Lead Capture Tools

GaryTesta
Colaborador

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

We have an extensive library of downloadable PDF documents.  Things like datasheets, technical briefs, system models, etc.  Today we ask for name, email address and an area of interest as well as if the are ok with us pushing out our news letters and updates to them based on their area of interest.

 

We are new to HubSpot and I have to say I'm getting really frustrated because one of the key reasons we purchased HubSpot was to be able to track this information and based on what information folks downloaded and their approval for us to contact them to push out new relevant information to them.  It seemed like a task that HubSpot would be super at, alas I'm not so sure now...

 

I'm struggling with the right way to implement tracking our Download library in a way that won't create a huge amount of ongoing maintenance work.

 

Our website is hosted on Wix for the moment, but that doesn't really factor in yet as the trouble is how to get Hubspot to track downloads such that its easy to tell what a person downloaded and also how to automate the update of the customer record with list or checkboxes of what a particular customer has downloaded.

 

At the moment I'm thinking I'm going to take the following approach:

1) Have button on our website for each document a customer could want to download

2) When a user clicks the button they would be routed to a hubspot landing page with a form that collects the necessary information (Name, Email, Interest, want more info, etc.)

3) After submitting the form it would redirect the user to a URL that is a document in the HubSpot document store.  (If you click on a document link in an email you can then copy the URL for that document in the browser.)

4) so this gets the customer the document they want, and it gets us a record of who it was, and Hubspot tracks the document accessed and puts a record in the customer view.

 

Ok all is good except for the following:

 

1) If we change the document we need to edit the landing page for that document and update the link to the new document.  It would be much easier if we could simply update the document in the library but retain the same link (like what Vimeo does vs YouTube) is this possible in Hubspot to just update a document but keep the same tracking link?

 

2) Can you use the fact that customer downloaded a document or viewed it by clicking on the document link as an enrollment trigger?  Right now it looks like I have to use their completing the form to create the trigger, which means I need a different landing page and form (even though they all look the same!) for every document available.  This is a ton of make work that is hard to maintain.  Is there a way to enroll based on someone clicking on the document link??

 

I'm open to all and any ideas folks may have on how to do this better because right now I'm not looking forward to creating and maintaining about 200 landing pages and 200 forms all looking the same but named differently (and yes I know you can clone them).

 

Thanks!!

1 Soluciones aceptada
GaryTesta
Solución
Colaborador

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

Karsten thanks for your input.  Unfortunately, the approach you recommended has a couple of issues that really didn't solve our problem.  It's amazing that something as simple and typical as creating a downloadable library of documentation that our customers can access and that we can track their request is such a time consuming undertaking in HubSpot!

 

In the end after a lot of testing here is the best solution that we could come up with:

 

1) Upload your documents that you want to make available to the Documents library found under sales.  Do not use the file manager as nothing that is put in File Manager is tracked, however, any time a user clicks on a document link created in the Documents library is definitely tracked and it can be reported on, BUT it can't be used as an enrollment trigger unfortunately!  This is the BIGGEST missing piece that HubSpot needs to fix!  You must be able to use a document link click as an enrollment trigger!  IF they fixed this life would be SO MUCH simpler!

 

2) After uploading the Documents you wish to include in your Download Tracking Library to the Documents library under Sales, the next step is to create a link for each document and to specifiy an email address required for viewing the document.  The email address can be any address (it doesn't even have to be a functional email address), but it shouldn't be an address that a customer can guess or use.  Once you have created the link, copy it to an spreadsheet and keep track of every link you create and what they refer to, you'll need them later in the process.  Keep in mind that everytime you click create a link a new link is generated, even if you use the same email address for the same document.  The reason we want to specify an email address is that every time a user trys to access a Document link HubSpot looks to see if that user has provided an email address or not, if they have and they have allowed cookies, then it immediately shows them the Document, if not (like if they forward the link to another person in the same company, etc.) then HubSpot will request their Email address before allowing them to view the Document.

