3 Unique Ways to Use Branded Short Links

In our last post in the BL.INK Basics series on Branded Short Links, we discussed the basics of short links, but now let’s take it a step further. We have a number of clients that use short links in unique ways — sometimes in ways that surprise us too!

We wanted to share the wealth — to get your wheels turning so that you’re making the most of your short links and thinking outside of the box for ways to utilize branded short links across your entire organization.

Short links for deep linking

Deep linking is the ability to send your visitors deeper into a website, rather than sending them to the home page. We covered deep linking more in-depth in our BL.INK Basics series.

There are a number of ways to use deep linking with short links. From using short links for deep linking to social posts and profiles, to tap to call or text buttons on your website — BL.INK can support it all.

Tap to Call

Tap to call (or click to call) is a link that allows visitors to click and it will initiate a phone call on the device where the link is clicked. You can shorten the deep link that initiates the call with BL.INK, using your own domain name, and BL.INK will record the click data in the BL.INK analytics.

Tap to Text

Similar to tap to call, tap (or click) to text deep links will open a new SMS message. In place of the long, deep link, BL.INK users may shorten the link and use this in place of the original URL to track the click data when a visitor taps (or clicks) the link.

Even if the visitor doesn’t send the text message, but they click the link, the click will be recorded in the BL.INK analytics. 

Links to Instagram profile and/or post

In many social media platforms, there’s limited space for your ‘about’ section. On Instagram, you’re only given space for ONE link — so it’s important to make the link count. 

Using a BL.INK short link allows you to track the clicks to that link, giving you insights into the engagement and unlocking valuable information about your audience. 

You can even use your own branded domain so that your visitors trust the destination and know where they’re going. Plus, you’ll be promoting your own brand, rather than someone else’s.

Using short links as an image source

When using HTML, in order to load an image, you use the following image code:
<img src=”(your image URL here)”>

Usually, it’s a really long, unsightly URL. And for appearances, that doesn’t matter much. BUT if you use a BL.INK short link in place of the long URL, when the image source is loaded (AKA each time the page loads), you’re actually recording a click and the short link is still serving the URL for that image.

So let’s take a real-world example. Let’s say you want to add a short link to your banner image.

<img src=”https://www.bl.ink/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DeliveringCampaignsClick.png”>

You’d then take the URL between the quotes, and shorten it to something like this:
https://blink.news/SMS-banner

Now, you can use the shortened link in the code:
<img src=”https://blink.news/SMS-banner”>

When that page loads, the short link will serve the image, and will also track each page load as a click. This trick can be used on your own website, or it can be used on a third party’s website — which allows you more freedom and flexibility in tracking the analytics yourself. 

By using a BL.INK short link, you’ll have access to insights about how many impressions the image has received, information about the audience’s location(s), time of day, where they may have been referred from, what device they’re using, etc. This data can also be used to cross-reference with other analytics providers, like Google Analytics.

Using a short link for an image also makes it much easier to update an image without the help of a developer or relying on a third party to switch outdated images. You can edit the long URL in BL.INK at any time, and the next time that page is loaded, the new image will appear.

This trick can be used for any HTML — it doesn’t necessarily need to be an image.

Using short links for the untrackable

Web analytics is great for tracking links on your website, but what if you’re wanting to track something that’s not on your website? 

BL.INK makes it possible to track the untrackable. We’ve seen users use short links in their apps, on third-party websites for promotions or events, or in use with offline material like printed sales collateral or PDF documents.

With BL.INK, you can create short links to use in podcasts, videos, brochures, flyers, billboards, and more. BL.INK short links make it easy to track the clicks, better understand your offline audience, and update the content that’s loaded at the destination at any time, with ease. 

And, in direct mail, PURLs (or Personalized URLs) are personalized landing pages created for each individual targeted in the campaign. If you had a campaign targeting 5,000 people, you could create 5,000 purls, then shorten them to gain insight into who actually went to the link, making your follow-up a breeze.

Got a unique use-case? We’d love to hear more! Contact us for a free quote.