5 Ways to Enhance Marketing Campaigns with Vanity URLs
5 Ways to Enhance Marketing Campaigns with Vanity URLs
Did you know companies have merely 10 seconds to capture customers’ attention? This narrow timeframe means every detail of a digital marketing campaign counts—including the format of your URL. Companies incorporating vanity URLs stand out from the sea of generic URLs to gain a valuable competitive edge. These shortened, customized links are easy to make and even easier for customers to remember. They offer a range of benefits, from increased brand recognition to higher click rates to a cohesive and streamlined user experience.
If you’re considering using vanity URLs, here’s the scoop on what they are, how they work, and five key ways they benefit marketing campaigns.
What is a vanity URL?
A vanity URL is a shortened, customized, and easily shared link that leads to a relevant web page. It works the same way as a full-length URL but eliminates the hassle of inputting a long string of characters. Vanity URLs usually contain keywords connected to a company’s brand, motto, or ongoing campaign. For instance, a retailer running a skirt sale might use a vanity URL that looks like skirts.ly/sale.
It’s worth noting that not every customized link or short link is a vanity URL. Here are some basic definitions to help you navigate this territory:
- Short link: A URL shrunk to a bite-sized portion that leads to a web address associated with a full URL. Short links are popular for sharing information on social media or through SMS. They’re not customized and might look something like this: rf.ly/edfGp.
- Vanity URL: A customized short link that contains keywords related to a brand’s offering. It usually leads to special content such as a limited-time offer or a branded social media page. A coffee supplier might use a vanity URL similar to this: beans.ly/wholesale.
- Vanity domain: A short, customized link that acts as a company’s main web address: for example, Virgin Airlines uses virg.in. Vanity domains are often used to increase brand recognition and unity. (Note: You need a vanity domain to have a vanity URL.)
Vanity URLs are rapidly becoming a standard practice in digital marketing campaigns. Here are five ways they help companies stand out.
Raise brand recognition
Because vanity URLs are customized, they offer a great opportunity for companies to heighten brand recognition. Vanity URLs transform the moment a customer clicks on a link from wholly forgettable to the forging of a deeper connection. Here are the benefits of that interaction:
- Your brand loyalty increases: Studies show that repeatedly exposing people to a brand increases brand loyalty because it makes the brand feel like part of everyday life. If a customer uses a vanity URL, it’s another point of engagement that contributes to solidifying your bond in the long term.
- Your brand is easier to recall: Customers are unlikely to remember the seemingly random string of characters associated with other URL versions. Vanity URLs make it easy for customers to remember your brand—which also means they’re more likely to find your company or refer it to others.
- Your authority goes up: Putting forth that extra effort to design a vanity URL is like adding your signature to an important document or piece of art. It verifies that you’re a company that cares about its reputation and presentation, which causes customers to view you as authorities and thought leaders in your field.
By enhancing brand recognition, vanity URLs can bring your marketing campaign closer to success by making it stand out from competitors and deepening the customer-client relationship.
Track user metrics
From a marketing perspective, one of the biggest advantages of vanity URLs is they allow companies to track user metrics. Every time a user clicks, companies gain valuable insights into audience behavior. This business intelligence can help companies improve future campaigns or tweak ongoing ones. (Note: URL redirect services like SiteDetour enable this possibility by helping users design dynamic vanity URLs they can track in real time.)
SiteDetour grants users insight into diverse user metrics such as traffic, location, device used, and the referring domain. It also allows users to personalize campaigns. Users can create multiple vanity URLs and A/B test them to see which performs better over time.
Streamline user experience
Vanity URLs don’t just look nice—they make it considerably easier for users to navigate the digital landscape. Here’s how that works:
- They contain a clear call to action: Vanity URLs can be customized according to the action marketers want a customer to take. For instance, a bookstore running a shopping campaign might send a vanity URL like bookstore.co/shopnow. The link uses keywords that let customers know what to expect when they click.
- They create a cohesive user experience: vanity URLs are much more eye-catching than long, clunky URLs, meaning they’re easy to share across various platforms. Users can be guided from scanning a QR code to a company’s web page, or from a social media site to a web page, without losing contact with a brand’s identity. They’re also much easier to transition from offline to online experiences (and vice versa).
- They’re easily shareable: Many digital forms have character limits. Vanity URLs allow users to share information in a text message or on a social media platform without hampering the user’s experience.
Vanity URLs can act like guideposts in your campaign, nudging users in the right direction while setting clear expectations. They also save customers valuable time, further improving your relationship with them.
Increase trust, credibility, and click rates
Vanity URLs enhance your brand’s credibility and increase user trust. This is a notable advantage compared to short links, which are often used in phishing scams. By embedding your brand name in the link, you verify its validity, which can lead to higher click rates. Indeed, studies show that vanity URLs have a 39% higher click rate than short links or generic URLs.
Promote SEO
Because vanity URLs can embed keywords directly into a web address, they’re easily identifiable by search engines like Google. That means when people conduct a search relevant to your brand or offering, the chances are higher your company will appear in their search results. This can lead to an increase in the organic traffic to your website and boost your website’s SEO ranking.
SiteDetour’s URL redirection service was built specifically for vanity URL use cases. Users can onboard their vanity domains to SiteDetour and have them redirected anywhere. For instance, a company with the vanity URL ex.com can use SiteDetour to redirect website traffic to example.com. Any pages related to that vanity domain can also be redirected. (e.g., ex.com/mkt will redirect to example.com/marketplace.) This simple change can help organizations streamline their brand, enhance the user experience, and improve business outcomes.
To learn more about SiteDetour and how it can boost your online presence, get started today with a demo or a free trial.
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