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Ability to edit embedded links after email has been sent

Hello.  I recently sent an email with the wrong embedded link in my newsletter.  I was told I could not make a change to the distributed newsletter/email; however I could send a new email to my subscribers with the new link. 

 

This solution does not work as the content was exactly the same, just the wrong url was hyperlinked to a word.  My hope was CC would allow me to edit the sent email to update the link without having to resend a newsletter. 

 

This functionality would be similar to updating a link on a web page but being allowed to keep the same title and same page. Since my email had 'Having trouble viewing this email? Click here' feature, people who receive the email would click the 'click here' and get the newly corrected link.

Top Answer
Caitlin_M
Administrator

We are updating the status of this idea to Gathering Information. While we recognize there are instances where a link would need to be updated after sending, there is a risk of this feature being abused by changing a link directing recipients to inappropriate pages or spam content. Once the email is sent, there isn't a way to make any edits to it, whether it's a link, content, or photos. Emails act like letters sent from a mailbox. Once it's gone, no changes can be made.

 

We don't have plans at this time to include this functionality but wanted to keep the post open to hopefully gather suggestions from the Community on how else links could be reviewed before being sent. Would there be some kind of built-in tool while creating the email? Or a screen that appears before sending to remind you to check your links? We're certainly open to ideas!

 

Any needed updates to an email would need to be done by copying the email, making the changes, and resending the email to your lists. We recommend changing the subject line to include "Edited" or "Correction" so recipients are aware that they are not receiving a duplicate email.


39 Comments
AlW3
Rookie
Please try to make a feature that allows us to edit campaigns after they're sent. At least the social media ones.
michellem081
Rookie

Occasionally, an email might go out with an incorrect link.  It would be really helpful to be able to go in and edit the link without having to re-send the entire email.  It seems to me that this should be fairly simple functionality and not that difficult to enable.  

SHJorg
Rookie

I was horrified to discover that in spite of numerous eyes on a Constant Contact that one of the links was wrong. Please add this functionality. Now I'm just humiliated.

BeckyM
Constant Contact Partner

Would LOVE for this to be a feature! 

NACHC
Rookie

I just had this same experience and will likely receive flack for it. 
This is the main thing I miss about  - you could edit links - even after an email was sent. I hope Constant Contact gets this feature soon. It could save jobs.

Caitlin_M
Administrator
Status changed to: Gathering Information

We are updating the status of this idea to Gathering Information. While we recognize there are instances where a link would need to be updated after sending, there is a risk of this feature being abused by changing a link directing recipients to inappropriate pages or spam content. Once the email is sent, there isn't a way to make any edits to it, whether it's a link, content, or photos. Emails act like letters sent from a mailbox. Once it's gone, no changes can be made.

 

We don't have plans at this time to include this functionality but wanted to keep the post open to hopefully gather suggestions from the Community on how else links could be reviewed before being sent. Would there be some kind of built-in tool while creating the email? Or a screen that appears before sending to remind you to check your links? We're certainly open to ideas!

 

Any needed updates to an email would need to be done by copying the email, making the changes, and resending the email to your lists. We recommend changing the subject line to include "Edited" or "Correction" so recipients are aware that they are not receiving a duplicate email.

I totally agree with everyone here. We should have the ability to edit an incorrect link. At the very least, if we don't intend to resend, we should have the ability so the link would be correct where we post our newsletters on our website. 

 

Thanks 

rcppubs23
Marketing Legend

@BrowardCountyOPC and all,

There are a couple of very good reasons to consider hosting a section on your own website instead of just relying on Constant Contact's "web version"--and this is one of them. It takes some work of the webmaster or designer to integrate it but once you have it you should be able to add each newsletter as it's published. Since you won't be able to grab the code until after the email is sent, it would take some planning to be able to place a link to it in the email when you send it but at least your copy on your website could be adjusted to correct errors.

 

The other reason is that if it's on your website, you can get some sense of what kind of traffic there is to the email through whatever analytics you are using, which generally provide more information than what you can get through CC's campaign report.

 

However, I just realized that Constant Contact does not even allow you to pick up that code, or at least they don't make it a simple process. It's the other email program (M - - - - - - - -), whose name will be censored if I write it here, that gives you access to the code. So that will make the thing I'm suggesting a whole lot more work.

 

The other downside, of course, is it will take up a chunk of space on your site, and the nature of your newsletter may be such that you don't want to have it forever live on your website.

Post link redirects are absolutely basic functionality (which are available in many other services) and are sorely needed.

 

It's not just occasional typos on publishers' part, there are also server migrations or other last minute hosting issues that are cause for emergency link redirects.

 

The security argument about someone using it for spam seems weak. The only people who would have access to CC link redirects are the admins running the mail list so, if they didn't have reason to use it for spam in the first place, why would they do that afterward?

 

Please make it so.

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