How To Use Shortener URL For Business Inquiry Tracking?
What is URL shortener?
URL shortener is a technology used on the World Wide Web to shorten a long Uniform Resource Locator (URL) but still redirects to the same web page. This is to make it easier to share the link especially if it is too long, or if a user is using a mobile device or name card.
Which URL is more easy to share?
http://www.poxse.com/2014/09/what-are-supporting-documents-required.html Or
http://tinyurl.com/pw497j6
Why Use URL Shortener?
There are lots of arguments about the good and bad effects of URL shortening. However, the need to use this kind of technique is inevitable especially when personalization takes place. That being said, here are some of the good reasons why use URL shortening:
1. Personalization – This is one of the best benefits of using a URL shortener. It can personalize a link depending on the user’s demand. There are some of URL shortening services that allow a user to edit the link to make it more appealing.
2. Recall and share – Short URLs tend to get shared the most than the long ones. It has proven to be true when sharing something on social media using a shortened URL.
3. Track and Compile Data – Data tracking has been the holy grail of online marketing. And this feature can also be found using a URL shortener tool.
4. Better bookmarking – URL Shorteners can also be a good bookmarking tool. When a link is shortened, it is stored in the user’s account where he can access it anytime and anywhere. It is actually better than bookmarking using an internet browser.
Here is the comparison of some popular URL shortener providers:
bitly.com
Original: http://www.poxse.com/p/contact-us.html
Shorten URL: http://www.bit.ly/CPoxse
After pasting the long link, the system will return a shortened URL with random characters. Users can edit the link to make it a friendly URL, however the editing is subject to availability.
Traffic monitoring on clicks, links type and geographic distribution.
A good feature for marketing campaign, it groups selected bitly links for advance analysis.
goo.gl
Original URl: http://www.poxse.com/p/contact-us.html
Shorten URL: http://goo.gl/scsYrV
Similar to bitly, paste the long link to generate a shortened URL.
Besides traffic monitoring Google has bundled their services with QR code, it can be useful for printing purpose.
tinyurl.com
Original URL: http://www.poxse.com/p/about-us.html
Shorten URL: http://tinyurl.com/nxnzaza
Most simple service without traffic tracking and QR code generation.
ow.ly
Original URL: http://www.poxse.com/p/about-us.html
Shorten URL
http://ow.ly/GKT2L
http://ow.ly/GKXZ1
http://ow.ly/GKYvs
Power by Hootsuite, user can subscribe a premium service a for advanced traffic monitoring. The system does not generate a consistent shortened URL, each time we re-shrink a long URL it generates different types of URLs.
To shrink a URL, it requires users to play game for human validation. It is secured and effective to cut down robots that create spam link, but the downside is it’s time-consuming to a user to create bulk links.
Some ideas to use shortener URL for business metrics:
1. Social media – post a bit.ly URL in Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, it helps to analyse which platform return more clicks.
2. Offline marketing – use more than one provider to track direct traffic e.g. goo.gl for name card, bit.ly for brochure, name card or poster.
3. Email marketing – when users click the links means they have read the email.
4. Banner ads – tracking ads impression by converting n img URL to shorten URL e.g. http://bit.ly/fbpoxebanner to http://bit.ly/fbpoxebanner. Each time a banner loads in browser, it counts as an impression.
5. Analytics – Keep track for long term marketing activity analysis