Personal Touch in the Mailbox: PURLs Drive Variable Data Growth

You might not want to put pearls before swine, but if you want to make the most of variable data printing, PURLs are what you need to put in front of your audience.

The power of personalized URLs (PURLs) is driving an increased interest from marketers in using variable data printing (VDP) technologies for their direct mail campaigns, says Debbie Simpson, president of marketing communications firm Multi-Craft.

VDP technology has been around for years, and equipment manufacturers were knocking on the doors of printers constantly, trying to get them to buy. But printers were reticent, as it wasn’t yet something their customers were looking for, Simpson notes. Gradually, all sides of the equation are coming around to realize the power of variable data, especially when PURLs are used.

“Mailers are realizing that when PURLs are part of an integrated campaign, they will drive new customer acquisition — and that’s what we’re all after,” she says.

Most of the businesses using PURLs are B-to-B, because the technique works very well for lead generation.

“PURLs can help drive data collection, and everything that comes after that can be automated, meaning less handholding and man hours,” Simpson says. She notes that the process can help mailers determine where a prospect might be in the purchase funnel, as well as clean their files of folks who will never buy from them.

One interesting B-to-B campaign from a Multi-Craft client was a “blind” mailing using PURLs: An equipment manufacturer doing a mailing was worried prospects wouldn’t go to the PURLs for fear it would lead them to a hard sell effort. So the company instead sent out the mailing under the name of the magazine whose list it was using, resulting in a successful ROI.

Simpson cautioned that mailers using PURLs should take care not to “junk up” their pieces with too much distracting copy or product images. “Don’t be tempted to use that real estate to deliver all your marketing messages,” she says. “All you want [the recipient] to do is follow the PURL.

Likewise, when they’ve gone to the PURL, don’t bombard prospects with tons of personal questions upfront. Take advantage of the fact that you can tweak the site midcampaign if a particular question seems to be holding people up or causing them to abandon the process.

Donna Salyers’ Fabulous Bridal Boutique and The Madison Event Center, for example, used PURLs in a recent postcard mailing to brides-to-be, and used the brides’ initial responses at the PURLs to drive the next step in the acquisition process.

When a bride arrived at the PURL, she was asked whether she had her dress and/or reception yet. If she had her dress but not a hall booked, she was offered a coupon for discounted open bar at the event center. Those who had already reserved their locations but hadn’t yet purchased gowns were presented with a discount for a veil or gown.

Set a CMS Strategy

THINKING ABOUT SPENDING PRECIOUS BUDGET DOLLARS ON A NEW CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM? Know what your usage patterns are first, says James Latham, CMO of enterprise content management firm Open Text.

“We see deployments struggle when they don’t have a strategy upfront, “ he says.

For example, employing something like the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 platform because of its CMS capabilities may seem attractive — but that could lead to a proliferation of SharePoint sites within enterprises. “And that could lead to the duplication of content, which is the antithesis of good content management.“

No matter what CMS you consider, make sure it will help you get your content onto mobile platforms. Having content that can be provided immediately and in a location-based format (when appropriate) is key to ensuring interaction with customers and staff.

“It’s so valuable for employees to be able to have data pushed to their iPad, iPhone or BlackBerry, rather than having to pull five reports from finance and a ticket report from customer service and the latest sales data from Salesforce.com,“ he says. “It puts your people in a much better position to be effective in their next conversation with a customer.“ — BNV