A couple weeks ago Daniel Burstein reached out to me for a quick interview.  Burstein was doing some research for a blog he was writing on Personalized URLs.  His questions and my answers are below:

Q: When would you recommend marketers use pURLs?
A: PURLs are a great tool for any marketer using email marketing or direct mail.  Historically, the high cost of PURLs would limit the technology to larger companies with the matching budgets.  But today, PURLs have become much more affordable and easier to use.  Now any marketer, no matter the budget or technical ability can give PURLs a try without much risk.

Q: When should they avoid them?
A: If your looking for a magic pill that is going to take a poorly executed campaign and make it great, PURLs are not your answer.  PURLs are like icing on a cake.  If you bake a great tasting cake, the icing will make it taste even better.  But if you bake a cake that tastes like leather, the icing won’t do you much good.  In other words, by putting PURLs on top of a poorly executed campaign, you’ll still end up with poorly executed campaign.  But when PURLs are placed on top of a well-executed campaign, the results can be astounding.  I see to many people that think PURLs are going to be their answer, and they can neglect the basic principals of marketing.

Q: What are the pros and cons?
A: PURLs will increase response and conversion rates by making your campaigns personalized and relevant to your prospects.  PURLs also allow you to track the real-time responses to your campaign efforts and build a closer, more intimate relationship with your prospect/customer.

Despite the fact that PURLs have become much easier to use, there is still a slight learning curve.  Some can pick up the basics in a few minutes, others may require a day.  But regardless, there needs to be a willingness and desire to learn a new technology.

Q: What are some good examples you’ve seen?
A: Here are some great examples: http://www.purlem.com/blog/category/personalized-urls-purls/examples
And our delicious feed is another good resource: http://delicious.com/purlem/example

Q: Anything I should have asked but didn’t?
A: I think we pretty much covered the basics.  Our press page might also be helpful: http://purlem.com/press

—–

You can see the final blog post here:
PURL Jam: 6 ways personalized URLS can help increase the virality of your campaigns 

We know that personalization works, but is it creepy?  This is a conversation that comes up quite often.  Companies want to use personalization in their marketing because they see the case studies and statistics that prove it works.  They want a piece of the cake, but the fear of being creepy holds them back.

The fear of being creepy is absolutely warranted - if you violate people’s expectations, it’s hard to regain the trust.  In this post I would like to argue that personalization in marketing is not creepy, as long as you maintain trust with those that engage with your brand.

Let’s take a look at Netflix.  They recommend tv shows and movies based on what they know about you.  Is this creepy?  Most would agree that it is not, and the reason is that you expected Netflix to provide this service.

Or what about Amazon?  They make product recommendations based on past purchases.  Is this creepy?  Again, most appreciate this service to help make their shopping experience more efficient and enjoyable.

Now what about Personalized URLs?  One visits their Personalized URL to see a webpage that is personalized them.  Is this creepy?  Now this is not as easy of an answer as with Netflix and Amazon.  There is a potential to be creepy, and it is important to realize this potential and take the steps necessary to prevent it.

No matter the medium of personalization, it always comes down to expectations.  Do people expect your website, application, or advertisement to be personalized?  If people dont’t expect personalization, and your provide them with a personalized message, then your creepy!  So going back to the question on Personalized URLs, do people expect the webpage to be personalized?  If the expectation is there, then Personalized URLs would not be considered creepy.  Lets dissect the Personalized URL campaign a little further to come to a logical conclusion.

1. The first step of a Personalized URL campaign typically starts with an email or direct mail piece.  In either case, the recipient expects the piece to be personalized to them.  It is not unusual to receive an email or letter addressed to you.  So far we are meeting expectations, and are not creepy.
2. The second step is to provide the recipient of the email or direct mail with a Personalized URL to learn more.  In most cases the copy is something like:  Hi Joe, to learn more about our service, I have created a website just for you at mysite.com/Joe.Smith
   So now we have upped the level of personalization a little by putting their name into the URL.  Still, the URL is part of the already personalized email or direct mail piece, so we still have not violated expectations.
3. Finally the recipient visits their Personalized URL and is provided with a website that is personalized to them.  When we originally introduced the recipient to the Personalized URL, we told them that the website was going to be personalized to them, so the expectations have already been set.  So far, not creepy.  But what if we personalize the site with information they don’t know how we got from them – Like their shoe size, or the amount of their mortgage,  or their child’s name.  This has the potential of being creepy.

