Hosted Files Overview

About

Hosted files allow Insightly Marketing users to upload a file to Insightly and use a generated custom URL to track who is downloading the file; Finish actions can be applied to hosted files that will automatically deploy when the file is downloaded.

For users who have an AppConnect subscription, recipes can be built to automate the hosted file process.

How do Hosted Files Work?

When creating a hosted file, users will upload a file of their own that they wish to be tracked. A custom URL will be created for each file that is uploaded. Once the file's original download link is replaced with the custom URL from the hosted file's record, Insightly will be able to track who has downloaded the file (tracking is only supported for hosted files displayed on a user's own site). All hosted files are publicly accessible through the custom URL once it has been provided to an audience.

Once a hosted file record has been created, if a new file version becomes available, the hosted file record can be edited to replace the file with the new version. This allows users to keep the same custom URL and avoid having to update the custom URL in each place it has been published for use.

Once a Prospect has interacted with a hosted file, Insightly can review the Prospect's record fields and execute finish actions to automate updates to the Prospect record. If a known Prospect (i.e., a Prospect that has a record within Insightly Marketing) downloads a hosted file, the finish action(s) will fire accordingly. Via the record of a hosted file, the Prospects tab can be utilized to review which Prospects downloaded the file.

Spam

If a sequence of finish actions for a hosted file are triggered five or more times in a five minute time period from the same IP address and user, Insightly will identify this as spam and cease to trigger the finish actions. For example, if the same Prospect downloads the same hosted file more than five times in a five minute period (from the first click), Insightly will not execute any of the finish actions configured for the hosted file, for that specific Prospect.

This spam check occurs for finish action sequences for hosted files, redirect links, forms, and list emails.

Create a Hosted File

Hosted files can be created via two different routes - via files or via folders.

Create Via Files

Navigate to Files via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.

From the files list view, click the New File button in the upper right.

The Add New File popup will display where information regarding the file can be entered and the file can be uploaded.

Field	Information
Name	Required Field. Enter a unique name for the file
Folder	It is a best practice to efficiently organize hosted files into folders so they can be easily located at a later date
File	Choose a file to upload - file names are required to be unique. File size limit is 50 MB. Files can be PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint, PNG or JPG.
Custom URL	Optionally, a custom URL can be created for the file - this is the URL that is added to a user's site/content for consumption. If this field is left blank, Insightly will generate a URL for the file. The custom URL cannot be edited once the hosted file is saved.

Via the Permissions section, define the visibility of the file.
Once all information for the file has been applied, either of the following can be clicked as applicable:
- Save & New: Save the new file and reload the Add New File popup to upload another new file.
- Save: Save the new file and close the Add New File popup.

Create via Folders

In contrast to creating a hosted file via Insightly Marketing > Files, users can also created a hosted file via Insightly Marketing > Folders; using this method does not allow for the creation of a custom URL.

Navigate to Folders via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
Via the list view of folders, locate and open the folder that the file should be uploaded too.
1. Locate the file for upload via the computer's file manager and once located, drag and drop the file into the folder in Insightly Marketing.
2. To edit the newly added file, click the three dots menu to the far right of the file and select Edit This file.
  1. The name, folder assignment, or the chosen file can be edited but a custom URL cannot be created for files uploaded with this process.

Hosted Files Actions

When editing, changing the record owner, or deleting a hosted file, these actions can be done via two different routes:

Route 1: Via the list view of hosted files, the three dots menu on the far right of a hosted file can be clicked and the applicable function can be chosen from the expanded list.

Route 2: Via the list view of hosted files, a hosted file record can be opened. Once opened, the Actions drop-down in the upper right corner can be clicked and the applicable function can be chosen from the drop-down list.

Edit Hosted File

To edit a hosted file, navigate to Files via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
From the list view of files, locate the files that requires editing.
1. Click either the three dots menu to the far right of the file in the list view or click the Actions button in the upper right of the file record. From the available options, select Edit this File.
  - Finish actions for a file can be edited by opening the file record and selecting the Finish Actions tab. Locate the finish action the requires editing and click the three dots menu on the far right of the finish action and select Edit This Finish Action.

Change the Hosted File Record Owner

To change the record owner of a hosted file, navigate to Files via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
From the list view of files, locate the file that requires a new record owner.
1. Click either the three dots menu to the far right of the file in the list view or click the Actions button in the upper right of the file record. From the available options, select Change Record Owner.

Delete a Hosted File

To delete a hosted file, navigate to Files via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
From the list view of files, locate the file that requires deletion.
1. Click either the three dots menu to the far right of the file in the list view or click the Actions button in the upper right of the file record. From the available options, select Delete this File.
  - Finish actions for a file can be deleted by opening the file record and selecting the FinishActions tab. Locate the finish action the requires deletion and click the three dots menu on the far right of the finish action and select Delete This Finish Action.

Add Finish Actions to a Hosted File

Finish actions allow users to add automated activity that is triggered when someone downloads a file. For example, if users should be notified when a file has been downloaded, a finish action can be added to the file record that is triggered when the file has been downloaded and an email can be sent to any users/stakeholders to notify them of the file download.

Finish actions will typically occur immediately after a file has been downloaded and cannot be scheduled for a later date or time. They can however be assigned conditional criteria that will not allow the action to occur unless the file download has met the criteria that has been set.

If multiple finish actions have been added, they will only execute based on the Prospect's original field values. For example, if a Prospect started with a score of five and it was updated to ten as a request of the first action taken. If a finish action were to execute for Prospects with a score of ten or more, it would not execute because the score was originally five.

Finish actions will not execute if Insightly cannot identify the Prospect who downloaded the file.

To add finish actions to a file, navigate to Files via the objects on the left side of Insightly Marketing.
Locate and open the record of the file that requires finish actions.
1. Select the Finish Action tab and click Add Finish Action.
  1. From the expanded list, select the applicable finish action to add to the file.
  2. A popup window will appear with fields to complete to create the finish action. Enter the required fields (and the optional ones as desired). Conditional criteria can be added to define the criteria for the finish action to apply. For example, the Send Email finish action could require that the employee count needs to be greater than ten for the action to be triggered.
  3. When the finish action fields have been completed, click Save Finish Action to add it to the file
    1. If multiple finish actions have been added to a file, the order of the actions can be adjusted by clicking the three dots menu to the far right of each finish action and selecting Move Up in Order or Move Down in Order as applicable:

Was this article helpful?