 

3) Now that you have all the links ready to go, the next step is to create an individual CTA for every document!   You create CTAs under Marketing>>Lead Capture>>CTA.  What we did was to create an Image Button for every document we wanted to offer to our customers in our Download Tracking Library webpage.   We found that creating the button image in Powerpoint gave us the greatest flexiblity for style and we could simply left click on the grouped image and do a "save a picture" to save the images.  We then used the images in the CTAs.  The only challege is that you have to set the size of the button in HubSpot in the CTA setup as we used an iFrame to paste in the CTA code that HubSpot generated for each CTA and that iFrame becomes the Button which the user will click to gain access to the document.  You paste the link for the Document you created back in Step 2 into the CTA's Enter URL filed.    Basically click the CTA image buto and your user is directed to the Document Link.

 

NOTE: if you use Wix like we do, then you need to make sure you put the Empty Character (you can copy the character from here: www.emptycharacter.com) as the first character before you paste in the code.  If you don't do this the code won't run for some reason.  This is a bug in Wix.

 

4) Once you have your CTA Document Download Library iFrame Buttons created on your site, you can decide if you want to use a Landing Page as a front end to collect some basic info about your user before they can access the library page, we used a form that collects name, email address, and application interest.  When they submit they are routed to the Document Download Library Webpage on our site.   Here they can now click on any CTA iFrame Button for the Document they want to view.

 

5) When they click the CTA button we automatically know they clicked the CTA which HubSpot can track and you can use as a workflow or sequence enrollment trigger.  We also gate access to the document by making sure that we have that specific users email address, and all of this shows up in the contacts activity feed.  The fact that we can use the CTA click as an enrollment trigger allows us to notify users when we update a document in our library or a new document that may be of interest has been added to the library.

 

6) Document maintenance is actually much easier than we originally thought, because you can Re-Upload a Document it keeps the same URL so there is no need to update the link in the CTA (thank god!)

 

Could HubSpot make this whole process a lot easier?  Heck YES they could!, how you ask?

 

HubSpot please!  Enabled a document link click to be an enrollment trigger then we could SKIP all the work needed to create the CTAs!  We could create a simple button on our website and point the button to the Document URL and be DONE with it!

 

I hope this helps others who are struggling this with this!   And don't forget to upvote the idea to make Document URL Clicks an Enrollment Trigger!

 

 

 

Ver la solución en mensaje original publicado

6 Respuestas 6
MoreLeadsPlz
Participante

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

What an amazing workaround GaryTesta.

At 200 pieces of gated content, I think most people would have just made a business case to buy a CMS like Uberflip. Hubspot isn't built to handle 200+ pieces of content efficiently, which is why it is set-up for the 1 landing page per 1 piece of gated content model. 


My larger question to you is - does 200 pieces of content serve your audience or overwhelm them?

Regardless, very cool to see you build an alternative way.

0 Me gusta
ruediklein
Miembro

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

Is this for real? To capture the E-mail from someone for every document they download one has either to create a form for every piece of content (like in another "workaround") or create a CTA for every document. Is this still the case in 2023?

Then, this platform isn't set up efficiently enough for marketers.

SiddharthGarg91
Participante

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

Hi @KateElizabeth @GaryTesta ,

 

We are currently developing a HubSpot app called CloudFiles which can solve most, if not all of your problems. It is an enhancement and a possible replacement for the HubSpot Documents tool. You can upload files directly from the CRM and do a lot, lot more with the links including tracking, hard & soft ID validation, workflow integration etc...

 

You can try out the app from HubSpot Marketplace.

 

Looking forward to your reply.

 

Thanks

0 Me gusta
KateElizabeth
Colaborador

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

We have Sales Hub Pro and Marketing Hub Starter and want to create tracked links to share documents without having to put an email address. Is there no way to do that? We don't have the CTA feature. It doesn't make sense for how I want to use this. I want to have many pdfs appear on our website but live in HS docs.  I do want to capture emails if they want to download the pdfs. Any advice? I can't believe there's not an option to create a shared link without having to put in an email address. It a customer tries to download something, it looks like this (below), which is not ideal.... TIA!

 

Capture.JPG

0 Me gusta
GaryTesta
Solución
Colaborador

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

Karsten thanks for your input.  Unfortunately, the approach you recommended has a couple of issues that really didn't solve our problem.  It's amazing that something as simple and typical as creating a downloadable library of documentation that our customers can access and that we can track their request is such a time consuming undertaking in HubSpot!

