Creating Email with a Link/Button

[Steffanie_B]

I have created a basic email for an event. Inside is a link and a button where you can click and go to the Hotel site to get a room. 
When I preview the email the link takes you to the site, however when I send it or test send, it shows an error on the page that was linked leaving our customers unable to get to the page needed. 

The link works in every manor until it is sent in the email. I have verified it character by character, test viewed, etc. What do I need to do to have the sent email's link work? 

[Jnix284]

Hi @Steffanie_B depending on how your email sending domain is configured, one of two things are happening.

1-

If your email sending domain and website domain are the same, a HubSpot tracking code is added to the end

2-

If your email sending domain is different from your website domain, the HubSpot tracking is done via a redirect at the beginng.

If option 2, it is likely your DNS settings for this domain may not be properly configured and causes the error.

Can you right click on the link from the sent email, copy it, and paste it here?

[Steffanie_B]

LINK BEFORE SENDING THAT PREVIEWS AND WORKS BEFORE SENDING: 
https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1666189584358&key=GRP&app...

LINK AFTER SENDING - 

https://d10gwj04.na1.hubspotlinksfree.com/Ctc/W2+113/d10gwJ04/VVDWLF2zr7TqW9dqpVP1grX57W8JC1R54SpLrl...

[Jnix284 · Accepted solution]

@Steffanie_B  Thank you, this is helpful.

The link after sending is redirecting here:

https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1666189584358&amp%3Bkey=GRP&amp%3...&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=233975610&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_cXI6wpTz_THPgHlx5RiSPLgWMJzvNC56WAyvXAtsudGkVLl7XLC_vWIv3k6mmx4R8REGPE5DxIyy-ISaKlz0W51n_Rg&utm_content=233975610&utm_source=hs_email

The portion in bold is your original link and the information after it is the HubSPot tracking information.

What I noticed is that HubSpot is changing the original URL slightly, by removing the semi-colons ; and replacing with the encoded semi-colon value of %3B

Your link with semi-colons:

https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1666189584358&key=GRP&app=resvlink

HubSpot link without semi-colons and %3B in their place:

https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1666189584358&amp%3Bkey=GRP&amp%3Bapp=resvlink

In the original link, the semi-colon is used properly and doesn't need to be encoded, but HubSpot is encoding it anyway.

Replacing the %3B in the full HubSpot email URL resolves the issue on the page.

There are two options -

Contact Marriott and see if they can provide you a link without the semi-colons.

Use bit.ly to create a shortened version of your original URL that removes the ; so that HubSpot doesn't change to the encoded value and the original link is retained.

I hope this helps you understand what is happening and that you can get the link updated so it works!