Personalised URLs (pURL’s)

To get the most out of the messaging, Tall Bob recommends that a Personalised URL (pURL) is set up. The usage of pURLs would help customers to create message trust with the recipient which generates more clicks and a better ROI. The other benefit of using pURLs would be saving on SMS characters which would eventually save on the message cost.

Please refer to the image below to have a brief understanding of pURLs.

Engagement Links

When customers intend to send content using ‘Engagement Links’, the Tall Bob system defaults to a very short URL.

For example, the URL: http://vc4.co/xxxx, would be the format in which the customer’s content link would be sent to the recipients of the Campaign. The above link can be changed to a pURL if desired. 

As mentioned at the start, the need to have Shortened pURLs is to save on SMS characters. At Tall Bob, “we have an internal limit of 30 characters that cannot be exceeded”. 

If a customer uses the full 30 characters, with the additional code and characters, the message count would be 42 characters, a quarter of the allowed characters.

Opt-out Links

When customers intend to send consent requests in their campaigns using ‘Opt-out Links’, the Tall Bob team would default to a very short URL.

For example, the URL: unsub3.com, would be the format in which your Opt-out link would be sent to the recipients of the Campaign.

The above link can be changed to a pURL if desired. Configuration is the same as for Engagement Links, or, it can be exactly the same as the engagement link.

Configuring Domains

Usage of pURLs would help you to create message trust with the recipient which generates more clicks and a better ROI.

At Tall Bob, the pURLs are configured in two ways:

Tall Bob Managed Domain

Using a Tall Bob Managed Domain would be highly advantageous for the customers as there wouldn’t be a need to use a sub-domain.  Instead, the domain that has been registered will be the domain in the message.

There are two scenarios to consider before using Tall Bob’s managed domain:

Scenario A: Customer would like to use a domain that has been already registered by them

In this case, the question to ask would be - ‘Is the domain being used for other purposes?'

If the answer to the above question is ‘No', then the following steps take place:

1. Tall Bob readily registers the domain into their system. 
2. The Tall Bob team would then provide you with new ‘Name Server' values that will need to be configured by the Customer or the Customer’s IT person, into the 'Domain Registrar System'. 
3. Once the 'Name Servers' is changed, the Tall Bob team configure the pURL in our system.
4. And we are done, the pURL is now ready to use.

Scenario B: Customer would like to get a new domain registered.

In this case, the following steps would take place:

1. A discussion with the Customer’s Account Manager would take place regarding the decision on the domain that would be best to use.
2. Once the decision is made, Tall Bob team would go ahead and register the decided domain.
3. Post domain registration, the Tall Bob team would perform the entire process of configuring the domain into their system.
4. And we are done, the pURL is now ready to use.

BYO Domain

The BYO domain method is one of the strongest methods and most engaging URLs to use. 

In this method, a sub-domain that is similar to the customer’s own Website is used. This process is highly recommended as this ensures the ‘Recipients’ that the message received is not spam which makes it more likely for them to click on the ‘Engagement’ or ‘Opt-out’ Links sent in the campaign. 

Sub Domain Handling

To make the BYO domain method functional, please follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Set up a ‘Sub-Domain' to the ‘Customer’s Existing Domain'. Once this process is done, the created sub-domain would get pointed to the ‘Tall Bob’s Servers' for handling the network traffic.
2. To point traffic to Tall Bob’s servers, access to the DNS Settings of the Customer’s Existing Domain is highly essential. This can be done by the Customer or the Customer’s IT person.
3. A ‘CNAME’ record needs to be set up that points to http://vc4.co  (Eg: sms.example.com CNAME vc4.co ). 
4. Once the changes are made, it is essential to update the Tall Bob team. Our team would then verify if the configuration is correct from the customer’s end.
5. If the verification is successful, the generated sub-domain gets configured within the Tall Bob System.

Additional Scenarios in generating pURLs and How Tall Bob handles them

BYO Domains and SSL / https

Scenario 1: Help - I am seeing errors accessing the links

The error that will be shown on devices affected by the above security implementation will be “SSL Certificate Name Mismatch” or “SSL_CERT_NAME_MISMATCH”. 

• It is noted that certain Customer systems implement additional security restrictions to sub-domains. This occurs after the visitor has landed on the main site. 
• This is because ‘HSTS’ and ‘Content-Security-Policy’ headers sent from web servers can tell devices to only use ‘https’ links.
• To maximise device compatibility Tall Bob has chosen to use ‘http’ links across all the messages.

How Tall Bob handles it:

• To handle the above error, Tall Bob will require an 'SSL Certificate' to be installed in their system.
• This ensures that the Customer and the Tall Bob team have the authorisation to be using the domain.
• Depending on the Customer’s IT policies, the SSL certificate can be acquired in the following ways:
  • The Tall Bob team can acquire an SSL certificate on behalf of the customer. This has by far been the most common option used.
    • Tall Bob uses Amazon WebServices to generate SSL certificates. To acquire an SSL certificate for the customer’s sub-domain, it needs to be verified for permission which would be done with an additional DNS entry.
  • The Customer can provide the Tall Bob team with an SSL certificate for the sub-domain.
    • To provide the Tall Bob team with an SSL certificate, the customer’s IT person will need to create a certificate signing request and register the certificate following the organisation’s internal SSL process.

Common cases that require SSL certificates

• Some Top Level Domains will always require SSL certificates. Domains ending in .app are one of the most common that has been encountered.
• Customers that are using a ‘Shopify’ system on their main webpage would likely need to have an SSL certificate.

Scenario 2: Help - My links have stopped working

For a ‘Tall Bob Managed Domain’:

• The most common problem the Tall Bob team has seen in this situation is that a domain registered by the customer and configured for the Tall Bob team to manage it (changing NameServers) has had a configuration change and the NameServers are no longer being pointed to the Tall Bob’s system. 

How Tall Bob handles it:

To handle this, the Customer should Contact Support to get the NameServer values that need to be set.

For a ‘BYO Domain’:

• The issue that is noted here is that sometimes during IT audit, maintenance, or migration between systems, CNAMEs can get removed from DNS settings.

How Tall Bob handles it:

• To handle situations like this, the Tall Bob team commonly uses MX Toolbox to perform checks on domains. 
• If the customer enters their sub-domain onto this page, they should see the CNAME record pointed at vc4.co.