The key to personalization is that the user understands where you’re getting their information from.  Let’s take the child’s name example mentioned before as having the potential for being creepy.  Let’s say that yesterday you visited a new childcare company to receive some inquire about their services.  During your visit your filled out a form with your child’s information.  The next day you receive an email from the childcare company with a Personalized URL.  You visit the Personalized URL, to find a personalized website that says “Hi Sally, we would like to invite you and Jimmy to our story time. We’ll have juice and cookies…”  In this case we personalized the website with the Child’s name –  mom understood where the information came from, and it was expected.  This would be a completely different story if mom was browsing children’s clothing online and was greeted with an ad that said, “Hi Sally, why don’t you purchase this shirt for Jimmy.”  Sally had no idea how this clothing company got Jimmy’s name, and this is creepy!

Before launching your next personalized campaign, just ask yourself if the recipients are going to expect the level of personalization that you are engaging them with.  If there is any potential at all for surprise, if would be a good idea to be upfront with how the data was used, and what is happening behind the scenes to display the data.  Zappos does this well by displaying “Why am I seeing these ads?” under their re-targeted banners.

The truth is that personalization is going to continue to to make larger and large waves in the marketing world.  Providing marketing that is actually relevant and personalized is more efficient for everybody involved.  If you let fear keep you on the sidelines, you will get left behind.

As Hugo Liu of Hunch says – “Personalize is important because life is to short to see a generic website.”

Other helpful resources on personalization:

• SXSW Panel: How to Personalize Without Being Creepy
• How to Personalize Without Being Creepy
• How not to be creepy when it comes to personalized web banners
• How Companies Learn Your Secrets
• Forget Evil, Don’t Be Creepy

I recently had the pleasure of working with the guys at Studiowide Ltd from Liverpool.  When they asked me to be a part of creating their PURL landing page, and sent me their design, I was blown away.  What a creative way to cut through the clutter and provide their prospects with a campaign they will never forget!

Not only is the character’s name, street address, car personalized to the viewer, but the main character in the comic changes depending on the gender of the person visiting the page!

I asked Studiowide to provide some insight on the design process used to create this PURL landing page.  Here is what they wrote back:

Comic Strip Design Process 

Studiowide’s latest project was to devise a design campaign for Warrington based Life Insurance Company, GID.

Our team decided to strategise the brief into an online comic book form and personalise it using the email recipient’s information such as their name.

We had to consider comic scenes that covered a variety of scenarios without making too many assumptions into the background of the person. Following the creation of a storyboard and conversation script, through an initial brainstorming session, Michelle Hird the Graphic Designer for Studiowide then went on to create all of the elements.

The main design objectives were as follows;

1. To plan, develop and design an assortment of characters to play out the scenes of the comic
2. Transform the rough storyboard into clearer and perfected series of hand drawn sketches
3. The sketches were then scanned into Adobe Photoshop and enhanced through the use of lighting and contrast effects
4. Once they were copied and pasted into Adobe Illustrator, it was at this stage the hand drawn images were converted into vector images
5. Firstly, the Pen tool was used to make all images into line drawings
6. A cartoon style colour palette was adopted to create the visual impact we required, then the speech bubbles were the last detail put into place

Once we had the comic book concept complete we placed it into a desk setting, similar to that of comic book panel 2. This was to create an environment for the landing page and to construct a paradox like setting for the email recipients.

PURL Landing Page Comic featuring a Man as the main character

PURL Landing Page Comic featuring a Woman as the main character

At first glance, QR Codes in Emails might seem like an oxymoron.  Why in the world would you want to put a QR Code in your email that would require the recipient to break out their cell phone to scan the computer screen?  Just give them a link for god’s sake!

However, if your email has any chance at all of being printed, this could be a very valuable strategy.

Imagine if you were sending an email that contained an invitation to a special event.  If the invitation is required to enter the event, it is likely that nearly everybody will print out this email.  If you put a Personalized QR Code on this email, the event’s host could scan each QR Code to confirm attendance.  This would allow the event’s organizers to see exactly who actually attended the event.

