Quick Tip: How TinyURL.com Can Make Email Copy Look More Friendly
The vast majority of marketing emails have one purpose: Get readers to click a link that takes them to a particular Web page.
This seemingly simple action can pose a problem when the URL (link address) for the Web page is very long – like this one:
http://www.phonyurl.com/things/stuff.adp?ovi=1&mqmap.x=300&mqmap.y=75&mapdata
=%252bKZmeiIh6N%252bIgpXRP3bylMaN0O4z8OOUkZWYe7NRH6ldDN96YFTIUmSh3Q6
The problem arises, because many software applications shorten long lines by adding paragraphs returns. When this happens, a reader clicking on the link is only clicking on part of it, and he will be taken someplace other than where you want him to be.
And when he's sent to the wrong page, he will NOT try to find the right one.
The same thing can happen when a reader copies and pastes a URL into his browser. If it's a very long URL, it's easy for him to miss part of it – and, once again, he will wind up on the wrong page.
Ideally, your client won't burden you with long URLs. But if he does, you have a solution at http://www.tinyurl.com/.
TinyURL.com is a free service that turns long URLs into short ones. You simply copy the long URL and paste it into a window on the TinyURL.com homepage. Click a button and TinyURL.com gives you a much shorter, more manageable URL to use in its place. For example, it turns the unwieldy URL from above into http://tinyurl.com/23calm.
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