A Reference Block with link populated by Ampscript is throwing 404

ampscriptcontent-buildermarketing-cloud

Our emails are translated into 20 languages. The translations for each email are uploaded as a Data Extension with Country as primary key. Each email has its own DE.
One of the columns contains a CTA button link (www.link.com) and another with the text of the link.

While editing an email in Content Builder, I am getting the CTA button using Reference Content block. The blue button has the following code (extra styling removed):

<a href="%%=redirectto(@buttonBlueURL)=%%">%%=v(@buttonBlueText)=%%</a>

However, when we send a test email to ourselves and click the button, we get a 404. The content is populating as it should but the link looks like: "https://click.domain.com/www.link.com?utms=parameters"

The code snippet that is setting the @buttonBlueURL and @buttonBlueText variables is within the email itself (not in the Content Block), which I think may be the reason it's not working properly.

What is the best way to solve this? We want to use Reference Content blocks so that when we update design, we don't need to update every single email.

Best Answer

I suspect this issue is caused by the @buttonBlueURL variable not holding the complete URL.

Current situation:

%%[
SET @buttonBlueURL = 'www.link.com'
SET @buttonBlueText = 'Click me'
]%%
<a href="%%=redirectto(@buttonBlueURL)=%%">%%=v(@buttonBlueText)=%%</a>

Where the expected solution would be:

%%[
SET @buttonBlueURL = 'https://www.link.com'
SET @buttonBlueText = 'Click me'
]%%
<a href="%%=redirectto(@buttonBlueURL)=%%">%%=v(@buttonBlueText)=%%</a>

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] How to create dynamic CSS in ExactTarget content blocks

Save yourself some frustration and clear your Content Area and re-initialize it as HTML Only. The WYSIWYG editor really stumbles all over itself when you start doing adding a lot of scripting.

I'd probably code it something like this:

%%[

VAR @CampusName, @AccentColor

SET @CampusName = AttributeValue("CampusName") /* handle null gracefully */

if @CampusName == "London" then

  SET @AccentColor = "#2196F3"

elseif @CampusName == "Madrid" then

  SET @AccentColor = "#9C27B0"

else

  set @AccentColor = "silver"

endif

]%%

<!-- other HTML -->

<tr> 
  <td bgcolor="#F3F3F3">
     <a href="#" style="background-color:%%=v(@AccentColor)=%%;">link</a>
  </td>
</tr>

Also, one caution about using  to hide AMPScript...it will cause problems in the text version of your email.

[SalesForce] How to create a custom ‘Block’ in Marketing Cloud Content builder for emails

Have some faith in your content creators, they can use a template that you created and then change nearly all you said in the template based emails without touching html.

Furthermore you can create many templates of blocks which they just drag into that email and renew the images etc.

Here some screenshots.

If you really want them to use a list that they Specify you'd have to do this: Your Content Blocks all contain AMPScript Variables that lookup onto a data extension that contains the values that you want to place in those variables.

For example: Email-Data Extension with fields like editorial text, button1 text, etc. But this is highly unflexible if only some of the email templates are changed.

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