Using BL.INK Links for the Greater Good

Do you value building community and making the world a better place? Whether you have employee volunteer opportunities or whether your entire company was created to support a worthy cause, the work you’re doing in the world is important.

The more people who join your cause, the greater the impact you’ll have. This means part of your internal and external communication strategy should include bringing awareness to the charitable efforts your company supports.

It’s not enough to do good. You also have to talk about it.

Research shows that it’s not enough to do good quietly behind the scenes. While your efforts may be authentic acts of generosity, it’s important that consumers, your community, and your employees know about them.

Customers want visibility into whether brands are being good corporate citizens. According to Conscious Company Media, 73% of consumers would switch brands if a different brand of similar quality supported a good cause. Similarly, the 2017 Cone Communications CSR Study reports that 87% will purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about, and 76% will refuse to purchase a company’s products or services upon learning it supported an issue contrary to their beliefs.

Corporate philanthropy impacts your internal operations, too. Employees want to know that their role is supporting a larger purpose. 88% of Millennials feel their job is more fulfilling when they have the opportunity to have a positive impact. Conscious Company Media reports that sound corporate responsibility reduces the turnover rate by 25-50%. Employees who find meaning in their work report being 2.8 times more likely to stay with their organizations and are 2.2 times more satisfied with their jobs—and 88% of Millennials feel their job is more fulfilling when they have the opportunity to make a positive impact.

With potentially high ROI from both internal employees and external customers, sharing your philanthropic efforts should become part of your overall business strategy.

Using a URL that conveys your cause is a key piece of marketing your social impact work. Whether you’re managing an ongoing corporate social responsibility program, running a cause-based marketing campaign, or promoting an employee volunteer initiative, the right BL.INK link gives your mission a home that’s easy to find, easy to remember, and easy to share. In fact, two of the domain extensions you can choose with BL.INK were designed just for that purpose.

Use .charity or .gives to bring awareness to your cause

BL.INK branded links are a smart way to share your cause and invite participation. For example, State Farm uses statefarm.gives as a home for its social impact programs. It’s tied to their brand and offers a strong standalone presence from which they can promote their community programs and volunteerism. The URL is easy to remember and share through word of mouth, print, or online channels.

Another example is a group of female startup founders who formed foundersfightcancer.charity to help fight breast cancer. Its URL conveys both the name of the organization and the reason it exists.

No matter what type of company you have, using .gives or .charity in your domain name helps you connect people with a cause you care about. Here’s why these domains are so effective:

Easy to read, easy to say, easy to measure. Rather than long URLs or URLs with random characters, these help people understand your mission at a glance. And it’s simple to measure click-throughs and other engagement metrics on the BL.INK platform.
Shown to drive more clicks. Research indicates that people are more likely to click on links that use real words to describe the destination page.
Made to help spread the word. Because they’re easy to say via word of mouth, radio, or other audio sources, it’s easier to spread the word with short links that use real words. Plus, BL.INK short links work well on printed material and social media where every character counts.

Whether you’re just starting these initiatives or marketing long-standing programs, a BL.INK URL that incorporates .charity or .gives is a simple yet effective way to spread the word and make a bigger impact.

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Sources:

2017 Cone Communications CSR Study

Conscious Company Media Infographic: The Business Case for Going Conscious

Conscious Company Media Infographic: Sources for “Why Become a Conscious Company?”