Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 Branding is everywhere. From billboards to slogans, logos, and digital advertising, there is no shortage of marketing tools a business can use when deciding to cultivate their customer experience. Branding ultimately boils down to how your customers perceive you and this can change based on the series of experiences your customer has interacting with your brand. With all the tangible branded items we see in our everyday life, why not brand your links? Branded links are shortened URLS that are used to help people associate your brand with online content. A link can be more than a series of numbers and letters leading you to an obscure place on the internet, they can become a critical tool that helps to build trust, brand recognition and awareness. If you’re looking for a way to grow your brand online and keep your name at the forefront of people’s minds as they scour the internet, look no further than branded links. The holiday season provides ample opportunities to showcase your brand and we can’t think of a better way to treat your business with a feature that truly gets the job done. 1. Branded Links Help With Click-Throughs Digital marketers love their click-throughs. This vital marketing tool can help boost engagement, clicks, and draw awareness to new products and services. Get creative with your domain – Some of the most memorable brands in the world have signature branded links that customers can immediately tie to their business and products. They are versatile in that they can be used in both online and offline worlds. Bitly uses bitly.is, so we can create links like bitly.is/allaround. Inform your customers on where you are taking them- A great call-to-action can help drive clicks towards your website, a dedicated page, product, or service, and when you couple that with a branded link that has a custom back half – you’re putting your strongest foot forward in making an impact with your audience. Custom back halves not only help your audience to know where they are being directed. For example: Nonprofits can experiment with “/donate” or “/volunteers,” a finance company could try “/invest” or “/banking,” or healthcare could use “/health101” or “/insurancepolicies.” 2. Promote Engagement Around a Product or Service Are you looking to promote your new Halloween-themed products? Maybe you plan to roll out dedicated content to celebrate the upcoming holiday season. In a sea of content and releases, branded links can bring your business to the center spotlight. You can customize your links to promote a product or service which you can use for dedicated landing pages or websites to strengthen your messaging. For example if you’re a beverage company who has a new line of drinks out you can use a domain like “beveragesforyou.com/coldones”. Bitly also offers the option to customize your back half which can promote engagement and awareness around a new product which would look like “yourwebsite.com/newbeverageline”. 3. Branded Links Can Improve UX Nothing drives engagement like your user experience. The internet can be a scary place and for customers trying to navigate the complex world of E-commerce websites and online purchases, safety is everything. Using branded links can help to build consumer trust and confidence by readily identifying yourself to the customer with every link they click on. When your customers have confidence in your business this can help improve the ROI by driving more clicks which can improve engagement. For data-driven marketers looking to use these metrics to measure the effectiveness of a campaign, they have the ability to track the engagement of links through the Bitly dashboard. 4. Boost Credibility With Branded Links In the vast world of business, how customers view your brand can directly affect their purchasing decisions or their ability to refer your product or services to other people. If you have URLs that aren’t branded and look suspicious it can affect your brand reputation and credibility online. Having a branded link can help users recognize your brand instead of worrying what could be behind the bit.ly link and can help increase your internet security and make your URL trustworthy to visitors. Bitly has worked overtime to ensure your links are safe and reliable. Each link that you create using Bitly is encrypted with HTTPS to maximize protection against eavesdropping or tampering by third parties, keeping your content safe from the bad guys. 5. Increase Your Visibility In The Market Whether you’re an influencer, small business owner, or entrepreneur, we can all agree that there are very few markets that aren’t clamoring for visibility. The market is crowded and what separates your brand from the next can be small and subtle details that can provide a wealth of opportunities from products to marketing. If you’re an influencer with multiple partnerships you can use branded links to direct traffic towards specific pages without losing the engagement on your website. Branding your links ensures that your brand is represented across multiple channels whether it’s on social media, a QR Code or your website. If you’re a small business or larger organization you can also use branded links to differentiate various campaigns or improve communications between your employees. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on The Bitly Blog and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Desiree JohnsonView full profile ›More by this author:5 Campaign Planning Fails That Give Us GoosebumpsHow to Run a Successful Social Media Campaign10 QR Codes Facts That Will Give You The Chills