Take Direct Marketing to the Next Level with Personalized Url’s (PURLs)
In today’s increasingly web centric world, it is crucial to maintain an online presence. It is equally important to make sure that your website connects in a meaningful way with your target market/s. A personalized URL, also known as a PURL, gives your customers and prospects a feeling of importance, enabling you to maintain current relationships and build new ones in current and new markets. It also allows you to tailor your landing page directly to their interests; increasing the amount of time they spend on the page and therefore the likelihood of buying. A common example of a PURL is a web page with an URL such as www.cofknows.com/Michael_Jones.asp in which “Michael Jones” is a recipient who receives a direct-mailer or email message that encourages him to visit the web page to learn more about its new cross-channel marketing capabilities. For each recipient on the list, the web address is unique to the recipient, as is the content of a web page. PURL techniques are similar to those used in variable-data printing, through the use of variable fields and pages that are linked to a database that contains information about each potential visitor. Often, the two are used hand in hand.
Utilizing cross media strategies, such as PURLs, engages your audience in your message, which increases response rates as compared to traditional direct-mail and email campaigns. If a visitor is asked to answer a few questions or provide information when he or she visits the PURL web page, the answers provided can then be immediately used to determine which secondary pages the visitor is directed to or what specific information is included on secondary pages. A PURL campaign also allows for a very detailed level of tracking, which can provide the host organization with better information with which to target their prospects or members. For example, if a PURL campaign microsite contains a landing page, two secondary pages, and a final page at which the visitor purchases a product, joins an organization, etc., the host organization can track which visitors left after the landing page and which visitors continued to the third page but left without completing a transaction. The latter group could be considered a stronger group of leads than the former, and the organization could market to each group accordingly.
