Let’s say your name is Betty Jones and you own a Pet Store called Pet Paradise in Henderson, Nevada. You receive a postcard in the mail from one of your vendors about a new inventory control software program called “Pet Store Magic 2.0” they claim will cut your costs by 30%, saving you thousands of dollars a year.

Ask yourself - which message would likely make you visit the product website?:
1) A headline that reads “How To Save 30% On Your Pet Store Operating Costs Guaranteed” and the call-to-action is for her to go to a website called
CutPetStoreCosts.com

-or-

2) A headline that reads “How Betty Jones Can Save 30% On Pet Paradise’s Operating Costs Guaranteed” and the call-to-action says “Betty, let us show you specifically how we can cut the costs of Pet Paradise at a special website we made just for you at: Betty.CutPetStoreCosts.com

I think you’ll agree that #2 is much more compelling. Why? Because it drives curiosity. Betty thinks that you created a website just for her and her business.

So What Is a Personalized URL (PURL)?

Personalized URL’s are a way to personalize web pages to specific customers and prospects based on data from your database. The name of the customer is inserted into the front of the URL. When the person enters their personalized URL into their web browser, the page they see is customized to them, based on information from your database.
PURLs have the unique ability to take an inexpensive direct mail media like postcards (where the space is limited) and DRIVE your customers to the web, where the space is unlimited and virtually free.

Now let’s think about the POWER of this for a moment…

In the example, we inserted “Betty Jones” and “Pet Paradise” into the headline to customize it. That’s only the beginning…

Say our database contained this data about Betty:
- Betty’s year-to-date purchases are $23,491

Here’s how we might use this data to our advantage:

When Betty goes to view her own personal URL, she sees the sales letter about the Pet Store Magic 2.0 software. At the end, there’s a special offer that says:

“Betty, so far this year you’ve purchased $23,491 worth of products from us. It’s clear that you’re a loyal customer, and we want to show you how much we appreciate your business. So, when you purchase Pet Store Magic 2.0 today, your YTD purchases will exceed $25,000, automatically enrolling you into our “Diamond Discount Club!” As a Diamond Discount Member, you will receive….etc, etc.”

Ok, let’s say we also know this about Betty:

Betty has purchased hamster cages, but she’s never purchased anything from our line of custom line of “Snootie Pooches” dog jackets. Here’s how we could incorporate this data into our web page: “Betty, as an added bonus, when you purchase the Pet Store Magic 2.0 today, we’ll send you a complete ‘Snootie Pooches’ point-of-purchase display filled with over $500 in retail merchandise FREE! This is one of our best-selling lines, and we’re sure that your clients at Pet Paradise will go BONKERS over them…putting $500 of cool cash in your pocket…”

FINALLY a Better Way to Split-Test and Track Direct Mail

In the past, direct mail has been a little clunky to split-test and track response. With PURLs, it’s easy. Shortly after mailing, it’s easy to look at the PURL software “dashboard” and see how many of your recipients have entered their personalized URL into their browser in response to your mailing. Setting up a simple A/B split test with postcard designs is a breeze.

For instance, you would set it up so 1000 prospects receive postcard design A, and 1000 get design B. If you discover design A is the winner, you can then create a new design “C” to see if you beat “A”, and so on.

Not Just For Postcards

PURLs can be used in email, too. If you’ve ever used an autoresponder program like Aweber or Constant Contact for email, you’ve probably merged the person’s first name into the salutation, i.e. “Dear Betty”. PURLs take this to a whole new level.

Whatever data you have in your database can be merged into your email. For instance, say you kept track of Betty’s son’s name Zach and his birthday, and you knew he was going to be 11 years old. You could send an email that said something to like “Betty. I see it’s Zach’s birthday coming up on May 19th. Wow … 11 years old. These kids grow like weeds, huh? We’ve made a special video for Zach at Zach.YourGrowingTooFast.com”

You see? Any business could use this strategy. And even if you don’t have tons of data on your clients, you can still create an effective PURL campaign that gets response and makes sales. Have fun with it!

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