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I hop in and out of dozens of ConvertKit accounts each month.
I would estimate that approximately one-third of these accounts have a massive automation rules mess… and it looks a little something like this:
Dozens and dozens of these link trigger automation rules… sometimes 100s! ???
I mean… I can tell why you dread having to go into your rules ?
What's Going On?!
When you're in the email editor (either for a sequence or a broadcast), and you go to add a link, it gives you the very tempting option to ‘Tag subscribers who click this link':
So you take ConvertKit up on its very nice offer, and select a tag/create a new one.
(And if you did this a while ago, you might have clicked back into the link, seen the tag was no longer selected, and selected it again, and saved… possibly several times).
Each time you do this, ConvertKit automatically creates an unnamed link trigger automation rule on your Rules page. Most people I speak to don't even realise this happens or is the cause of their rule woes.
How Do I Stop This Happening?!
Firstly, you pledge from this point onwards never to be tempted by the option to tag subscribers who click a link on the fly…
I know, I know. That seems like an unreasonable request, but let me explain…
From now on, even if you're mid-email, you're going to go to the ConvertKit rules page and create a new link trigger automation rule:
You're then going to go back to the email you were writing, save and refresh.
This time, when you go into add the link, click ‘link triggers' and you'll be able to find your beautifully named link trigger:
And once you've selected it, it'll look like this:
Why do I plead with you to do it this way?
- You can re-use the same link trigger automation rule in multiple emails (both sequence and broadcast).
- It's so much neater.
- No more rules mess – you're calmly creating sensibly named things.
How Do I Tidy This Mess?!
Okay, so all good moving forward, but how do you sort out the hideous mess you've accidentally created in your automation rules before you saw the error of your ways??
Click into each messy link trigger automation rule and scroll down to the History….
If it's never been triggered: delete the rule.
If it was last triggered ages ago: delete the rule.
If it was mostly last triggered ages ago and then a couple more recently: delete the rule.
(It was probably in a broadcast/sequence email that sent ages ago but some people weirdly went back and clicked more recently).
If it's been triggered fairly recently: leave the rule as it is but give it a sensible/proper name.
Other Notes
- If you delete a link trigger automation rule and then someone clicks on that link they still go to the destination url, they just don't get tagged. That's it. No biggie.
- If you change the destination url of a link trigger automation rule, that doesn't change the url in any emails that were sent.
- If you change the ‘actions' in a link trigger automation rule, anyone who clicks on that link trigger in an email from now on will have the new actions applied to them.
- I encourage you to periodically go through your link trigger automation rules in the way outlined above, even once they're nice and tidy – you usually don't need to keep them all around forever, particularly the ones that were in broadcasts.
If you've found this blog post helpful – please do let me know in the comments!
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