Introduction

An IQ Link is a trackable link that points to a tracked site. IQ Links are intended to be used in emails that are sent from an outside (3rd party) email clients like Outlook, Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, etc.

When a prospect clicks on an IQ Link in an email, they are cookied for ongoing visitor tracking. Moving forward, when the prospect returns to your site, their activity will continue to be recorded within their prospect record in DemandCenter.

Why would I want to use IQ Links?

Most of your conversions are happening through your campaign's emails or forms. However, that has to be created and configured in DemandCenter.

IQ Links provide yet another way for you to convert your anonymous prospects to known prospects. This can also save you time because IQ Links can be sent directly from an inbox, so you would not need to set up campaigns, email templates, and forms.

In a nutshell, you can create a trackable link in DemandCenter, on the fly, and then give that link to your team members to send in their own emails right out of their email client, like Outlook. It is a great way for your Sales Team to be able to convert follow-ups right from their emails.

How do I create an IQ Link?

Before starting, you will want to make sure that the domain of your intended link is listed as a tracked site in your account. Once that has been verified, follow the steps below to generate an IQ Link.

Go to Assets > IQ Links.
Click New IQ Link.
Configure your IQ Link with the following:
- Name: A reference name for this generated link and corresponding settings.
- Solution Compatibility: Click on Other and select the name of the email client that you will be using to send your email from. If you do not see your email client listed, then simply choose Other.
- Destination URL: The complete URL to which you would like to direct visitors to when the IQ Link is clicked. Be sure to include the full path and the correct protocol (e.g. http://, https://, etc.).
- (Optional) Notes: Provide descriptive text for the IQ Link that you are about to generate.
- Prospect Owner: Select the user that is to be assigned to NEW prospects entering your database when they click on this IQ Link.
  
  Prospects that already existed in the system prior to clicking on the link will remain assigned to their original owner.
- Source: Select the source that is to be assigned to NEW prospects entering your database when they click on this IQ Link. This will help you track how many prospects are converted as a result of clicking on this link.
  
  Prospects that already existed in the system prior to clicking on the link will remain assigned to their original source.
- (Optional) Campaign: If you wish, you may associate the generated IQ Link with a campaign. With this setting in place, prospects will automatically be added to the selected campaign when the IQ Link is clicked.
  
  As a result, prospects will immediately be evaluated as members of the campaign and will participate in the flows and actions according to the campaign design. No other audience list association is needed. The status, attributes, settings and design of the campaign will not be altered in any way.
  
  If the prospect was already a member of the associated campaign, then their original campaign progress will not be affected, and they will continue in the campaign according to the campaign setup.
- (Optional) Categories: Select the prospect category that you would like to assign to prospects that click on this IQ Link. The benefit of doing this is that you will be able to track the actual number of prospects that clicked on an IQ Link.
Click Validate to confirm that your chosen Destination URL contains eTrigue tracking code.
- If validation is successful in all areas, then proceed to the next step.
  
  - OR -
- If validation is not successful in some or all areas, correct the highlighted issues and repeat this step again.
  
  Note: The validator will check for the physical presence of tracking code on a web page's source code.
  
  Since there are multiple ways to add tracking code to a web page, you may be presented with the Could not find tracking code at the destination URL. error message even though you may have tracking code on your web page.
  
  If you are sure that your destination URL has tracking code, you may ignore the warning and choose Allow me to save anyway.
Once validation is successful, click Create to save your IQ Link.
In the dialog box that follows, copy the IQ Link provided.

If anything aside from 'Other' was chosen: Copy the IQ Link exactly as it appears and paste it into your email.

Note: The screenshot shown below is just an example. Do not copy this link.

If 'Other' was chosen: Copy the IQ Link provided and replace the EMAILADDRESS portion with the actual email address of the prospect that you are sending the email to before pasting the link into your email.

Note: The screenshot shown below is just an example. Do not copy this link.

For example, if you are sending an IQ Link to Bob Smith (bobsmith@company.com) from Outlook, then change the original IQ Link first before pasting the link into your email, like so:

From this:
```
https://www.etrigue.com?etgp=Y2h7JW3k&etgpk=EMAILADDRESS
```
To this:
```
https://www.etrigue.com?etgp=Y2h7JW3k&etgpk=bobsmith@company.com
```
Once the IQ Link has been added to your email, send the email out as you normally would.

What happens next?

If a prospect that did not previously exist in your database clicks on an IQ Link, then a new prospect record is created with relevant activity details and applied with attributes defined by the corresponding IQ Link's settings (e.g. Prospect Owner, Source, Categories, etc.). Note that the record is created with only an email address. Over time, you can add more information about the prospect manually or through list imports.

Moving forward, whenever the prospect returns to your site, their activity will be added to their prospect record as they have been cookied for ongoing visitor tracking.

If an existing prospect clicks on an IQ Link, then their prospect record is updated with details of their recent visit.

When using the eTrigue Outlook plugin, how do I track prospects under different team members?

For Outlook users who have installed the Outlook plugin, they can configure their plugin to utilize a specific IQ Key that is associated with an IQ Link. This comes in handy when multiple team members use the plugin but would like ownership of prospects assigned accordingly for tracking purposes.

Administrators can create separate IQ Links for each member of their team. After an IQ Link has been created, an IQ Key is uniquely generated for that IQ Link. The IQ Key can then be given to a user of the Outlook plugin. Note that only the IQ Key needs to be provided to team members as the IQ Link is only used to generate the IQ Key.

Since the plugin can be updated to utilize any IQ Key, prospects can be tracked under each team member based on the defined attributes of the IQ Link that is connected to that IQ Key.

For example, if an IQ Link was created for a team member named Tony, then the IQ key would be configured with a source or category that denotes it belongs to Tony.

Note: Users do not have to to use IQ Links with the Outlook plugin and vice versa. The two features are independent of each other and can be used together or separately on their own.

To provide an IQ Key to a team member:

Go to Assets > IQ Links.
Take note of the IQ Key under the IQ Key column.
In Outlook, have each team member navigate to the eTrigue tab and click Settings.
When prompted to enter the tracking string, enter the IQ Key noted in Step 2 next to and click Save.
Team members can now use Outlook to include links to tracked sites that will automatically be converted to trackable links when the Send with eTrigue button is clicked.