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3 Ways to Perfect pURL Campaigns

January 2010 By Ethan Boldt, Editor-in-chief, Inside Direct Mail

Personalized URLs appear on more and more mailings, yet often they're misused and ineffective. Ballantine Corp., a direct marketing production company, recently produced a whitepaper tip sheet, 50 Tips for More Effective & Efficient Campaigns, featuring a compilation of ideas from its pool of vendors. Included in the compilation is a section dedicated to pURLs, which are handy tools for boosting response to both one-step and lead generation campaigns. 

Here are three ways that marketers can perfect their usage of pURLs:

1. Register a New Domain
Rather than use an existing domain, make the commitment to register a brand-new domain for a pURL. This allows the marketer to get creative and really brand the campaign.

2. Optimize the Response Form
The pURL's landing page should have an optimized response form, including only the questions that are absolutely necessary for follow-up. If there's information you can get from prospects after they respond, then don't include these questions on the form. The transition from visiting the landing page to hitting the "submit" button should be simple and straightforward for the prospect.

3. Keep It Relevant
Both copy and images on the landing page should be highly relevant for the prospect, carrying through to the customized thank-you page and thank-you e-mails. If you successfully keep the copy and images relevant to the prospect from start to finish, the campaign will be much more effective. Also, avoid including external links on the landing page—they tend to be distractions for the prospect. If it is necessary to include external links, be sure to set them to open in a new window. You never want prospects to navigate away from the landing page that you optimized to encourage response.

Remember, the response data you collect—who visited the pURL and responded, who visited the pURL but did not respond, and who didn't visit—is the reason you do a pURL campaign. Be sure that you use this data by skillfully personalizing your follow-up to each of the different segments.

 


 

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COMMENTS

Most Recent Comments:
Chad - Posted on September 17, 2009
Great points! I would take it a step further for #2. The form fields should pre-populate for the info that you have. In addition with PURLs, you should be able to personalize the content based on the individual. Perhaps have a lsightly different heading based on someone's demographic information etc... etc...