Personalized URL's from Duke Printing in Cleveland, Ohio

What is a personalized URL?
How can I best present a personalized URL to my customers and prospects?
How is the website personalized?
Can’t I just refer customers and prospects to my company website?
Can I use my company’s website as my PURL domain?
Why is personalization with a PURL so effective?
What type of response rates can I expect from a personalized URL?
What else can a PURL do for me?
Is a PURL cost-effective?
What other ways do I benefit from using a personalized URL?
Do I need to design my direct mail promotion differently for a PURL?
Do I need to have any special knowledge or expertise to conduct a PURL campaign?
Are there different types of PURLs?
Can I conduct surveys using a PURL?
So I don’t need to use business reply cards or toll free numbers any longer?
Is the dashboard difficult to learn?
How can I follow up from leads generated from a PURL campaign?

What is a personalized URL?

A personalized URL derives its name from the fact that the name of the individual you are trying to reach through your direct mail marketing efforts actually appears in the web address (URL) linking the individual to their personal website. The personalized URL is printed prominently on a postcard—or within an email—and typically contains the individual’s first and last name and special domain obtained by your marketing service provider (MSP). When the recipient of the direct mail piece enters their URL into the internet browser they are taken directly to their “very own” website where they are greeted by name. A typical personalized URL will look something like this:

www.BillGates/computers.com

How can I best present a personalized URL to my customers and prospects?

A personalized URL typically features one to one personalized marketing—usually in the form of a postcard—to introduce the offer to recipients and encourage them to visit their personal website. Once they arrive at their website, you are able to continue communicating with the individual on a personal level and capture valuable information that will help you further your marketing objectives.

How is the website personalized?

The website is personalized to the individual in a number of ways. For instance, the visitor is welcomed by name. Contact information can be automatically displayed for your visitor to verify or update and a thank you page can also be personalized with their name. Even survey questions can be customized for one segment of your audience or another. In some cases, a preference expressed by an individual while on an earlier page of the website can be “pulled forward” and confirmed on the “thank you” page. These are called “rules-based” occurrences. A follow up email can be sent to the individual immediately upon completing and exiting their PURL. The whole idea of a PURL is to create a truly meaningful experience using the preferred medium (the Internet) and to personalize the communication accelerating the relationship in the process.

Can’t I just refer customers and prospects to my company website?

By sending recipients of your direct mail to your corporate website, you run the risk of loosing them to other sites. Think about your own experiences on the web. How often have you begun your Internet experience choosing to Google a website and found a competitor instead. Your objective with a PURL is single-purpose; get your customer or prospect to their personal website so that you can meet your marketing objective.

You could actually loose the focus of your one to one direct mail communication that you worked so hard to develop. Most corporate websites are vast and can be impersonal, before you know it, the user could get lost in the details or worse yet link out of your site never to be heard from again. A PURL minimizes the opportunity for recipients to inadvertently get lost in the Internet maze. A well constructed URL and strong creative will keep the user comfortable and confident in the direction you are taking them, and once on their personal website there is nothing distracting them from the mission you have in mind.

Can I use my company’s website as my PURL domain?

Using your company website within the URL is generally discouraged for a PURL. The campaign web address should be a unique URL, so that it can be configured to “point to” or “resolve to” the server that is hosting the individual’s website. Depending on the size of your PURL campaign as few as 500 or as many as 100,000, plus personal websites may require hosting.

Why is personalization with a PURL so effective?

By addressing your customer or prospect through the mail or online in a highly personal manner, you are essentially telling that individual—in the sincerest way possible—that you value your relationship with them. That can be a major factor in helping your business stand apart from the rest of the competition. You can tailor your message as much as necessary to generate the type of response you are looking for from your PURL. A PURL is a marketing tool which lets you focus your message and, at the same time, learn more about the needs of your current and prospective customers.

What type of response rates can I expect from a personalized URL?

The response rate from a PURL campaign will most certainly be higher than a static mailing. Although a one to one marketing campaign will get you 2 to 5x the response rate of a static mailing, a PURL will get you that and then some. Case studies usually point to an additional 3 to 5x marketing lift from a PURL. These studies clearly document the tendency of people to respond with greater frequency to a communication with their name in it. They also, generally, place more legitimacy to the message you are trying to convey as well. When used along with a personalized direct mail campaign, PURLs are a great way to gather customers’ perceptions and verify contact information.

What else can a PURL do for me?

Personalized URLs allow you to reach out and personally touch your current and prospective clients; this builds brand identity and customer loyalty. A personalized URL makes people feel like VIPs, something which an impersonal landing page cannot offer. You can also use audio and other tools to create an even stronger bond with your clientele and speak directly to their other senses. These features are typically not part of a standard PURL, but can be “programmed in” to further enhance your message. DUKE retains a full-time web programmer and creative director on staff to assist in developing and executing any level of PURL required.