Or imagine if you have a restaurant and send out a coupon for 20% off your next meal.  You require that the patron brings in the email to receive the discount.  Again, you can have the waiter/waitress scan the Personalized QR Code on the email, so you can track to see exactly who is redeeming the coupon.

These are only a couple of examples.  Other types of emails that Personalized QR Codes could be well suited for are:

• Emails that contain directions – The QR code can provide a link to directions from their current location.
• Special Events – QR Codes can provide real-time data on the event such as parking availability (for example).
• Tickets – QR Codes can confirm attendance.
• Coupons – QR Codes can track who redeems the coupon.
• Transactional – QR Codes can provide the recipient a quick way to access their online account information.

Adding Personalized QR Codes is not as hard as you would think.  Below are directions using Purlem and MailChimp to accomplish this:

If you need help with any of the steps below, please contact support@purlem.com.

1. Upload your list of email recipients into Purlem.

2. Download PURLs

3. Download QR Codes

4. Upload the QR Codes to your server (use your favorite FTP application)
5. Upload the Downloaded PURLs file (from Step 2) into Mailchimp
   Make sure the map the QR Code Image column (from the Step 2 file) to a new field in Mailchimp
6. In the HTML section of your Mailchimp email, you would pull in the image with something like:
   <img src=”http://www.yourwebsite.com/images/*|TITLE:YOUR_MERGE|*”>

   Lets break down this code:
   -  yourwebsite.com = your domain name
   -  /images = the folder you uploaded your images to in Step 4
   -  *|TITLE:YOUR_MERGE|* = the new mailchimp field you created in Step 5

Nearly all my friends and family (from my generation) have chosen a white-collar profession. This weekend I was having a conversation with my bother-in-law and a close family friend about Purlem.  I look up to both of them as not only being outstanding husbands and fathers, but both are also extremely driven and have a brilliant business minds.  I love talking to them about Purlem as it always provides fresh feedback from outside my little startup world.

I was sharing with them that the traditional market for PURLs has been Print Providers.  However, because PURLs have become easier to use and more affordable, anybody that uses direct mail or email marketing can and should use PURLs.  The trick, I continued, is to figure out how to effectively introduce PURLs to those that use email marketing with a minimal budget.

Our conversation went something like this (from the best of my recollection):

THEM: If I were to introduce you to my marketing department, how would you sell Purlem?

ME : I would say…  Do you already use email marketing?

THEM: Yes

ME: Do you track your click through rates?

THEM: Yes

ME: What is your current click through rate?

THEM: Say… 2%

ME: If you give Personalized URLs a try, it will likely double that click through rate.

THEM: Prove it

ME: I can show you case studies and statics all day that prove the technology.

THEM: Well what about an ROI?  Do you have an ROI if I invest in your technology?

ME: No, because every campaign is different.  ROI is dependent not on the PURL, but on how you execute your marketing.  PURLs are only a marketing tactic that can help improve your current campaign.

THEM: We’ll without proving an ROI, it will be nearly impossible to sell

ME: It wouldn’t be enough to say – Hey, take a look at PURLs.  They will likely double your click through rates. Worse case scenario you loose a couple hundred dollars and figure out that PURLs are not a good tactic for your business.

THEM: Do you know how many times the boss is approached with ideas that only cost a couple hundred dollars.  If he took every one…  You need to prove that this will work in order to sell it

I thought about what they were saying, and took the conversation a couple of steps back…

ME: Well regardless, I actually don’t think it would be an effective approach for Purlem to sell on a one-to-one basis.  The price point (monthly fee) of using Purlem is to low to make that realistic.

THEM: Well increase the price

ME: Eghh… That makes me a little nervous.  The price points works fairly well right now.  You have to understand that Purlem is a do-it-yourself service.  I actually talk with very few of my users, and when I do it is about minor support issues.  Because of that I can keep the price low.  But if I started to increase the price, and sell on a one-to-one basis, I would be completely changing Purlem’s business model….  (I paused for a bit).  What I guess it really comes down to is that I don’t want to play the corporate game.

———————

If I had to take anything away from the conversation, it’s that if I’m going to effectively introduce PURLs to the corporate world of email marketers, I may have to reconsider my approach of marketing to this group.

