How BL.INK Became a Retail Giant’s Single Source of Truth For Campaign Tracking
One of the most dominant retail department stores in the US migrated over to BL.INK’s platform for social media short link creation. Since the move in 2014, BL.INK has enabled them to standardize processes across their massive workforce and accurately track social media campaign data with a native Khoros integration. The switch took them from a restrictive link management system to a feature-rich one that provides solutions to their evolving needs.
About Our Customer
Our client is a retail mainstay in the US, with 1,948 locations across all 50 states. They currently employ over 400,000 people and are one of the biggest names in the box store industry.
Their merchandise includes everything from clothing and groceries to beauty products, furniture, and home decor, with some of their most popular brands being in-house exclusives. Many of their stores also offer health services such as optical and pharmacy.
They focus heavily on customer experience, and each location is curated to suit the local community’s needs.
The Problem: Broken Short Links and Lack of Features
Our client’s journey with BL.INK began in 2014 when they were on the hunt for a better way to create short links for social media. They were using Bit.ly but found essential features were missing and the pricing model did not accommodate their evolving needs.
As social media became a more prominent focus in their marketing campaigns, accurately tracking engagement across multiple platforms was fundamental. Additionally, they wanted to give employees (such as their live-chat agents) the freedom to create short links while maintaining security and standardization.
Ultimately, they were searching for a more sophisticated link management system that could provide them with much-needed features in an accessible, simplified way.
Evolving Needs
Aside from their immediate needs, this box store giant had legitimate concerns about the future. In a world where technology and trends seem to change almost daily, they wanted their short link creation platform to provide them with enough flexibility to avoid growing pains.
By adapting to their unique challenges over the years, BL.INK has proven to be the perfect solution to any and all problems that arise.
The Solution: A Short Link Generator that Adapts to Every Need
The first issue we needed to tackle for this giant retailer was broken short links. It only became apparent how massive the problem really was after BL.INK completed a manual and auto migration of their links.
Andy Meadows, BL.INK’s CEO explains, “When they migrated from Bit.ly we discovered over 10,000 links that they did not know were broken. We determined that this was due to a previous update to their website, so we went in and fixed thousands of short links to point to the appropriate destination.”
In addition to resolving a widespread broken link issue, BL.INK was able to provide them with other essential components they were severely lacking. Through our implementation of add-on modules and tools, they can now provide employees with an accessible short-link creation platform and accurately track campaign performance.
1. Social Media & Campaign Tracking
The way this retail industry leader markets itself is a defining characteristic of their brand. They use social media campaigns on popular platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to reach their consumers. Accurately tracking campaign performance data is one of the most pivotal services BL.INK provides.
Andy explains, “At the end of every campaign, they review the data from BL.INK to analyze it as the single source of truth for exactly how much engagement they get across all exposure points.” He continues: “It’s exciting to see how they're really leveraging the data, and they're still hungry for more.”
BL.INK’s native integration with Khoros, the client’s social media platform, was also a big plus for this retail giant.
2. Accessibility
This retailer has an enormous workforce, so maintaining accessibility and security at the same time is integral to its efficiency.
One way BL.INK helps them accomplish this is via a module called Pub-Link (available to Enterprise customers as an add-on).
Pub-Link allows anyone who accesses a URL to create a link on that domain. However, to ensure safety and compliance, we’ve integrated the whitelisting framework into Pub-Link.
This structure allows those with access the freedom to create short links, but only to our client’s pre-approved destinations. The system is commonly utilized by live chat agents when they need to direct a customer to a product, but want a short link that is not too long for the chat.
We are also powering three different URL builders, each specifically designed for specific departments or campaigns. Their employees can quickly input a link into the appropriate URL builder and select a few other subcategories from drop-down boxes. The end result is an optimal URL that can be generated on the spot by anyone with access to the URL builder link.
Andy explains, “With the URL builder, any team member can build out what their analytics team has determined is the perfect URL. So no matter what kind of training they have, they can use the tool to create the short link and the analytics team gets exactly what they need with every transaction.”
3. Flexibility
Since resolving our client’s primary issues in 2014, BL.INK has continued to find solutions to problems that changing times and technology bring with them.
Whether it’s adapting to new accessibility requirements, implementing new tools, or integrating with ones they already use, we’ve been able to fit the ever-morphing mold of this retailer’s needs.
The Takeaway: Single Source of Truth For Data and Increased Functionality on A Flexible Platform
Being one of America's most beloved and recognized brands, social media presence is vital to this massive retailer. BL.INK allowed them to optimize their customer engagement by tracking campaign performance data across all the social networks they use.
Through BL.INK’s modules and tools, our client continues to achieve increased accessibility within a secure structure, giving them better governance overall. Furthermore, our seamless integrations with Khoros, their existing social media platform, put them on track for success.
Now this retail industry leader has all the features they require to function, and the security of knowing their needs will be met for years to come.
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