PURLs –The Newest Treasure of the Internet

What may be hotter than Web 2.0? Personalized URLs (PURLs). Although they have been around for several years, they are suddenly exploding and take one-to-one marketing to new heights. Consumers have seen their names on digitally printed newsletters, postcards, letters, and other similar materials. Now, they can have their names on their own Internet page populated with their information and containing items especially designed for them.

PURLs don’t come in gift wrapped boxes. They are generally sent via direct mail or email. In this age of digital printing or mail merge, each recipient can receive an individual PURL in a letter, newsletter, postcard or other printed material. It is also easy to generate dynamic emails with a link to each person’s PURL in the message.

PURLs are rapidly becoming the gems of the Internet because they provide:

1. Higher response rates with better quality leads
2. Lower cost per lead
3. Opportunities to provide customized offers
4. Real-time statistics about consumer behavior
5. Integration with CRM systems
6. Better insights into consumer behavior

The uses of PURLs are limited only by your imagination. They can be used to obtain email addresses, to update or verify consumer information, for surveys, for special offers, to provide customized coupons, as triggers for certain events such as a reminder to renew a subscription, and to provide relevant content. The uses are almost without limit, depending on a company’s creativity and knowledge of its markets.

Here are some examples of PURLs that you might find interesting:

Sample direct mail piece that delivers the PURL http://www.powerpurl.com/images/email_lg2.gif

A magazine subscription offer with audio https://www.expresslandingpage.com/TrackingSystem/AG_938/TMP_1016/VERIFYPAGE.aspx

A b-to-b marketing PURL with an incentive http://powerpurl.l2soft.com/images/webpub.gif

If you have a particularly interesting example of a PURL, you can email the link to me at nwolpin@hotmail.com.

Email Newsletters: Different Strokes for Different Folks

Some of us enjoy receiving email and some of us consider it an annoyance. But regardless of whether or not we like it, email marketing is here to stay. According to a recent benchmark study by Marketing Sherpa (http://www.marketingsherpa.com/), email marketing has the highest ROI of any direct marketing technique.

Email (electronic) newsletters are being used by more and more businesses to keep in touch with their customers and prospects, and there are several types of email newsletters.

Dynamic email newsletters can be customized to the preferences or demographics of each recipient. After opting in for the newsletters, recipients receive email messages that provide a list of topics and allow them to select any or all of those topics that are of interest. Their newsletters are populated with articles about those topics. At any time, the recipients can change their preferences and can unsubscribe to the newsletter.

Non-dynamic email newsletters can be customized but to a lesser extent. You can have different versions for various types of recipients (e.g. clients, prospects, vendors, employees). While each group receives a version designed specifically for it, all group members receive the same articles.

Email versions of print newsletters can be sent via email and/or placed on a website where visitors can view or download it. While this may seem to be merely a duplication of effort, different people prefer different methods of delivery. The same people who read the print version may not read the email version and vice versa.

Mini email newsletters or articles consist of one or possibly two articles which can be informational or promotional. Just as non-dynamic newsletters, you can have more than one version, but each group of recipients gets the same version.

Why should you use email newsletters? Here are some of the benefits:

1. Their costs are lower than those of print newsletters.
2. They provide real-time reporting statistics (delivery, open, clickthrough
and bounce rates).
3. Working with your web monitoring software, they can track conversions.
4. Email newsletters can drive traffic to a website.
5. A library of articles from the newsletter can be made available on the
website.
6. You can easily forward them to friends or colleagues.