Branded short URLs are condensed links that are customized to include a brand’s name or related keywords. Unlike generic short URLs, they promote brand consistency, trust, and higher click-through rates (CTR). These URLs offer a clean and concise way to share content and track clicks, while maintaining brand recognition, making them an invaluable asset in any digital marketer’s toolkit.
To enable a trustworthy and branded experience for end-users, you can use your specific domains to shorten your long links. With Insider One’s URL shortener interface, you can easily serve this experience to SMS receivers.
In this article, you can find answers to the following questions:
Shorten URLs for SMS
In the Design step of your campaign, you can shorten the URL you send in your SMS message. It will help you decrease the character count of your messages, prevent sending your messages in more than one part, and enhance your messaging experience by using your domain to create branded shortened URLs.
To enable this option:
1. Go to the Design step of your SMS campaign.
2. Scroll down to the Short URLs section and check the Enable Short URLs box.
Checking the Enable Short URLs box only affects your message if it includes a link. If your message does not include a link, enabling the Short URL option will not alter it.
To enable the “Exclude https://” option, please contact the Insider One team and request activation.
Once the feature is enabled, you should continue adding the https:// protocol to your links as usual. The system will automatically remove it when processing your links.
Short URL links embedded in messages remain valid for 180 days. After this period, the links become inactive.
Configure DNS settings for shortened URLs
To set up a branded shortened URL with the assistance of the Insider One team, follow the steps below:
Share Your Domain/Subdomain: Share your brand domain/subdomain. Ensure that this domain is new and not currently connected to or redirected to any existing website or services, as the nameservers for this domain will be changed during the process. Please ensure the domain or subdomain you use for the SMS branded URL is SSL-enabled.
Request DNS CNAME Records: Send a request to the Insider One team to generate the CNAME record for this domain/subdomain.
CNAME Record expiration TAT: Once you request a CNAME record, the Insider One team will receive a request and share the CNAME record with you. Make sure that the shared record is added within 24 hours; otherwise, it will expire and cannot be verified.
Confirmation: Once you add the record, please confirm with the Insider One team to verify it.
Configuration: The Insider One team will add the verified URL to your account settings to configure this verified domain/subdomain.
Testing: We highly recommend testing to ensure the shortened URL works as expected.
DNS Setup
See below for the responsibilities of Insider One and Customer for DNS setup.
Option | Description | Insider One Responsibilities | Customer Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|---|
Subdomain Configuration | The customer configures the subdomain/domain (example.useinsider.com) to Insider. In this scenario, Insider One controls and maintains all aspects of CNAME that are required for delivering, rendering, and tracking SMS campaigns, and can deliver the campaign as a managed service. | Complete management of the Domain/subdomain and all DNS records required for the Insider One SMS campaign | Proper and accurate configuration of the subdomain to Insider One |
Use of CNAMEs | The customer creates a subdomain and uses CNAMEs to point to Insider One-specific records. Using this setup, both Insider One and Customer share responsibility for maintaining DNS | Management of DNS records required for the Insider One campaign | Creation and control of the subdomain and creation/management of the CNAME records required for the Insider One campaign |
Required DNS Records
See below for the required DNS record(s).
Record Type | Purpose | Examples of the record/content |
|---|---|---|
CNAME | Provides an alias to another domain name | x1.email.example.com is an alias for x1.email.example.campaign.insider.com |
Configure CNAME records
The following is an example case for the verycoolbusiness.com domain (root domain) and email.verycoolbusiness.com subdomain configured on GoDaddy.
Keep in mind that your own DNS records will differ from the sample DNS records of the example case and that you should adapt the following to your own domain and subdomain.
To configure your DNS records, follow these steps:
Log in to your domain registrar or DNS Host Zone. In this example case, we use GoDaddy panel.
Navigate to the DNS Management section for your root domain. In this example, the root domain is verycoolbusiness.com.
(1)(1).png)
Below is the DNS record for the example Subdomain email.verycoolbusiness.com.Type
Host Name
Value
CNAME
_a2a78d0b862f13d3354a106a3e2bd1ba.email.verycoolbusiness.com.
_483f4c7e24c5deb65b1666cf10c4f0ab.mhbtsbpdnt.acm-validations.aws.
CNAME
email.verycoolbusiness.com
insdr.io
Click the Add New Record button to add the first CNAME record as follows, and click the Save button.
Type: CNAME
Host: _a2a78d0b862f13d3354a106a3e2bd1ba.email
Value: _483f4c7e24c5deb65b1666cf10c4f0ab.mhbtsbpdnt.acm-validations.aws.
TTL: 1/2 Hour(1).png)
Click the Add New Record button to add the second CNAME record, then click the Save button.
Type: CNAME
Host: email
Value: insdr.io.
TTL: 1/2 Hour(1).png)
Once you complete the required changes, please confirm with the Insider One team for further verification and the configuration process.
If you use a branded short URL, your brand name will be visible in the URL, such as brandname.com/srturl. If it is not branded, the URL will appear as a generic link without your brand name, such as insidr.io/srturl.