The amazing growth of Instagram in undeniable. Soon the popular photo-sharing network will have over 800 million active users. That’s a lot. A whole lot. To me, the fact that you cannot post links directly in the captions is a blessing and a curse. This functionality yielded the almighty, link in bio caption. Love it or hate it, it’s protecting the users from marketers ruining the platform. So, what do you do.? Link in bio it is.
Before every time one of us, a dreaded marketer, wanted to point you where to consume more content we would have to play the link in bio hustle game. Post the caption, change the bio profile link and be on our way. But what happens as the Instagram platform matures and your photos turn into evergreen content? Nothing.
As your posts are consumed your links no longer represent the user path you wish them to take. This yields a disconnect hinders the user experience and breaks the brand — which sucks for you. Until now…
End The Link In Bio Hustle with Campsite
Campsite.bio is a free tool where you can set up one page to hold anywhere from one to four links to your content with brief Calls To Actions (plus links to your social media accounts.)
Campsite sets up in literally minutes and all it takes is an Instagram account. This system does what it purports to do and then some. For starters, the site is fully responsive, and since 99.9% of all Instagram’s traffic is from mobile devices the responsiveness goes without saying.
From a simple setting screen you are able to set the various links you wish to promote on Instagram posts. In these examples, I am using it to promote Trinity Web Media’s two podcasts: The New Marketing Show and The Trinity Web Minute, plus our a link to our website. Each link has a simple call to action and can be toggled on and off with one button.
Just like other link shortening services, Campsite.bio has click analytics built into their system. From a cursory glance, even the remedial of marketers can get an idea how their links and click-through rate (CTR.)
Your page is easily customized to your branded colors and key messaging, and font family. The Avatar is pulled directly from Instagram, so there is no need to worry about setting up any special image sizes. This is nice and really helps the ease of use when no new images or avatars are required to use the system.
What’s The Downside
Of course with anything that is free, there are downsides. The cons pointed out here are 1) you do not control your own page and domain. Some SEOs I know prefer to have a page like so set up on their site for ranking purposes. I get it, and that makes perfect sense, but does not set up initially in minutes. 2) The service is Free (today.) Since this is a free service we have no idea how long the functionality will be around. (Let’s hope at least for a while.)
So far, Campsite has saved me and my time a ton of time not playing the Instagram link in bio hustle game. Time will tell what other feature will be added and supported, but for now if it’s free it’s for me.
While I’ve known Greg for years from our time together in the marketing scene, I’ve only recently had the chance to work with Trinity Web Media on a client project. Not only was the team professional and their work spot on, they were amazingly quick to respond and required very little hand-holding along the way. I chalk that up to their past experience and a deep understanding of best-in-class services.
I have hired Greg and the Trinity team multiple times for work on my own websites, and have also hired them to work on behalf of multiple clients. He is simply a pleasure to work with, in every respect. Smart but without the giant ego of some developers, Trinity Web Media works with his clients to achieve their vision in the best way possible — with careful attention to their interests, and thoughtful recommendations based on his expertise. • Susan Baier – Founding Marketing Strategist – Audience Audit