Why Mailto Links Cannot Be Tracked in Xink

Short answer:
Clicks on mailto links cannot be tracked directly because they open the recipient’s email client and bypass tracking.

Clicks cannot be tracked on a mailto link because it opens directly in the recipient’s email client and does not pass through Xink for tracking.

How to work around this

If you want to measure engagement, you can create a call-to-action (CTA) that links to a mailto address.

This allows you to track clicks on the CTA itself before the email client opens.

Example

Instead of using a direct mailto link like this:

<a href="mailto:sales@company.com">Contact us</a>

Use a tracked CTA link in your signature:

<a href="https://yourtrackingdomain.com/contact-sales">Contact us</a>

This link points to a landing page where the click is tracked.

On that landing page, you can include a button or link like this:

<a href="mailto:sales@company.com">Email sales</a>

When a user clicks the CTA in the email signature, the click is recorded. They are then taken to the landing page, where they can continue to open their email client.

Learn more about CTAs here: CTA examples and best practices.

How click tracking works for other links

For standard links (e.g. website URLs), click tracking works as follows:

• The original URL is replaced with a tracking link
• When clicked, the user is first routed through Xink
• The click is recorded
• The user is then redirected to the final destination