Print Solutions November 2006
COVER STORY
VARIABLE DATA PRINTING, CONTINUED
String of pURLs
The newest innovation in variable data printing isn’t printing at all
By Rebecca Trela
pURL: n. (pûrl) personalized Uniform Resource Locator, a personalized web page created by a
database
When you get home today, there will be something special waiting for you. It’s colorful, eye-catching and it’s got your name on it. It might promise wealth, happiness or material
possessions, but before you duck out of the office early, consider—it’s probably another generic mail advertisement, and one just like it awaits each
of your neighbors.
For more than a decade, variable data printing has been employed mostly as the
personalized text of mass-mail addressing. Its success is debatable—usually garnering below a 10 percent response rate—but there’s a consensus in the print industry that the technology’s potential has yet to be tapped. How can your direct mail campaign stand out
from the mail stack?
Behold the pURL postcard, one of the newest ideas in VDP. This direct mail piece
displays the web address of a site built just for you—with your name in the URL (www.printsolutionsmag.com/rebeccatrela, for example.)
With a few simple clicks on the site, you indicate what you like and what you
are like, and voila—a personalized html coupon appears.
“Research shows that this is the fastest-growing area in the digital print world,” says Jeff Prettyman, executive vice president and director of marketing at
NextWave Digital Marketing, a division of Wise Business Forms, Alpharetta, Ga.
“I think it will continue to grow in double-digits, and it’ll get more sophisticated.”
Technically, pURLs don’t need to be “printed” on anything, and aren’t part of the VDP world by default. But these web addresses bridge the gap from
print to web. On one hand, pURLs are a cutting-edge marketing idea and offer a
high rate of return at low cost. But they're difficult to sell, many distributors say, because clients are comfortable
with the tangible direct mail campaigns they've always ordered. The sell cycle is long and no one is quite sure what price
the market will bear.
How pURLs Work
A typical pURL site is small, says Prettyman—usually only four (web) pages. The initial screen welcomes the client, and
typically has imagery closely matching the direct mail piece.
“You have to begin with a solid strategy, not the creative,” he continues. “Your target, remember, is to get the email address and permission to communicate
in the future. All email communication must be voluntary on the customer's part.”
Subsequent pages may ask questions of the respondent or give information. After
clicking
“submit,” the customer sees a thank-you page and a confirmation, which may redirect to a
retailer's website. Using if/then logic, the website can reveal a relevant thank-you
page, generate a customized .pdf, and send follow-up emails to prospects and
sales reps.
Most of the pURL-generation software has templating that allows you to follow a
setup wizard, says David Trombino, CEO of Tecdocdigital. Since June,
Tecdocdigital has conducted a handful of pURL campaigns for loyal clients,
using Mindfire and XM-Pie software. After uploading a mail list, the program
will create the personalized URLs and input them as another data field on the
printed material. Most software vendors host the URLs as a service in addition
to the licensing fee.
“This is very sophisticated software. Depending on how much upfront cost you can
put into it, the sites can be very intelligent or very simple,
” he says.
These variably-imaged postcards were part of a trade show self promotion from Tecdocdigital, Hudson, Mass.
As a follow-up, attendees were mailed pURL cards. About 20 percent of them
visited the personalized sites. Tecdocdigital ran a similar campaign for a
Cleveland-based print shop and saw similar results.
“Look for something in the 20 to 30 percent response range,” he says.
“It was a good way for us to get the word out about pURL, because when our
prospective clients showed up, they were already involved in one,
” Trombino says. Tecdocdigital also saved time by calling only interested
prospects.
What Can pURLs Do for You?
The real value of incorporating pURLs for a client is the quantum leap in
information.
“I think the real value of using pURLs is that they take you from one-way
communication to interactive communication. And you're talking to the client in the way they want you to,” Trombino says. With traditional direct mail programs—even ones with fancy variable data—the information flows only from the retailer to the prospect. This makes pURLS
an ideal solution for non-commercial applications as well, such as collecting
information from seminar attendees.
Several database options are available. The pURL programs can be managed by the
distributor or manufacturer partner or imported to a retailer's CRM program through Excel. They can be accessed through password-protected
online sites or measured in traditional hard-copy analytics.
“It’s still a very early technology, and though we’ve presented it to a lot of people, they’re still digesting how to use it. But I think pURLs are about to explode,” Trombino says.
One of the important aspects in a successful pURL campaign is the click-through
rate. The number of prospects who visit the first page might be impressive,
says Trombino, but can you get them to click all the way through? The typical
rate is 25-30 percent, and a 40-50 percent rate is very good.
“Although,” he amends, “a lot of that is how well you’ve targeted the message and how compelling the offer is from the retailer.” Studies by industry groups and the U.S. postal service suggest returns of more
than six times the rate of generic mail campaigns, Prettyman reports.
However, even with tremendous potential, the practice of selling pURL campaigns
is still daunting, some sales reps say.
“Until recently, when we had success with a big mortgage company, we haven’t had a lot of success selling pURL programs a la carte,” says Anthony Abbo, a sales rep at Superior Business Solutions in Kalamazoo,
Mich.
“It’s a weird thing for our clients, because there’s nothing tangible for them and we don’t have a track record. We had to take the risk off them and alleviate all of the
setup costs.
”
“It’s hard to put a price on the pURL,” Trombino agrees. The collective wisdom is to sell based on returns, not price
per pURL, which is less important to the customer's long-term sales. Using analytics, Trombino says, it’s best to explain to the client how you can help them lower the cost of
acquiring customers and boost their ROI, and how they can monitor those numbers
very simply on a password-protected website.
“It’s amazing how many people don’t know what their response number or conversion rate is,” he says.
Another suggestion, says Prettyman, is to posit a turnkey solution of all types
of digitally-affiliated marketing. Convince the client that data collected from
multiple media are reliable and can be used for future campaigns.
But to stay competitive in the print industry, firms must move forward with the
cutting edge, Abbo says. Superior hopes to create good results with its initial
campaign with the mortgage company, so that it can show future clients its
success in pURL campaigns.
“We’re really looking to leverage our success and establish some standards and
documentation,
” he emphasizes. “I believe this is going to be the future and we need to get good at it.”
Rebecca Trela is assistant editor at Print Solutions magazine. Email comments to rtrela@PSDA.org.
