Tiny URL and bitly - in online express emails

Tammy Stott

Hi, so yesterday we sent an email out to families that included a couple of links that we created by using Tiny URL, then we immediately got emails back from families stating that the links were not working. Tiny URL was blocking them from opening the pages. Unfortunately, the page and links work on our end before sending the email, so we have no way of knowing that it will not work once the recipient tries to open the link.

This issue began in May and I reached out to Blackbaud Support at that time and then again yesterday and we are told “sorry” that you need to use a URL shortener like Tiny URL or bitly.

We began using Tiny URL and it seemed ok up until yesterday when we had the issue I mentioned in the first paragraph.

This isn't ok - we send A LOT of emails out weekly and there is no way to tell before the email goes out. Causing us to figure out other ways to get the messages out.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Alex Wong

@Tammy Stott
I don't use ONline Express for sending email, so can't speak to your exact situation, but generally any email sending tool will replace ALL links in the email with a “trackable” link that is the platform's own domain, this “trackable” link allows the tracking of if donor click on the email and which link was clicked on. This trackable link then redirects the donor to the actual URL you put in your email.

In your case, your link is a Tinyurl or bitly which itself is a redirect to the actual page you want donor to go to. THere are browser that doesn't allow multiple redirect due to abuse. So this may be your problem

2nd problem is potentially your TINYURL or BITLY account. If you are using the “Free” tool for url shortening only, you are OK. However, if you are using them for URL shortening AND tracking, which their website will always promote as this is how they make their money, then you have an account with TINYURL and BITLY to pay them for that service. YOu will want to login to your TINYURL or BITLY account to ensure you have paid them, and not owe them money for the plan. If you do have problem with the billing, then the link you generate WILL NOT take donor to the actual webpage. (personal opinion, never use this service)

Question is, why do you need to use TINYURL or BITLY? this is generally useful when you are limited in the message # of characters, which was popular with SMS text message, as a long URL will take up the character count. In an email sending situation, the URL is generally not “directly" shown on the email itself, so how long it is does not matter:

<a href="https://a.super.long.domain.org/a.super.long.path/to.a.super.long.page.name" >Click here to Donate</a>

Only Click here to Donate is shown in the email.