When Justin Ritchie created a group membership program for The Energy Transition Show—a premium, member-supported podcast—the administrative workload seemed manageable. Each institution, from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon to Sierra Club and Google, received a custom portal link to access the show.
Those links needed to be short, branded with The Energy Transition Show’s custom domain, and personalized for each institution. Managing all these links manually meant constant back-and-forth between tools: WordPress for the backend URLs, Bitly for shortening and branding links, and tailoring email templates for delivery.
As the podcast grew to thousands of members across more than 100 institutions, what once felt like a manageable workflow quickly became a burden. Customer support requests poured in—members asking for their access links, institutions requesting renewals, and constant data checks to proactively support members and strengthen engagement.
For a small nonprofit funded entirely by member fees and no advertising revenue to lean on, every minute spent on administrative tasks was a minute not spent on creating content or building community with customers.
Tackling the challenges that come with rapid growth
As Executive Director at XE Media Association, Justin had already turned to AI tools to help manage the team’s rapid expansion, using ChatGPT to help with quick content generation and service connections.
But one workflow still created friction: creating and managing branded short links for each institution. And when the Quadrature Climate Foundation funded institutional memberships for universities across the Global South, the team knew they needed to spin up dozens of new portal links, quickly.
Each link required shortening, branding, customizing, and tracking—and the team had to do all of that while handling day-to-day membership requests. The existing process worked, but it wasn’t sustainable or scalable.
Every so often, I’ll forget what a member’s Bitly short link was. Then I have to stop what I’m doing, log in, search for it, find the right one, and send it. It’s not hard—it’s just constant.”
Seamlessly bringing Bitly and AI workflows together
Everything shifted when Justin discovered the Bitly GPT. Bulk link creation went from a multi-step, multi-tab process to something he could handle in the same place where he wrote content, pulled reports, and supported members.
By bringing Bitly directly into his preferred AI environment, Justin unlocked a more streamlined way to manage hundreds of custom-branded short links. No more switching tabs. No more manually hunting through the Bitly dashboard for an institution’s link.
These AI tools and integrations are super helpful to smaller organizations like us who have more limited staff or resources. Every 10- to 15-minutes saved on routine tasks is so valuable in our business.”
The integration allowed Justin to manage links directly within ChatGPT, where much of his workflow already lived. Now, the integration powers three core parts of XE Media’s operations.
1. Finding existing links instantly
When a group admin emails for their portal link, Justin uses the Bitly GPT to search for the correct branded short link. Even when institution names are abbreviated differently in their internal database, the AI finds them right away.
It saves me so much time and clicking around. I can keep the ChatGPT + Bitly workflow open in a side window and just keep going.”
2. Easily creating branded short links at scale
Using a custom prompt template saved in a text editor, Justin can create new short links with the Energy Transition Show domain—about a dozen times per week—without ever leaving ChatGPT.
The integration allows you to work in one core interface instead of switching between multiple platforms to make it all work.”
3. Pulling performance analytics on demand
Before renewal conversations, Justin can ask ChatGPT to pull click data for specific institutions or entire groups. Recently, when checking on universities supported by Quadrature Climate Foundation funding, a single prompt returned a full list of institutions with click counts.
Doing this without Bitly’s ChatGPT integration would have been too time-consuming to even pull. Now we can easily see which customers have opportunities to engage more deeply and help them maximize their membership benefits.”
Unlocking efficiency that drives impact
While the Bitly GPT adds meaningful time savings each week, the real impact is how it streamlines entire workflows. Justin can now respond faster, switch tasks less, and surface insights that would’ve been too cumbersome to gather manually. The impact shows up in a few key areas:
- Operational efficiency: Less switching between tools, faster access to the right links, and smoother daily workflows.
- Smarter insights: Instant access to click data makes it easy to identify active vs. inactive institutions.
- Better outcomes: Stronger renewal conversations with clients, clearer engagement trends, and more time for mission-focused work.
This integration is irreplaceable now. When renewal time comes and people ask if we need Bitly, this integration makes the case. It saves us so much time, it’s essential.”
The Bitly GPT has turned large-scale link management into a seamless, AI-powered workflow that helps XE Media grow its reach while keeping operations lean and focused. For Justin, that means more time spent supporting members and strengthening the community around the show.
Ready to streamline your workflow with AI? Get started for free and discover how Bitly’s GPT can save you time as you grow your business.
