It’s one reason why we say everyone needs a free Bitly account! 3. Shorten your URLs to drive Belgium Phone Number List engagement In this age of ransomware, phishing, and identity theft, people are more cautious and aware of the links they click than in the past. That’s good in the fight against scammers and spammers—but it can be bad for legitimate businesses posting safe yet unfamiliar links. Shorter, cleaner URLs can appear more trustworthy to your audience. And if you use custom back-halves, you can even do some creative branding to increase that trust. (Paid Bitly users can even create custom domains, or front-halves, which supercharges trust and brand familiarity. That said, this article is about free ideas, so we’ll get back to the free stuff now.) A visual representation of a long link and it's shortened counterpart. Benefits of link shortening Why are we so passionate about link shortening (other than the fact that it’s what we do)? Because it delivers! Consider how these additional benefits could enhance or extend your business’s reputation or reach: Better brand awareness: Your links can “look like” your brand. Better click-through rates (CTR): More familiarity and trust = more clicks. Better tracking and analytics: See how many people are clicking through, plus when and where those clicks occur (better than Google Analytics). Cleaner, shorter social posts: Save that character count for your compelling message instead of spending it on URL characters that don’t move the needle. 4. Use custom back-halves for increased awareness and visibility As we mentioned briefly up above, Bitly allows all users to create custom back-halves. What does that mean exactly?
Free custom back-halves means you can create links that look something like this: htty/TodaysSps like these can help people recognize your brand or understand where you’re sending them (in a way that /ak14Rm7 or something similar can’t). This feature is unlimited for paid users, but we’re looking out for our free users, too: With the Bitly Free plan, you can create up to five custom back-halves every month! 5. Tell a story with case studies Customers don’t usually need (or want) to know every technical detail of what your product is or how your software does what it does. They want to know if their needs will be met. And the most powerful way to convey this is to tell stories of how your company met a satisfied client’s needs. Story-based case studies cost nothing (other than what you’ll pay the writer to craft the story and perhaps a graphic designer to create some graphics). You already have the information; why not share it? A big part of content-driven sales is helping people envision a future where your product or service solves an ongoing problem. Case studies are a fantastic approach, and you can use short links to spread the news, too.