Purlem is a classic Software as a Service (SaaS) business.  It is a very popular and proven business model in the startup world.  But in the corporate world it is largely unknown.  If I try to approach people with a corporate paradigm, with a startup type business model, it could be a mistake.

I think it is important for startups of all kinds to not ignore feedback that comes outside of our little startup world –  but rather figure out how you can use it to your advantage and attract new users.

Following huge success with their personalized URL and landing page service, Purlem.com today announces an exclusive partnership with American Printer Magazine.

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – Purlem.com has already made its mark on the marketing landscape with its unique personalized URL and landing page service. Taking this concept one step farther down the path of technology, American Printer Magazine is utilizing the power of Purlem to tie their physical magazine to the online world – providing each reader with a personalized publication.

In light of this, Purlem is today announcing a new partnership with the OutputLinks Communications Group, parent company of American Printer magazine.

Purlem’s services are an integral component of the OutputLinks Communications Group’s new B2MeMagazine^TM platform. The platform which was used to re-launch the company’s American Printer magazine provides subscribers a personalized 1:1 experience by integrating the power of print with database, social media, mobile and web technologies.

The integrated technology puts the power and control of personalized media into the hand of each of the magazine’s readers. By scanning one of several QR codes or visiting a personalized URL, readers are able to directly engage with the publication’s advertisers, publishers and contributing authors.

The OutputLinks Communications Group team formed their partnership with Purlem in an effort to energize offline print magazines with the freedom and opportunities of the online world. By using technology developed by Purlem, The B2MeMagazine platform creates a series of 1:1 QR codes and personalized URLs that allow print magazines to truly come to life.

“American Printer began serving the print industry in 1883. When we heard it was going to shut down, our team felt this print industry icon deserved to live. So we bought it and set about  giving it new life by using the full power of today’s integrated, interactive  print technology,” said Andy and Julie Plata, co-CEOs of OutputLinks Communications Group.

“It has been a true pleasure to work with the team at American Printer,” says Martin Thomas, Purlem’s founder. “Their B2Me Magazine platform is a true game changer.  I don’t think we’re ever going to look at magazines the same way again.”

American Printer’s initial B2Me issue contained twenty percent personalized content. Personalization will increase with each subsequent issue, with an aim to provide a 100% B2MeMagazine format soon thereafter.

“To see this 130 year-old magazine, that I have been associated with for over 15 years, come to new life is truly amazing,” says Katherine O’Brien, American Printer’s senior editor. “With Purlem’s technology and the OutputLinks Communications Group’s vision, I see a great future for American Printer”.

About Purlem.com
Purlem is a web-based application that enables companies to develop new business with Personalized URLs. A Personalized URL, or “PURL,” is a unique website personalized to each prospect or customer. PURLs are known to substantially increase response rates and overall marketing effectiveness. With a focus on being affordable and easy to use, Purlem has become the fastest growing Personalized URL platform in the world.

About American Printer
American Printer, an OutputLinks Communications Group division provides printers and graphic arts professionals perspectives on the business trends and technical innovations that are shaping the printing industry. American Printer’s printed magazine delivers in-depth news, management, prepress, press and postpress related articles to its 26,000⁺ subscribers. In addition, every issue provides real-life examples of database, social media, web and mobile technologies integrated with the latest in print technology. American Printer endeavors to foster an interactive relationship between subscribers, advertisers and columnists by transforming B2B monologues into 1:1, B2Me^TM dialogues. Visit AmericanPrinter.com.

About OutputLinks Communications Group
OutputLinks Communications Group, the parent organization of American Printer, is a growing set of global business divisions, narrow-casting to various components of the corporate communication ecosphere. Each division incorporates a centralized, collaborative, non-competitive forum, utilizing web portals, publications, social media, segment-specific search engines and related research tools. The OutputLinks Communications Group divisions include: GCWorldBiz, GreensheetBIZ, MPSConnect, CMOConnects, OutputLinks, OutputLinks France, OutputLinks Italy and OutputLinks Latin America, OutputLinks UK and OutputLinks Australasia. To learn more, visit www.OutputLinksCommunicationsGroup.com.

