.
- On the attribute list page, click Add an attribute.
Enter a code and a label, as well as the type of attribute. The attribute type defines the value that can be entered to define the link. For example, if you create an attribute to know which position is the most performant, you would use the type String as to accept any type of value, such as Left, Right, Top, Bottom.
Description of attribute typesType Description String Lets you use any alpha or numeric value. Int Lets you use only integer numbers. Decimal Lets you use numbers with decimals. Bool Lets you specify whether it's true or false. For this type, the value registered in the system is 0 or 1. DateTime Lets you specify the date and time in the AAAA.MM.JJ HH:MM format. - Once the attribute is defined, click Add.
Once attributes are created, you can use them to define any link in any message in the project, whether the message was already sent or in preparation.
- Open the message for which you want to define links ( Communications > Emails > Select the message > Edit).
- Once in the message editor, open the additional edit options. Then select click on Link tracking.
The list of all tracked links will show. - In the list of tracked links, click on the edit icon of the link you wish to assign an attribute to.
- Once in the Edit link window, you will see a field for each attribute you have created. You just need to specify the value that corresponds to the link. In the following example, the link is defined by a position attribution, and this link is shown at the top of the message. The Top value is what you will see in the results and it will give you an indication of whether placing a link at the top of the message is a good thing.
- You can also define an attribute for each instance of the link. That will let your know which instance is the best.
- Click Save.
- Repeat the steps above for each link to which you want to assign an attribute.
- Close the attribute window to go back to the message.
Once attributes have been created and assigned to links, you can see which links perform the best and why from the attributed used.
Link results can be seen in different pages:
- On the summary page to see the 5 most clicked links, but without the attributes
Analytics > Email > Summary page - To see all the links in the message, as well as the number of clicks for each and the attributes to better identify them.
Analytics> Email > Links page