Domain redirect for direct mail (source) tracking in Analytics?

[VTDesignWorks]

We have a client that would like to do some direct mail marketing and the plan is to use a short/simple domain in the marketing materials, which redirects to the main site domain. By default this would show as a referral traffic source in Analytics, right? So any traffic that came through that redirect would be attributed to "shortdomain.com / referral"? Meaning I wouldn't need to do any sort of customized, advanced tracking set up to track conversions that I've already set up (ecomm and goals) and attribute them to this new source?

Just double checking that I'm not overlooking something.

Thanks!

[Carson-Ward]

You should be able to see the 301 redirect as a referral source, yes. Just keep in mind that it might hurt conversion rate if you're sending users to one domain and redirecting them to another because it feels a little suspicious to some.

[VTDesignWorks]

Thanks for the reply, but I actually have a couple of follow-up questions now:

It depends, some redirects do not pass on the referring domain which is what the analytics tool picks up to determine if it is a referral.

What do you mean by "some redirects"? I would be doing 301s most likely.

As for why I'd rather not use the URL building for tracking parameters - Because no one is going to type those lengthy URLs in. This short domain is going to be in direct mail marketing materials (like postcards)... So it makes sense to have "Visit shortdomain.com", but not http://www.shortdomain.com/?utm_source=Direct Mail&utm_medium=USPS&utm_campaign=Winter Promo

I'm just not certain that a simple 301 redirect on shortdomain.com to primarydomain.com would then show in GA what I explained in the original question.

Perhaps redirecting shortdomain.com to the longer http://www.shortdomain.com/?utm_source=Direct Mail&utm_medium=USPS&utm_campaign=Winter Promo is the solution?

[S_Curtis]

It depends, some redirects do not pass on the referring domain which is what the analytics tool picks up to determine if it is a referral.  I assume you are using Google Analytics by the way you have written the source.  If so I would use GA's tracking parameters to be sure link to documentation on Google.

Another advantage of adding the campaign tracking you is that you can segment visitors by giving different campaign codes.  So you might want to give a different code for direct mails to the different areas of the country, e.g. North East, South East then you could tell which area was more responsive or had biggest bounce rate.

Let me know if you need anything more on this?