Simple Tracking of Your Online Event Promotions
There is a great online utility that you can use to track your online event promotions. It is called bit.ly and it's FREE! The service was started to shorten very long web addresses. In recent years, the company added link tracking for any link that you want to shorten. You get information well beyond just how many people clicked on your link. It includes geographic tracking and link sharing information.
Sign Up for a bit.ly Account – It’s FREE!
Make sure that you sign up for a free bit.ly account. Having your own account makes it easier to organize numerous links. Each offer you have for your event should be tracked individually. How else are you going to know which offer worked best?
There are also a number of additional features beyond shortening long web addresses and link tracking. The short links that Bit.ly provides you are usually formatted as follows - bit.ly/fM7kYX. The previous bit.ly link might not be the easiest to remember. so the service allows you to customize the name of the link after the forward slash /. That allows you to change "bit.ly/fM7kYX" to "bit.ly/EPS_Success_Stories." Bit.ly also provides you with conversation data where you can see how each link is “Liked” or “Shared” in Facebook and Tweeted on Twitter.
Direct Response & Simple Split Testing
With some of Bit.ly’s more advance features, you can get ambitious and track the effectiveness of individual advertisements or offers. If you want to go full tilt direct response, you can split test individual ads simultaneously using unique bit.ly links. There are numerous possibilities. The service is also a great way to evaluate your social media efforts. Make sure you're using it in tandem with your Facebook and Twitter campaigns. You might want to consider testing various "Buy Discounted Ticket Offers" with a bit.ly link.
Currently, I’m using bit.ly to track a email marketing campaigns for a number of clients. Below is a screen capture of the Bit.ly dashboard for an email I sent out yesterday. The bit.ly data, combined with Google Analytics allows me to show the client trackable online results. In this particular case, one simple 40 word email (to a qualified list) drove more traffic to an event web site than all the local media outlets combined. It's hard to argue with data driven results!
When it comes to your event marketing and promotion the importance of tracking advertising effectiveness cannot be neglected. Far too many event organizers and promoters foolishly waste money on ineffective advertising. The ignorance is so blissful, that most event organizers could never tell you which form of advertising brings a return on investment. When you use a service like Bit.ly, you can make informed decisions regarding your online and offline promotional efforts.
Make sure that you sign up for a free bit.ly account. Having your own account makes it easier to organize numerous links. Each offer you have for your event should be tracked individually. How else are you going to know which offer worked best?
There are also a number of additional features beyond shortening long web addresses and link tracking. The short links that Bit.ly provides you are usually formatted as follows - bit.ly/fM7kYX. The previous bit.ly link might not be the easiest to remember. so the service allows you to customize the name of the link after the forward slash /. That allows you to change "bit.ly/fM7kYX" to "bit.ly/EPS_Success_Stories." Bit.ly also provides you with conversation data where you can see how each link is “Liked” or “Shared” in Facebook and Tweeted on Twitter.
Direct Response & Simple Split Testing
With some of Bit.ly’s more advance features, you can get ambitious and track the effectiveness of individual advertisements or offers. If you want to go full tilt direct response, you can split test individual ads simultaneously using unique bit.ly links. There are numerous possibilities. The service is also a great way to evaluate your social media efforts. Make sure you're using it in tandem with your Facebook and Twitter campaigns. You might want to consider testing various "Buy Discounted Ticket Offers" with a bit.ly link.
Currently, I’m using bit.ly to track a email marketing campaigns for a number of clients. Below is a screen capture of the Bit.ly dashboard for an email I sent out yesterday. The bit.ly data, combined with Google Analytics allows me to show the client trackable online results. In this particular case, one simple 40 word email (to a qualified list) drove more traffic to an event web site than all the local media outlets combined. It's hard to argue with data driven results!
When it comes to your event marketing and promotion the importance of tracking advertising effectiveness cannot be neglected. Far too many event organizers and promoters foolishly waste money on ineffective advertising. The ignorance is so blissful, that most event organizers could never tell you which form of advertising brings a return on investment. When you use a service like Bit.ly, you can make informed decisions regarding your online and offline promotional efforts.
Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:
- Simple Event Advertising Tracking with Google Analytics
- Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
- An Important Event Web Site Statistic for Promoters and Event Planners
- Did You Buy a Snickers Bar Yet?
- Hold Your Event Marketing Accountable!
- Web User Traffic Trends to Your Event Web Site
- The Event Promotion System
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