There are two major issues when using merge tags (special links):
1) It is impossible to choose their type. Let's say I can't use phone numbers or email links with merge tags (tel:%PHONE_NUMBER%) or mailto: %EMAIL%. Every time you go to Special links and choose it from a dropdown it will automatically change your link type to OTHER which is incorrect. Please fix that
2) It is impossible to export special links with UTMs. It comes from the 1st issue: When link type is not assigned, UTMs might not be compatible with all types of links. But when you fix the 1st problem and allow to choose http:// or https:// type of link for merge tags in this case you can also allow export with UTMs. How it should look like:
  • User assigns a link to text/button
  • Goes to the link settings, chooses the needed type. Let's say https:
  • Goes to the list of links, changes to Special and chooses the needed merge tag
It allows Stripo to understand what type of link is hidden behind this text or button and since it is a site link when exporting this email it will add UTM parameters to it.
When other type of link is chosen (email/phone/etc.) it does not add UTMs.
Overall it is a major issue for links: Even though you added UTM parameters to your email, exported HTML always comes without them and there is a lot of manual code editing afterwards to add parameters to all links.
Two fixes that I suggested will improve this workflow significantly.