If you think that “link branding” possibly has something to do with brand-name sausage links, then this post is for you! No, let us clarify, link branding is not at all related to sausage or any sort of pork products. If you don’t know what link branding is, then this post is most definitely for you!
(Waves goodbye to the portion of the reading audience who was only interested in hearing about delicious pork products.)
Chances are, you’ve seen one of these little links before and didn’t think too much about it. It’s usually a really short web address that isn’t the usual long .com style address. Much of the time, the URL contains a company’s name or an abbreviation of their name. Companies use these handy little links in tweets and on Facebook posts.
The shortened URL associates links with your brand. Whether you’re posting a link to a blog post on your site, a page on your site, or to a page from a third party, you can use these links to associate the content with your specific brand. Anyone with the most basic, entry level knowledge of marketing knows that it’s important to remind people of your brand on a regular basis. These links keep your name in the forefront for clients.
Since branded links will associate your name with whatever you link. The link could be to a great blog post on your website or a third-party news article about a topic your clients are interested in, these links associate your name with quality work. This is a valuable part of the all-around marketing puzzle.
Plenty of sites offer services that shorten links for sites like Twitter where a character limit rules what can be posted. These more generic links are fine for people who aren’t trying to promote a brand, but a branded link has the two-part bonus of being both a snappier link and a marketing tool.
These links have the ingenious added bonus of making it possible to track clicks. Having this information makes it possible to use it for future marketing campaigns. This is gold in the marketing world.
As mentioned before, these links are a great way to save valuable real estate in character limited tweets. You can then craft a message that makes better sense than one featuring 75% URL. When you use a branded link, your utilitarian, shortened address now also features your brand. These nifty little URLs are a win all around.
We’d love to talk to you more about how we use branded links here at FSVA. It’s another one of those great marketing tools that we’ve got in our pockets to grow your overall brand. Contact us today to learn more about this and other innovative marketing tools.