 

In the end after a lot of testing here is the best solution that we could come up with:

 

1) Upload your documents that you want to make available to the Documents library found under sales.  Do not use the file manager as nothing that is put in File Manager is tracked, however, any time a user clicks on a document link created in the Documents library is definitely tracked and it can be reported on, BUT it can't be used as an enrollment trigger unfortunately!  This is the BIGGEST missing piece that HubSpot needs to fix!  You must be able to use a document link click as an enrollment trigger!  IF they fixed this life would be SO MUCH simpler!

 

2) After uploading the Documents you wish to include in your Download Tracking Library to the Documents library under Sales, the next step is to create a link for each document and to specifiy an email address required for viewing the document.  The email address can be any address (it doesn't even have to be a functional email address), but it shouldn't be an address that a customer can guess or use.  Once you have created the link, copy it to an spreadsheet and keep track of every link you create and what they refer to, you'll need them later in the process.  Keep in mind that everytime you click create a link a new link is generated, even if you use the same email address for the same document.  The reason we want to specify an email address is that every time a user trys to access a Document link HubSpot looks to see if that user has provided an email address or not, if they have and they have allowed cookies, then it immediately shows them the Document, if not (like if they forward the link to another person in the same company, etc.) then HubSpot will request their Email address before allowing them to view the Document.

 

3) Now that you have all the links ready to go, the next step is to create an individual CTA for every document!   You create CTAs under Marketing>>Lead Capture>>CTA.  What we did was to create an Image Button for every document we wanted to offer to our customers in our Download Tracking Library webpage.   We found that creating the button image in Powerpoint gave us the greatest flexiblity for style and we could simply left click on the grouped image and do a "save a picture" to save the images.  We then used the images in the CTAs.  The only challege is that you have to set the size of the button in HubSpot in the CTA setup as we used an iFrame to paste in the CTA code that HubSpot generated for each CTA and that iFrame becomes the Button which the user will click to gain access to the document.  You paste the link for the Document you created back in Step 2 into the CTA's Enter URL filed.    Basically click the CTA image buto and your user is directed to the Document Link.

 

NOTE: if you use Wix like we do, then you need to make sure you put the Empty Character (you can copy the character from here: www.emptycharacter.com) as the first character before you paste in the code.  If you don't do this the code won't run for some reason.  This is a bug in Wix.

 

4) Once you have your CTA Document Download Library iFrame Buttons created on your site, you can decide if you want to use a Landing Page as a front end to collect some basic info about your user before they can access the library page, we used a form that collects name, email address, and application interest.  When they submit they are routed to the Document Download Library Webpage on our site.   Here they can now click on any CTA iFrame Button for the Document they want to view.

 

5) When they click the CTA button we automatically know they clicked the CTA which HubSpot can track and you can use as a workflow or sequence enrollment trigger.  We also gate access to the document by making sure that we have that specific users email address, and all of this shows up in the contacts activity feed.  The fact that we can use the CTA click as an enrollment trigger allows us to notify users when we update a document in our library or a new document that may be of interest has been added to the library.

 

6) Document maintenance is actually much easier than we originally thought, because you can Re-Upload a Document it keeps the same URL so there is no need to update the link in the CTA (thank god!)

 

Could HubSpot make this whole process a lot easier?  Heck YES they could!, how you ask?

 

HubSpot please!  Enabled a document link click to be an enrollment trigger then we could SKIP all the work needed to create the CTAs!  We could create a simple button on our website and point the button to the Document URL and be DONE with it!

 

I hope this helps others who are struggling this with this!   And don't forget to upvote the idea to make Document URL Clicks an Enrollment Trigger!

 

 

 

karstenkoehler
Miembro del salón de la fama | Partner
Miembro del salón de la fama | Partner

Document Download Tracking - How to do it right?

resolver

Hi @GaryTesta,

 

You can replace a file by following these instructions, it's a little bit hidden since the "Replace" option doesn't show up in the "Actions" dropdown. Click on the name of a file in the file manager and you'll see the option at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. HubSpot will retain the original URL and put the new file in the old place.

 

Regarding your second question, yes, you can use "Page views" as a filter type in workflows, see here.

 

By the way, you can also specify on which page a form was filled out, if that helps. When you filter for "Form submissions" in workflows, lists, views, you get the option "Contact has filled out form on...". No need to create 200 forms, since you can base your next actions on which page that standard form has been submitted on.

 

Hope this helps!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

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