This article...

Explains how to add hyperlinks to text, images, and buttons within Thrive Marketing Professional.
Details the different hyperlink types, their configuration options, and how to disable click-tracking for links.
Describes hyperlink validation, URL format requirements, and managing insertions when validation fails.

Hyperlinks offer a convenient way for your subscribers to interact with your organization. In Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional), you can insert hyperlinks in your mailings and templates so that your subscribers can more easily:

link to your organization's web content,
unsubscribe from mailings, and
manage their preferences.

Add hyperlinks

You can add hyperlinks to:

Text (i.e., any layouts that use the Rich Text editor)
Images
Buttons

There are layout-specific ways to add hyperlinks:

Text - In the Rich Text Editor, click the Insert Hyperlink button in the toolbar.
Images and Buttons - Add hyperlinks in the Properties panel (Content tab).

Disable tracking of hyperlinks

You can disable the tracking of "click" activity for some hyperlinks. This is beneficial if hyperlinks in any of your templates and/or messages are regularly targeted by bots and spam monitoring tools — which can lead to inflated "click" activity in the Mailing Activity Report. Additionally, disabling tracking can resolve issues caused by special characters in plain-text emails, which may interfere with tracking URLs and result in broken links.

Check the Disable tracking checkbox on the hyperlink pop-up to disable click-tracking for that hyperlink.

The table in Hyperlink options, below, indicates which hyperlink types have this option.

Hyperlink types

Hyperlinks are configured in the hyperlink pop-up, which opens when you click either Add hyperlink or edit hyperlink, as shown in the images below.

Click the hyperlink dropdown to select a hyperlink type. Use the following descriptions to understand the hyperlink types and their respective options.

NOTE: The configuration settings that you see depend on which hyperlink type you chose to include.

Hyperlink options

This section describes the link-type options on the hyperlink pop-up.

NOTE: All link types on the hyperlink pop-up, except Bookmark, have the Use Template link color checkbox. Check this box to have the link use the default link color that's been applied to the template.

The table below describes the link types and any link type-specific options.

Link types	Description & options
Web Page	Add a link to an external web page. To add a link to a place in this message, use the Bookmark type, described below. URL - Specify the web page URL. When you click Insert, the system attempts to validate that URL. Name (optional) - Specify a custom name for the URL; this is used for reporting only. Disable tracking - Check the box to disable tracking for this hyperlink; the link's "click" activity will not be reported on.
Web Version of this Mailing	Add a link that opens the web version of this mailing.
Form Landing Page	Add a link to a Form Landing Page. Landing Page - Choose a Landing Page. Disable tracking - Check the box to disable tracking for this hyperlink; the link's "click" activity will not be reported on.
Content-Only Landing Page	Add a link to a Content-Only Landing Page. Landing Page - Choose a Landing Page. Disable tracking - Check the box to disable tracking for this hyperlink; the link's "click" activity will not be reported on.
Unsubscribe Hyperlink	Add a link to the mandatory Unsubscribe hyperlink for some messages. Landing Page - Link to an Unsubscribe Landing Page. Click to select a Landing Page. Note that all Thrive Marketing Professional accounts have a default Unsubscribe Landing Page. External Link - Link to an external unsubscribe web page. Specify the URL and, optionally, a name (for reporting). Disable tracking - Check the box to disable tracking for this hyperlink; the link's "click" activity will not be reported on.
Email Address	Add a link to an email address. When the link is clicked, the device's default email client opens a new draft email message with the following. Email - Specify the target email address. Subject (optional) - Specify the text that you want to automatically populate the Subject field of the message.
Document	Add a link to a file that readers can download. Select Document - Choose a file from Asset Manager or upload a new one. After you've inserted a file, the button updates to Change. Name (optional) - Specify a custom name for the file; this is used for reporting only. Disable Tracking - Check the box to disable tracking for this hyperlink; the link's "click" activity will not be reported on.
Bookmark	Add a link to a bookmark of a named Mailing Content Area in this message. To add a link to an external web page, use the Web Page type, described above. Bookmark - Click the dropdown to select the target bookmark. TIP: Learn how to add bookmarks in your messages.
iCalendar	Add a link to a calendar event. Event Title - Specify a custom title for the event. Start and End Dates - Use the calendars to indicate the start and end dates of the event. Description - Provide a brief description of the event. Location - Specify the location (e.g., online or an address) of the event. URL (optional) - Specify where to find information about the event. Name (optional) - Specify a custom name; this is used for reporting only. Disable Tracking - Check the box to disable tracking for this hyperlink; the link's "click" activity will not be reported on.
Survista Pro Survey	Add a link to a survey. TIP: This option is dependent on whether the Survey module is licensed for your Thrive Marketing Professional account. Survey - Choose a survey to link to. Name (optional) - Specify a custom name for the survey; this is used for reporting only. IMPORTANT: Survey is a "legacy" module that is no longer offered but which is currently in the Maintenance stage of the Product Life Cycle.

Hyperlink validation

Thrive Marketing Professional uses some behind-the-scenes logic to validate hyperlinks. There are two aspects to this validation:

Is the hyperlink's URL properly formatted?
Does the target URL exist?

Both criteria must "pass" in order for the hyperlink to be deemed valid.

Format

Hyperlink URLs must have the following format to be considered valid.

For example, http://www.higherlogic.com is a valid URL.

Thrive Marketing Professional displays an error message if the URL is invalid.

Review the URL and correct any format errors.

Validation

Thrive Marketing Professional sends a network request to the specified web address.

If it receives a success code, the hyperlink passes validation.
If it receives a different response (e.g., a 404 error), the hyperlink does not pass validation.

NOTE: The validation test is not a sure-fire way to determine that a destination address exists and truly works. For example, Thrive Marketing Professional typically cannot validate a link to an organization's intranet site because, for security reasons, external network requests are usually blocked by these sites.

If you are targeting a URL that you know (or suspect) Thrive Marketing Professional won't be able to validate, check the Allow Insert box below the URL. Thrive Marketing Professional will bypass the validation and add the hyperlink to your template or mailing.

Best practices to avoid link issues

Avoid pasting formatted hyperlinks directly from external editors. Instead, paste as plain text or re-enter the URL in the link dialog.
Regularly test links in both HTML and plain-text versions of your emails before sending them to recipients.
Minimize the use of special characters in URLs to reduce the risk of tracking-related issues.

Troubleshooting common link issues

Tracking-related issues - When links in plain-text emails contain special characters, they may interfere with click tracking. This can result in broken tracking URLs and lead to 404 errors. To resolve this, disable text link tracking for plain-text emails or remove problematic special characters from URLs.
Formatting issues from external programs - Links copied and pasted from external programs (e.g., Outlook) may include hidden formatting or "smart" characters. These can break hyperlinks when the email is sent. To fix this, replace formatted links with clean, plain-text URLs or use the Insert/Edit Link tool to manually enter the destination URL.
Testing links before sending - Send yourself a test email using the Send Test Email or Send Message to Individual feature. Verify that the links behave correctly in your email client, not just in the preview.

Hyperlinks in Messages