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Personalized URLs (PURLs) provide a terrific method to join traditional direct mail campaigns with online marketing campaigns. PURLs provide each prospect with a unique web address such as yourname.mycampaign.com. By driving direct mail recipients to personalized web pages and microsites, PURLs provide an unparalleled ability to effectively measure the response of direct mail campaigns with a cross-media campaign.

Consider the following:

• According to the DMA, 42% of direct mail respondents PREFER to respond ONLINE.
• 25% of direct mail recipients will ONLY respond online. These people won’t call or visit in person.

By utilizing PURLs, your direct mail campaigns will instantly appeal to this “online” demographic. PURL response rates are 3-5 times higher than traditional direct mail response. As Dale Carnegie puts it, “A person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” People can’t resist visiting a web page with their name or business name in the URL.

PURLs also provide advanced reporting and automation tools. Not only can you identify each and every person that visited their PURL site (and capture all form responses from that site), but you can also trigger e-mail contacts based on their activity on the site. Combine this type of automation with an intelligent mail barcode and you can invite a prospect by e-mail to visit their PURL microsite one day after they receive the mail piece. Get twice the bang for your marketing dollar.