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How to create links in your mailing

In this article, you'll learn what a hyperlink is and the varying ways you can add them to any of your mailings in your Frankie account. It also explains how to create hyperlinks for a URL, an email address, a phone number, a website anchor, a document, a survey, and an image.  

What is a hyperlink?

A hyperlink is when a word or phrase has been selected to connect to a specified weblink, email address, phone number, or an external link like a survey; it makes the word or phrase clickable and brings the user to the designation of choice.  

Within the copy of the mailings that you create in your Frankie account, you can add hyperlinks to any word or phrase so that when the user clicks on it, they are automatically connected to the destination you have preselected it to go to.
 
In your Frankie account, you can create hyperlinks for the following:

  • A website,
  • An email address,
  • A document that is stored in your document library, or
  • A SurveyMonkey survey.

How to add hyperlinks to text

Regardless of which end destination you choose, the first three steps are the same when adding a hyperlink to text.
Here's how to get started:
 
  1. In the text box of your mailing, use your cursor to highlight the word or phrase that you want readers to click on.
  2. Click the chainlink icon in the toolbar.
  3. Navigate to the appropriate tab option in the popup window and fill in the requested fields.
Next, you'll need to select the appropriate tab for your hyperlink type, choose from these options: URL, Email address, Document, or SurveyMonkey. The instructions for each are detailed below.
 

Create a hyperlink that goes to a URL

  1. On the popup "Link to" box, select the URL tab and then type or paste the URL for the website you want the user to be directed to in the URL field.
  2. Under Link name, add a name for the link, this name will appear in your Response section and is used for easy reference.
  3. Under Tooltip, you'll want to add a little more description of what the link is because it will appear (to most email clients) when a user hovers over the link. So for this example, we used: Frankie website. 
  4. Click Insert.

 

Create a hyperlink that goes to an email address

You can also link a word or phrase to an email address within your mailing, doing so will open up a 'mailto' email form that's pre-filled and ready to be sent to you. An example of this is an "email us" link that's been included in the body of your mailing, which means the message will be routed to a specific email address within your organization. Here's how to do that.

  1. On the popup "Link to" box, select the Email address tab and type or paste the email address you would like to direct your users to.
  2. Under Subject, you can choose to add some text for a prepopulated subject line.
  3. Under Link name, add a name for the link, this name will appear in your Response section and is used for easy reference.
  4. Under Tooltip, you'll want to add a little more description of what the link is because it will appear (to most email clients) when a user hovers over the link. So for this example, we used: Email us. 
  5. Click Insert.

 

How to add an email link to a button

You can also add an email hyperlink using the Button Block in your Frankie mailing by adding mailto:email@example.com in the URL field. To prepopulate the subject line, you just need to add a few more characters, like this: mailto:johndoe@email[dot]com?subject=subjectline.

 

Please note: Clicks on 'mailto' links (like the above example) are not tracked in your mailing Response. When linking to a website, that click navigates from your email to Frankie's tracking redirect and then to the link's final destination. That tracking redirect is what lets our analytics know someone clicked the link. Because 'mailto' links simply open in a new window of the desktop's designated email client, they have no final destination and, therefore, have no tracking redirect.

How to link Manage Preferences to a button

Create a button to easily allow members to manage their preferences instead of clicking on the Manage your preferences link found in the footer.
In the Link Field: [% manage_url %] 


How to add a phone number link to a button

Another option is to link to a phone number to a Button Block, which will make the number a click-to-call link when your mailing is opened on a mobile device. You'll simply populate the URL field for the button with tel:5555555555, like this:

Create a hyperlink that goes to an anchor link

Anchor links are also called bookmarks or jump links because they jump the reader down to an item somewhere else in the same email. This is particularly helpful in creating newsletter-style headlines at the top that link down to longer paragraphs or stories below. There are two steps to this process: inserting the anchor and then creating the link. First, you'll need to insert an anchor in the body of your mailing to where you want to jump the reader down.

To insert an anchor:
  1. Click to the left of the text in the mailing to where you want to jump.
  2. Click on the Insert button in the toolbar. From there, select the Anchor option and give your anchor a name, which should be all one word without spaces (adding spaces can disable the link in some email clients). This name will then appear in your Response section as an easy reference.
To create the hyperlink:
  1. Highlight the text you that want the anchor to jump down to when clicked on, and then click the chainlink icon in the toolbar. Select the Anchor tab and then select the desired anchor from the dropdown menu. (Or if there is only one, it will auto-populate in the field.) 
  2. Under Link name, add a name for the link, this name will appear in your Response section and is used for easy reference.
  3. Under Tooltip, you'll want to add a little more description of what the link is because it will appear (to most email clients) when a user hovers over the link.
  4. Click Insert.

Please note: Anchors do not always function properly in Preview, but you can send yourself a test email in order to click the anchor links to make sure they're achieving the desired effect, and it's always a good idea to send and review a test of your mailing before sending it to your clients.

Create a hyperlink that goes to a document

Because so many servers block emails with attachments on entry, we don't allow you to include attachments with your mailings. Instead, you have a document library located on your main Campaigns page that allows you to easily post your files to our server and link recipients right to them. So, you'll need to have a document already uploaded to your library in order to create a hyperlink for it, then follow the below steps. 

  1. On the popup "Link to" box, select the Document tab and select the desired document name from the dropdown menu and then click on Upload.
  2. Under Link name, add a name for the link, this name will appear in your Response section and is used for easy reference.
  3. Under Tooltip, you'll want to add a little more description of what the link is because it will appear (to most email clients) when a user hovers over the link.
  4. Click Insert.

 

How to link an image to a website

Another useful option is to link an image to a website or landing page. You can read more about uploading images here. Once you have uploaded or selected your image, follow these steps.

  1. Add an image by clicking the image icon in your editor toolbar, or click on an image you've already added.
  2. Once you have uploaded the image, you'll see a popup with the option to Give this image a link, and in that field, you just need to type or paste the desired URL into the field. You can also add some alternate text if you would like. 
  3. Click Save.

 

How to link a previous mailing 

You can also link to one of the previous mailings that you've sent in your Frankie account. To do this, you'll just need to copy the URL for the webview of the mailing that is found at the top-right of the mailing's Response overview, then use that URL link as you would for any webpage.

Other hyperlink options 

Although they are not trackable in Response, you can also link text or images to these "special" URLs by adding the following code format into the URL field:

  • tel:<phone number>: This will open the number on your phone with it prepopulated so you can call it. It works on Android, IOS, and desktops.
  • mailto:<emailaddress>: This will open up an email that's pre-filled and ready to be sent to the address specified. (As noted above.) 
  • sms:<phone number>: This will open up the text app on your phone with the number prepopulated so you can send a text to it. It works on Android and iOS.
  • fb://<username>: This will open the Facebook profile on your phone. It works on iOS.
  • twitter://<twitterhandle>: This will open the Twitter profile on your phone. It works on iOS.