Introducing Campaign Links
Today is a VERY exciting day in the Campaign Refinery universe.
This is phase 1 of 3 planned rollouts for a feature we’ve been waiting for (very impatiently) called Campaign Links.
While our ultimate goal is even more ambitious, this is a very useful place to start that gives you a ton of utility right out of the gate to reduce chances for human error and add scarcity to your offers.
Key Feature #1: Update Links In All Emails At Once
I’m sure you’ve been there before.
Creating an awesome automated follow-up sequence where you’re using the same small set of links in most of your messages.
Pasting it over and over into each and every email.
But what happens if you accidentally typo?
Or worse yet, what if you need to change that URL later?
Previously, this would mean you’d have to dig through each and every message to update and change every single instance of your link in every single message.
Ugh.
No one wants to be doing that kind of tedious work, ever.
So we put together the ability to map your URL to a variable instead, that’s easily accessible inside of your email editor as a drop down that will automatically populate the link for you.
Now, you’ve not only GREATLY reduced your chances of human error… you’ve made it dead simple to update all instances of that link in the future by updating the Campaign Link setting for that variable.
Update the link under Campaign Links once, hit save and BOOM! – everywhere that variable is used is now update to the new link location that you wanted.
Takes less than 2 seconds and you’re all done.
Key Feature #2: Dynamically Change Links In Sequences
Now, as much of a time and error saver, the first feature is… this is the start of the really, really good stuff.
This is the part that got us excited enough to start building it.
When we imagined this feature, we wanted to make something super powerful.
A link engine that could advance the stage of links, and have those stages retroactively apply to emails you’ve already sent out to your prospects and customers.
With the ability to use as many stages as you want, we could think of several obvious use cases. But we’re looking forward to applying this to many more, as well.
Running Evergreen Limited Time Offers
When running a sale or offer that has an expiration date, it helps to redirect to a closed sales page once the offer is over.
This is true for complete broadcasts, as well as evergreen offers on a per contact basis.
Now, when you’re doing a promotion with a broadcast using a hard date it’s easy to use standard redirect plugins to change the page after a set date and time.
However, when doing an evergreen sale that’s harder to do.
Running more sales with a start and end date on a per contact basis, you’re going to generate more sales.
When using a Campaign Link to deploy an evergreen sale, you only need to add a “Cart Closed” stage to your campaign link and then advance that stage when the offer should be closed.
And the best part about all this?
When the stage of your link is updated, all previous emails that were sent will resolve to the new stage.
So no matter if your prospect forwards their email or goes back to an old email… it will resolve to the proper stage based on the timeline of that particular prospect.
This means, real scarcity for your offer.
By having the ability to run real scarcity, you’ll convert more sales and your prospects will know that you follow through with your word.
Managing Webinar Links
Another use case that came to mind was webinars because there tend to be several stages. Made this feature a total no-brainer fit for webinars.
Event Waiting Page
Where attendees are waiting to drop into your presentation.
Live Event Page
Where your presentation actually happens.
Replay Page
A recorded replay of your presentation for those that missed the live (or evergreen version).
Offer Closed
The ‘sorry you’ve missed this’ offer closed page. This can also be a great place to prospects towards a low-ticket tripwire offer instead.
By using a single Campaign Link for all your communication on these stages (live or evergreen), you’re able to make sure that anyone clicking any email you’ve sent is going to the right page at the right time.
Getting more of your audience to the right place in your funnel means more engagement and more conversions.
The Next Phases of Campaign Links
While this gives you an idea of where to get started with where Campaign Links are today, we wanted to help paint a picture of where we are headed with this feature next.
Keep in mind that timelines and features can change, but as it stands today here a few things we’d like to add.
Domain mapping for masked URL’s
Being able to redirect at the time of a click is great, but it would be even better if you could hide the actual page that a prospect is on. This makes it harder for contacts to share open sales pages when they shouldn’t or come back to it later.
iFrames with countdown timers
Using an iframe, we can add a little bit of extra content including countdown timers. By displaying it right at the top or bottom of the page, you can push your call to action and the scarcity of your offer.
Embeddable email countdowns
Before you can create the sale after the click, you have to sell the click itself. Few things help sell the click more than a countdown timer that lets them know when the current stage is going to expire.
We have a handful more ideas written own that we will evaluate as this feature progresses. But we’re really excited about where this feature is going.
In fact, we’ve already deployed Campaign Links and seeing great results right out of the gate. Our latest campaign that used this feature more than doubled the conversions we were originally expecting.
Have a use case or idea you’d like us to consider?
We’d love to hear from you in our Marketing Automation Facebook Group.
