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 Tracking Clicks Question

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T O P I C    R E V I E W
Jason836 Posted - Jan 11 2017 : 09:35:35
Hi,

I want to be able to track clicks in an email.

I've looked up web form creation, formMail CGI, and ProcessResponse but for some reason, I'm having a hard time of knowing where to start, how to do it properly, connect everything, etc.

Do I need to create a FormMail script with the MLK fields, save it as .pl and upload it in cgi-bin folder on website first?

If I have a button in an email, do I need to link to formMail.pl and redirect to proper .html page to be able to get user's info?

Can someone give me a walk-through on how to properly create a formmail.pl, web form, etc.

Jason

2   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
Jason836 Posted - Feb 22 2017 : 12:13:40
Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for your help Nigel.
xequte Posted - Jan 11 2017 : 15:02:45
Hi Jason

If you are familiar with making any web form for a web site, then the process it not difficult. In the same way that you generate a form when a user submits feedback on your web site (with the fields sent to you as an email), you want to generate a script that sends an email to you when a user "responds" to your mailer.

What triggers the form to generate the response email will depend on you:
  • User clicks a link in an email (it links to the web form script passing user details within the link, and then redirects to the page the user wants)

  • User completes a form on your web site to order/ask for more info (MLK uses the response message generated by the action)

  • User signs up for a newsletter (i.e. joins a specific group in MLK)

  • Other more complicated methods (e.g. using cookies, or a third party application communicating with MLK)


So the two easier methods:
1. Web form script generates a ProcessResponse command email (whenever user performs a response action)
2. Have MLK process an existing form message you receive when user performs a response action (e.g. you may already receive order or feedback messages)
3. Have MLK treat the subscription to a specific group as a "Response"


1. PROCESSRESPONSE COMMAND EMAIL

Basically, you need a script that receives a user's email address or user ID and sends an email with to a location that MLK processes (i.e. specified under File > Options, Email Processing) and then redirects the user to the page they want. If your web host does not support web form submission, then there are plenty of free web sites offering it as a service.

The generated email just needs any of the following subjects:

ProcessResponse EMAIL_ADDRESS
e.g. ProcessResponse bill@goodies.com

ProcessResponse USERID
e.g. ProcessResponse UID12345 or ProcessResponse 12345
 
ProcessResponse EMAIL_ADDRESS/USERID OPTIONAL_COMMENT
e.g. ProcessResponse bill@goodies.com Purchased latest version
In this case "Purchased latest version" will be added to the user history too
 

So in your mailer you might link to the script as follows:

http://www.mysite/cgi-bin/redir.asp?UserID=%EMAIL%&dest=../myproduct.html"

You will see we have used the personalization field %EMAIL% to embed the user's email address in the link (you can also use %MEMBERID%).

Your script would then generate an email with the subject: ProcessResponse jack@jill.com

And redirect to the correct page, e.g. http://www.mysite/myproduct.html


1A. ALTERNATIVE FORMATTING

Alternatively, you can generate it is as web form message e.g.

Subject: 

Web Form Submission

Body:

Email: jack@jill.com
Action: ProcessResponse 



2. MLK PROCESSES AN EXISTING EMAIL (Works best with Outlook)

You might already receive messages that you would consider a "response", e.g. order emails, web feedback form submissions, or inquiry emails. MLK can also process these as responses:

a. Select File > Options, Email Processing, and click "Folder Processing Tasks"
b. Click "Add Task"
c. Browse to an Outlook folder containing the messages
d. For action, specify "Record response from member"
e. Specify a folder to move messages after they have been processed.



3. MLK TREATS SUBSCRIBING TO A GROUP AS A RESPONSE

If the response action you are looking for is signing up for a newsletter, then MLK can simply treat any subscriptions to a specified group as a "response".

To enable this:

a. Select File > Options, Other
b. For "Treat as Response" select "Member joins specific groups"
c. Specify the groups


The above procedures sounds complex, but anyone who has worked with web forms should be able to whip one up in twenty minutes or so. But please let me know if you need any more details.

In a similar way, read tracking can be performed too, so let me know if you need more detail on that.



Nigel
Xequte Software
www.xequte.com
nigel@xequte.com