The easiest way to explain what a short link is is by looking at the words: short link. Plain and simple, it means shortening a link significantly without affecting the end station of the link. Even if the link looks different, it will still direct you to the exact same landing page. This is done using URL shorteners. I know, pretty self-explanatory! This technology is very popular in SMS marketing. That's why we've collected everything you need to know about URL shorteners short links and short links in one article!
The purpose of short links and link shorteners
When you send SMS to your customers, it is important that you are aware of how many characters you use. Some people prefer to stay within the limits of one SMS message (160 characters). Here is where short links play a huge role. Let's use this article as an example: the normal link looks like this https://www.intellipush.com/en/everything-you-need-to-know-about-URL-shorteners/. That corresponds to a whopping 80 characters. Using a URL shortener, you can send customers to the exact same web address with just 20 characters.
The advantages of short links and link shorteners
One advantage of shortlinks is that they are more aesthetically pleasing than regular URL links. Regular links contain a lot of information, from command structures to data hierarchies. This results in long links with many complex characters and combinations that make it difficult to memorize and share. With today's technology, this is easily solved by copying and pasting the link, but why make it harder on yourself than it needs to be?
One of the most important advantages of short links is that they make it possible to acquire information that are made available with such technology. The URL shortener that we at Intellipush have developed allows you to gain insight into the CTR and gives you information about who clicked on your link and when. This is information that is absolutely essential for you when you use SMS as a marketing channel. You can use this information to improve the messages you send, optimize the time of sending as well as reward customers for their loyalty. If you do the latter point right, this can also act as an incentive for other customers to take action and become loyal customers. You do this by gaining insight into which customers open the messages, when they are opened and by producing your own contact lists based on the click-through rate.
Avoid the short link pitfalls
There are certain pitfalls you should stay away from when it comes to shortlinks and link shorteners. Certain link shorteners are public and available to everyone. It sounds really great, but it involves some risk. Links created on public sites, such as Bitly, are often met with skepticism and flagged by systems that work to detect attempted fraud. There is a good reason for that, because such links are often used to hide fraudulent attempts. This type of fraud attempt has increased drastically with the use of SMS as a communication tool for companies.
This, in addition to the information gathering capacity, is why we developed our own URL shortener. Short links produced with our link shortener are more secure and are less likely to be suspected of fraud. That is because only our customers have access to the technology, and every customer we have is thoroughly verified. Therefore, we recommend all our customers to use the technology they have available on our platform, both to avoid suspicion from fraud detection systems and to gain insight into the information that optimizes their communication strategy.
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