Mailto Links: 3 Simple Steps to Easier Engagement 

Naomi West is a Product Marketing Manager at Parcel, the industry-leading email coding tool, which was recently acquired by Customer.io. You can also catch her writing about all things email on her personal blog.

When you reach out to your subscribers, most often you’re looking for some form of engagement back. Sometimes that’s clicking on a link, but sometimes direct communication with you is the goal. The problem? Asking someone to reply is a much bigger request than clicking a button. 

Picture this: a subscriber clicks a link in your email that automatically opens up a new email. The send-to address, subject line, and body are prefilled. They type a few words and hit send. Your right team gets the message instantly.

That’s the beauty of mailto links, and they’re incredibly easy to create: no fancy coding required. I’ll show you how to make and use them to drive super flexible, high-quality engagement with Parcel.io’s mailto link generator. This tool creates custom mailto links in three quick steps: fill in a template, click a button, and paste a link into your email. Voila! 

Let’s walk through a few use cases to see it in action.

Use case: contest entries 

Imagine you’re a subscription box service and you’re running a contest to generate new leads: current subscribers can enter to win a free subscription to give as a gift. A mailto link makes it easy to collect contest entries. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1:  Add addresses and pre-fill text

First, go to Parcel.io’s mailto link generator. Enter the send-to email for your contest team, a subject line, and body text. Use placeholder text to show your subscribers what information to type in. 

Step 2: Generate the mailto link

Click the Copy link button to generate and copy the link you’ll need to insert in your email. For the above example, it looks like this:

mailto:contestcrew@awesomesubscriptionbox.com?subject=Really%20Great%20Contest%20Entry&body=Hey%20team!%0D%0A%0D%0ACount%20me%20in%20for%20this%20contest!%0D%0A-%5BName%5D%0D%0A-%5BPhone%20number%5D%0D%0A%0D%0AThanks!

That’s your magic mailto link! It’s been copied to your clipboard, so you can just paste it into your email. 

If you want to see what customers will experience when they click on your mailto link, click the Try it button to send an email sent to the send-to address you’ve entered. 

Step 3: Add the link to your email

The mailto link works like a URL, but instead of taking the subscriber to a web page, it opens their default email client and creates a pre-filled email. You can put the mailto link in a hyperlink or a call to action button. Your email to subscribers might look like this:

Hi Amir!

Opening your AwesomeBox each month is like getting a gift — and we want to help you share the fun. 

As a gold-level subscriber, you’re eligible to enter the Give More Awesome contest. The winner will receive a three-month AwesomeBox subscription to gift to a friend. Enter by November 15 to win! 

[Enter now]

Here’s what happens when your customer clicks the Enter now button in your email:

All they have to do is fill in their name and phone number, then click send. 

Use case: gather and react to customer feedback

We’ve all been there: you get an email from a brand asking about your experience. But what do you say? And who are you even talking to? It can sometimes lack a human feel that makes it feel worthwhile for your recipient to reply. 

Mailto links can save you here. Say you’re a custom t-shirt printing service. You know that a personalized follow-up is especially critical to build loyalty with new customers, so you create a first-time buyer campaign to trigger an email one day after they receive their first order. You can use a mailto link to connect buyers directly to your customer success team, using prefilled text to guide their feedback.

Now the customer success team can act fast, fixing the issue for unhappy customers to win them over, and offering satisfied people a personalized discount on their next order to increase engagement.  

Use case: connecting to multiple parties

Remember how I said mailto links are super flexible? It’s true; you can even use them to drive subscribers to connect with multiple people, including someone outside of the origin email. 

For instance, imagine a restaurant is inviting select customers to an exclusive dinner. They want guests to email the chef directly about any dietary restrictions, and they need to keep the customer support team up to date too. A mailto link is the perfect solution. 

Everyone gets the information they need to ensure a delicious experience for each guest.

No fancy code, just an easy engagement solution

There are plenty of ways to invite subscribers to talk to you: contact forms, survey apps, and of course the “reply” button. Mailto links offer an ideal blend of personal connection and ease of use for your subscribers, and they couldn’t be easier to create and use. 

The above use cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Whenever your campaigns would benefit from personalized, one-on-one connection, mailto links make it simple for subscribers to engage. They’re a great addition to your email marketing toolbox!