Is a PURL cost-effective?

Absolutely, but like any marketing initiative, to be fair, you will need to judge your success based on your overall return on investment (ROI). Your ROI evaluation must assess your total spend to the dollar value of new business converted. When looking at any new technology, your initial point of entry may appear higher, but that is only because you are comparing the cost experience to conventional wisdom. The only way to take advantage of new technology is to make a serious effort to intelligently evaluate the “risk, reward.”

Before deciding on a marketing services provider (MSP) that offers PURL technology you should definitely do some investigation. In addition to being expert in creating, developing, executing and managing a PURL, your provider should have expertise in one to one marketing to assure that your personalization and customization efforts are successful. Your commitment to the process of one to one marketing using personalized direct marketing and PURLs—along with working side-by-side with a proven marketing service provider—will yield tremendous opportunities for your marketing.

What other ways do I benefit from using a personalized URL?

The advantages from a PURL when used appropriately can be almost endless. A PURL provides you the benefits of two powerful media—direct mail and the Internet—all wrapped into one. Working in sync, these mediums will improve your direct mail response rates, help you project your message in the most relevant terms and provide your clients with a preferred channel for response.

Do I need to design my direct mail promotion differently for a PURL?

Once you create a postcard or other direct mail piece in support of your PURL campaign—with all its working elements and design features—a similar “look and feel” can be projected to the web. Creating familiarity “medium-to-medium” is essential to the success of your campaign. Capturing a similar “look and feel” from print to online will assure that your customer or prospect feels comfortable and confident with the experience. Your MSP web developer will know how to seamlessly carry the experience of your direct mail to the website using templates and custom programming, if necessary.

Do I need to have any special knowledge or expertise to conduct a PURL campaign?

Not particularly. But there are a few things to be aware of. Your marketing service provider should possess all of the necessary skills and knowledge to help you plan, develop, execute and manage your campaign. There are certain design techniques and “rules of thumb” that are different than conventional marketing. Designing a personal website to match your creative postcard, however, will most likely require the expertise of a web developer knowledgeable in PURL technology and one to one marketing. It will take a seasoned PURL professional to capture a similar “look and feel” from print to web expression. Our marketing knowledge can be helpful in constructing appropriate text for your PURL web pages and developing survey questions that provide you with useful outcomes to advance your marketing objectives.

Are there different types of PURLs?

There are a number of variations or formats for a PURL. The most common allows you to survey your market and verify contact information. A second type of PURL can be used to measure response rates to various types of advertisements. A third type of PURL can be constructed primarily as a “landing page” to measure visitations or channel responses through another web portal. There are almost as many variations of a PURL as there are approaches to your marketing. Each one can be unique unto itself or as straightforward as you desire. In any case, the approach can be customized to meet your specific marketing objectives.

Can I conduct surveys using a PURL?

If your aim is to conduct a short questionnaire then the answer is a resounding yes. Generally, the number of questions used should be kept to 3 to 7 to assure that you keep the attention of your visitors. Our PURL technology will allow for multiple response, free field text response and close-ended toggle response type questions. The software also can require that a question be answered before moving on to the page. All responses are tabulated and can be provided in a report.

So I don’t need to use business reply cards or toll free numbers any longer?

Ah, not so fast. As you adopt PURL technology, it may still be essential for you to provide your audience with the courtesy of responding in a way they feel most comfortable. Be careful not to shoot yourself in the foot. Always provide the user their most preferred means of response. For some that may be a toll free number, fax number or Business Reply Card (BRC). Over time, however, you’ll be able to gauge your audience’s better and rely more heavily on online response.

Is the dashboard difficult to learn?

Watch the results of your marketing campaign in real time. You’ll be amazed at the depth of information and flexibility our technology provides you. Using the dashboard, you can literally watch your campaign unfold in front of your very eyes, make adjustments on the fly or consult with your marketing service provider on response trends.

Access to your dashboard is easy and secure. Navigating is as user friendly as it gets. There is no special training required. All visits and online activities are tracked. This robust information-based system provides you and others on your staff the ability to manage all of your campaigns. Reports to help “fine tune” your marketing, business graphs, and the downloading of your files are all included. Data can also be automatically delivered via FTP.

How can I follow up from leads generated from a PURL campaign?

Once a visitor exits their personalized website an email will be triggered automatically notifying you fo the need to follow up. Your email message can include stats about your visitor’s web experience, i.e.—response to a particular question or preference.

The email can also be sent via PDA/cell phone to the person in your organization most responsible for following up on the lead. The information reported will include all essential contact information along with how the contact responded online. A quick, intelligent follow up can be executed from virtually anywhere.