Imagine having your customers on speed dial. With SMS, you essentially can.
90% of SMS messages are read within three minutes of being sent. However, just because SMS is an effective way to reach your target audience doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be thoughtful about what you communicate.
Yes, your message is likely going to be seen. But don’t you want customers to take action once they read it? If so, you need to give them a reason to click.
In this post, we’ll talk about how using short branded links boosts click-throughs in any type of SMS communication—from service notifications to marketing promotions.
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Shorter links → more room for your message
There’s a growing demand for SMS solutions right now, with brands needing to communicate with their customers quickly and effectively. Bitly helps businesses optimize every SMS notification. There are a few reasons why.
First, every Bitly link is a shortened link. And shorter links mean more character count available to deliver a more informative and individualized message. Tailoring your messaging to an individual customer, or segment of customers, is going to increase the likelihood of your CTA getting clicked.
Shorter links also mean that they won’t break in the middle of two messages, which can happen with really long links. This was a huge win for our customer, the second largest package delivery service in the United Kingdom, when they began using Bitly links in each of their millions of SMS notifications to customers.
Add your brand to your links
So short links give you more room in your messages. But what else would make someone compelled to click? Being transparent about who you are by sharing your brand in your SMS communications.
When you use branded links, every single one of your SMS notifications has your brand in them. This means recipients will immediately recognize your brand and, if you nail your messaging and offer, they’ll click.
To create branded links in Bitly, all you have to do is to connect a custom domain to your account. Once you do, your links will have your brand in them instead of the default “bit.ly.”
Using Bitly without a custom domain is like only cashing in part of your paycheck—you leave a lot on the table. That’s why we always encourage customers to take advantage of the free domain they get with their paid account.
Take a look at the blog post we wrote about how branded links help inspire trust in your customers and boost engagement.
Customize the back-half of your links
When you edit the “back-half” of your links, which you can easily do in Bitly, you give people a preview of where you’re sending them, building greater trust.
Trust is a huge factor when it comes to whether or not people click on your links, whether you’re sending a marketing message or service notification.
Marketing promotions sent via SMS can include anything from discount codes to early access to a sale or special offer. Service notifications typically disclose essential information, such as instructions, reminders or order updates. In both cases, customizing the back-half of your links can help trigger a click, since your customer recognizes that the information behind the link is going to be beneficial to them.
Analyze data and improve
Ultimately, getting people to click the links in your SMS communications is the action you want to inspire.
Your customers gain access to the information relevant to them. In turn, your team gets insight into whether or not your messages have been read, the time of day they’re read and even the location where they’re being clicked—right down to the city level. With this rich data, your team can adjust its SMS strategy as it learns what works.
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At Bitly, we’re always talking to customers about how they can leverage Bitly to get the most out of their SMS initiatives. One thing we highlight is that Bitly and SMS go hand-in-hand.
Watch our on-demand webinar, How to Brand, Scale and Optimize SMS Notifications Using Bitly, to learn:
✅How SMS can increase response rates
✅How branded Bitly links instill trust and customer loyalty
✅How businesses use Bitly + SMS in customer communications
You’ll hear from Bitly’s Director of Product Marketing Gary Sulentic, Bitly Enterprise Account Manager Emily Weinstock and Director of Product Kelsey Stevenson.
Watch our on-demand webinar: How to Brand, Scale and Optimize SMS Notifications Using Bitly.