Using Email Marketing On Demand > Designing the Email Message Body >

Adding Response Hyperlinks

You can include a variety of response links in an email campaign. Whenever a recipient receives the email and clicks on the hyperlink for a response, a response is automatically created for the CRM On Demand campaign.

Each recipient response is recorded as part of the Siebel CRM On Demand Campaign record. This provides you with a way to measure the response rate to an email campaign. The following types of response links are available:

Global Opt-In. The recipient can click this link to subscribe to all emails sent by the company. Unlike the Global Opt-Out response, there is no automated update associated with the Global Opt-in link.
Global Opt-Out. The recipient can click this link to unsubscribe from all emails sent by the company. If the recipient clicks this link, the Never Email checkbox of the Contact record is checked, and the recipient sees a confirmation message stating that they have been unsubscribed.

NOTE:  Email Marketing On Demand does not send emails to users who have the Never Email flag checked in their Contact record. If a recipient who previously opted out changes their mind and asks to be added back, you can re-enable them by clearing the Never Email checkbox.

Opt-In to List. If the recipient clicks this link, the click is recorded in the Response Status field for the Campaign Recipient record. Your company can use this information when making queries to identify contacts for future campaigns, or to identify recipients that are interested in receiving similar types of communications.
Opt-Out from List. If the recipient clicks this link, the click is recorded in the Response Status field for the Campaign Recipient record. Your company must take this into account when making queries to identify contacts for future campaigns, to ensure that you exclude customers who have indicated no interest in receiving further communications about a specific product or service, or emails of a specific type.
Track Message Open. If you add this tag, the Response Status field for the Campaign Recipient record indicates whether or not the recipient has opened the email. This tag can be inserted anywhere in the email and is triggered automatically when the recipient opens their email.

NOTE:  HTML is required in order to use the $(TrackMsgOpen) tag, which adds a small 1 x 1 GIF to the body of the email. While the image is not seen by the recipient, if their email client does not allow the download of graphics, or if they read the email from a preview window, the Message Opened response will not be sent.

Track URL. If you select this option, the Response Status field for the Campaign Recipient record indicates whether or not the recipient has clicked a link. You can see more specific information about which URL was clicked in Campaign Response History Analytics reports.

To add a response hyperlink

Display the email in the HTML editor, as described in Designing the Email Message Body.
Place the cursor at the location where you want to add the response hyperlink.
In the Personalization Items toolbar, select Responses and then select the type of response hyperlink.
(Optional) To specify the display text for the response link, enter the value in the text box to the left of the Insert button.
Click Insert.
Right-click on the inserted link and select the Hyperlink menu option to edit the response link properties.

The response hyperlink appears in the email. It is not an active hyperlink in the HTML editor, but it will be active in the email sent to the contact.

Using Merge Fields in Email Content

Use merge fields to customize email content for each recipient. Contacts can have multiple fields associated with them, where each field defines an attribute, such as their last name, their first name, or their account number. For each unique contact, the value of these fields may differ. You insert the merge field personalization element in the text, and then the value of the Contact field is populated into the text where you inserted the merge field.

You can insert any Account, Contact, or Campaign merge field from the Personalization Elements drop-down menu by selecting and inserting it into the following places:

Body of the email. The value appears in the body of the email.
Subject of the email. The value appears in the subject line of the email.
From Address. The value appears in the From line of the email.
Reply To Address. The value appears in the Reply To line of the email.

The following examples show how the personalization item appears in the email editor, and then when received by the contact, for two contacts with the first names of Mary and John.

Before population in the treatment text:

Hello ${Contact.First Name}!

When Mary receives the treatment, she gets the following:

Hello Mary!

When John receives the treatment, he gets the following:

Hello John!

In some records, a value might not exist for a merge field. For example, the contact record field from which the value is derived may be empty. When the selected merge field is not populated, the merge field may default to one of the following values:

Empty string. The value is an empty string (a string containing no characters).
Unspecified. The value is the word Unspecified.

To insert a merge field in the body of the email

Display the email in the HTML editor, as described in Designing the Email Message Body.
Place the cursor in the location where you want the merge field to appear.
From the Personalization Items drop-down list, choose Merge Fields.
In the next drop-down list, select the type of merge field: Contact, Account, or Campaign.
In the next drop-down list, select the field record.
Click the Insert button.

The merge field appears in the email.

Tracking Dynamic URLs

You can use a template variable in the actual URL part of a tracked URL. This allows the destination URL to be different for different recipients.

For example, suppose you are running a sports-related Web site and you have created Web pages with URLs similar to the following:

baseball.mycompany.com
football.mycompany.com
basketball.mycompany.com
golf.mycompany.com

Further, the database that is used to do your mailings includes a column that identifies a favorite sport, which will be one of baseball, football, basketball, and so on. You want to include a link in your email that will take recipients to the site corresponding to their respective favorites. Assuming that the database column is called favorite_sport, you could set up a URL command similar to the following:

$(url “http://${favorite_sport}.mycompany”)

When the mailing is sent, John, whose favorite sport is basketball, will have a link to:

http://basketball.mycompany.com.

Mary, whose favorite sport is football, will have a link to:

http://football.mycompany.com.

Template variables can be used in any part of the URL, but you must make sure that the resulting string, after the value(s) of the variable(s) have been substituted, is a complete and valid URL, including the http://.

NOTE:  When a variable is used within a URL, the resultant URL that appears in the recipients' email is significantly longer than the resultant URL when no variables are used. This is normal behavior.

Including Parameters with URLs

You can include HTML query parameters within a URL. The values of the parameters can be template merge fields, which are automatically personalized for every recipient. For example, if you have a Web page that requires a login name or email address, you can include a link with the customer's name in the URL. Then, when the customer clicks the link, they are brought directly to their personal login page.

Based on this example, you could create a tracked URL similar to:

http://www.mycompany.com/welcome?name=${Contact.Email}