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PURLs: Now a Word of Caution
April 30, 2008

I’ve talked a lot in this column about the benefits of applications like personalized URLs. In my last post, I specifically encouraged readers to look into them for their own marketing. Now it’s time for a word of caution.

Like any marketing tool, PURLs don’t generate response. Recipients won’t log into a PURL just to log in. Too many marketers make the mistake of thinking that the novelty of receiving a PURL, in itself, will motivate recipients to action. (They make the same mistake with other full-color 1:1 printing applications.) Consequently, they are surprised and disappointed with the results.

Just like any other marketing program, in order for PURLs to pay dividends, the creative, the offer, and the hook must all be well matched to the recipient base. In a terrific post on this subject, an analyst for the Print on Demand Initiative “Why Didn’t My Campaign Work? An Analysis,” at the PODi blog) walked through a dismally failed PURL campaign. 

The analyst wrote:

Upon reviewing the campaign, it became clear that it failed because the creator did not follow the basic rules of direct marketing. The company fell into the age old trap – if I put someone’s name in bold letters on a direct mail piece and drive them to personalized landing page, suddenly the response will go through the roof. It has never been like that and never will be.

In the end, the campaign looked good, but…

• The offer was buried. There was nothing to motivate the recipients to visit the PURL’s landing page.
• The value proposition was generic: “save time and money.” There was nothing to separate the marketer’s value proposition from hundreds of others recipients are bombarded with on a daily basis.
• The message was industry-generic. It could have been sent to any type of business in any industry. If you don’t demonstrate knowledge of the recipient’s marketplace, why should they spend money with you?
• The marketer had a great testimonial, but it was restricted to the landing page (which no one hit). A portion should have been on the mailer itself.
• The landing page was ego-centric, featuring the marketer’s company and logo—not benefits to the customer.

Today’s printing technologies offer tremendous opportunities to develop applications to build your business. But just as a hammer can’t build a house all by itself, neither can these applications.

They still have to be done well.

Have questions? Comments? I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at htollvr@aol.com. For more information on primers for marketers and small businesses on digital, 1:1, and Web-to-print technologies, visit www.digitalprintingreports.com.

Posted by Heidi Tolliver Nigro on April 30, 2008 | Comments (0)