URLs, MURLs and PURLS -- What's a GURL to do?

If you read direct marketing industry trade pubs on a regular basis, you'll constantly learning about new techniques other organizations are using to increase direct mail response rates and conversion rates. The challenge is to try and intelligently apply those ideas to your own direct mail efforts with the hope of yielding those same successful results.

Before Al Gore created the Internet, direct mail campaigns offered recipients two response channels: Phone and mail. But with the rise of the Web, URLs were added to the response channel mix. The term URL refers to "Uniform Resource Locator" which is the address of a specific Web site on the Internet. Our client KCSM-FM, for example, owns the URL www.kcsm.org. The problem is, when the target visited that page, they were arriving at the organizations front door. There was no one there to greet them, or help them find their way to the desired destination (a donation page, for example).

Then along came MURLs, or Modified URLs. Use the URL, but add an additional destination to the end of the URL so the target lands exactly where you want them to within your web site. An example might be www.kcsm.org/bass. It tied to a fundraising campaign based on the theme around a double bass instrument.
As MURLs started to get longer and longer (think of a URL that's already long to begin with, add a forward slash / nameofcampaign and you get the picture), that led to GURLs or Generalized URLs (thanks to Ethan Boldt of Inside Direct Mail for clarifying this definition).

An example of a GURL might be www.kcsmjazz.com. This is a nice way to create a destination page using many of the elements of the existing brand, but adding a campaign twist (and, since URLs are relatively inexpensive to own, it keeps campaign costs to a minimum).

Over the last few years, PURLs have been gaining a lot of traction with promised response rate increases by as much as 30%. A PURL or Personalized URL is a combination of a MURL and your personal name: www.kcsmjazz.com/carolyngoodman. These dynamic Web landing pages are customized to the recipient, which in turn, can be based on past purchases, buying behavior or other 1:1 communications. The lure of seeing your name in print is apparently, too enticing to resist. Thus the increase in response rates. If you arrive at your page and discover content that you can relate to, it would explain the lift in conversion rates.

We recently launched two different campaigns for two different clients using PURLs and have had some fascinating results.

The first campaign was for B2B client. Using a self-mailer, we reached out to busy professionals (doctors, dentists, etc.) asking them to learn more about a series of insurance products. The landing page offered a click thru to another page which provided more information. Without spending a lot of time and money on content or 1:1 communications on the page itself, we were still able to generate a nearly 1% response rate. A feat unto itself in this highly competitive category.

The second campaign was for our favorite non-profit client, KCSM-FM. By using a postcard to reach past donors and cold prospects, we offered them a personalized T-shirt if they made a donation of $80 or more to the station. The targets name was digitally printed on the billboard panel of the postcard, helping to build the personal nature of the message and the offer. The PURL lured them to the donation page, carefully tying all the messages together. After only 3 1/2 weeks, we achieved a nearly 1% response rate, with 80% click thru -- and the offer doesn't expire until the end of June.

My takeaways?

Personalization, which has always been a good thing in the direct mail business, is leveraged even further with the use of a PURL. And higher response rates and conversion rates for our clients make THIS girl happy.