How Can URL Shorteners Increase Conversions

URL Shortening services have been around for years yet few people understand the value they offer. Sure, it makes sense to use them for services such as FaceBook posts or even more so for Twitter Tweets, but how can they offer value beyond that. How can using a URL shortening service such as Google's Shortener increase sales and conversion rates?

The question goes back to "the person with the most information is in control." Imagine if you could know when prospects clicked on links inside email you sent them. Instantly you would know what services or information they were interacting with. Sure, you can do this with e-blasts, but it can be tricky inside of daily correspondance. What if you could know the very moment a prospect clicked on a link and then follow-up with them. What if you could confirm that you had indeed sent an email to a correct address and had someone interact with the information you sent?

Using URL Shorteners as Tracking Services
Well, shortening a URL offers all of these benefits. To illustrate let's look at a real work example. A few days ago Nathan Leggatt, Founder of Abendago sent a letter to Elon Musk of Tesla Motors. In the email he included a link to another website where additional information could be found. In the old way of sending a link, Nathan would not know if a) the email had arrived and b) if Elon (or his secretary) had even clicked on the link. Perhaps the email arrived but then it went to spam, or was opened and then deleted.

The difference with this email however was that Nathan used a URL shortener service via Google. Now, the URL included was a smaller version of the main URL, linked THROUGH Google. Via the Google URL Shortener dashboard Nathan could see that not only had the link been clicked on, it had been clicked on twice. What does this tell us? Hopefully you can begin to see the power of using these services already. As a result of this data Nathan was able to deduce the following information:

  1. The email did in fact arrive at Elon (or someone who looks after Elon Musk's email)
  2. The link was clicked on which demonstrates engagement with the email
  3. The link was clicked on twice which may mean the email was forwarded to the real Elon Musk, or was forwarded to another individual inside the organization OR that it was reread again. Either of these alludes to the fact that it was taken as important.

Examples of When to Use a Shortener

  1. Applying for a job. Want to know if the recruiter opened your resume? Or went to your linkedIn profile?
  2. Posting a Craigslist ad. Want to know how many people clicked on the link to the more information page?
  3. Sending a prospect a follow-up email. Did they open the link? Which links? How many times?
  4. What if you used a separate shortened URL for various posters or media? You could see which media placements resulted in the most leads 

Useful URL Shorteners You MIght Want to Try

Imagine if you had this type of insight on all your prospective emails. URL Shorteners; you've had the power this whole time, and now you know how to use it!