As a Startup begins to grow it is crucial to pay attention to where and how you are spending your time.  After reading Do More Faster by David Cohen and Brad Feld, it is something that I have been paying more attention to.   Below is an excerpt from the book that I wrote down and force myself to look at every day:

It’s to easy to think there are 9 things you should be doing as a company, when you should actually only be doing 2 or 3.  Always trim away what you don’t need to be doing and ask yourself “What’s the most important thing to making progress right now?” Focus on these and let the other bright ideas sit on the sidelines until the company has proven it is ready to tackle another idea.

The 3 things I wrote down for Purlem are:

A little side note… For the last couple of months I have been using RescueTime – an application that tracks exactly how you spend your computer time.  For those days when I think – where did my morning go – I can look at RescueTime and see exactly where I spent my time, and evaluate if I need to change my focus.

As Purlem continues to grow, I have been lucky enough to work with some very great and interesting people.  Typically these relationships involve me consulting on a combination of marketing, technology & personalization.  These relationships have recently started to grow, which is great – but it does not fall in my top 3 priorities.   So does this mean I’m heading in the wrong road?

Today I had a wonderful conversation with a client, friend and mentor – Andy Plata at OutputLinks.  During our conversation Andy told me about the important role consulting has played in his business ventures.  He mentioned how consulting has helped him to develop relationships and keep on top of trends, and that if you focus on just developing your product, you can get stuck in your own little world.

Andy helped me to realize that even though consulting falls outside the top 3, it is still a crucial part of growing a business.  If I were to focus 100% of my time of Purlem (the product), and would be neglecting Purlem (the business).  I now see the top three Purlem priorities as “Product Development” priorities, and that consulting plays an important role in developing Purlem as a business.

The Results API will create a webpage that displays the real time results from your PURL Campaign.  The webpage can be hosted on any website, and provides a convenient way for you, or your clients, to access the results of their campaign.

To use the Results API, follow the steps below…

1) Download the Results API Page

Under the Results tab, select Results API

Click the purl_results.php link to download the Results API page.

2) Upload the downloaded file to your website

To upload the downloaded file, you’ll need to connect to your live website files using FTP.  I recommend Fetch (for Mac), or File Zilla (for PC).

Once you have connect to your website via FTP, you’ll simply want to upload the downloaded file to the location where you would like the page to appear.

The Results API page would look something like this.

I have recently started using Google Adwords to advertise Purlem. For those that don’t know, Google Adwords is a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising platform. The amount you pay depends on the demand for the keyword you want to advertise on.  It could be anywhere between a few cents to several dolars. To see how much your Keywords would cost, use Google’s Traffic Estimator.

In preparation for jumping into my PPC campaign, I spoke to a few PPC “Experts” as well as read The Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords.  I found that there are two major strategies when approaching PPC for the first time.

Even though I’m not a fisher, I’ll use a fishing analogy to describe the two PPC methods.

Strategy 1: Cast Net PPC

The Cast Net PPC strategy is about throwing as big of a net as possible to see which type of fish (aka people) bite.  To do this, you would user Google’s Keyword Tool to come up with as large of a keyword set as possible. You may even take the keywords, and re-arrange the words to come up with other unique combinations.

Pro:
You can quickly identify keywords that convert well.
Con:
Requires a large budget

Strategy 2: Single Hook PPC

For the Single Hook PPC strategy, you identify maybe 2 or 3 keywords that you think will work well.  Slowly add new keywords to the mix. If a keyword does not end up working out, then discard it.

Pro:
Does not require a large budget
Con:
You could be leaving some valuable keywords on the table

For Purlem, I started with the Cast Net strategy.  I identified as many keywords as possible that people would possibly use to search for anything related to Personalized URLs or PURL marketing.  Then I took those keywords and come up with other random combinations.  For each keyword I used the Phrase Match option, to give me more precise reporting on the keywords that were actually performing well.

I also directed each of the keywords to their own unique landing pages:
They keyword “PURL Marketing” would go to: http://purlem.com/lp/purl-marketing
The keyword “WordPress Landing Pages” would go to: http://purlem.com/lp/wordpress

When I launched the campaign, many of the “random combinations” were to random to even show up in search results.  There was simply not enough people searching for them. So those went out the window real quickly.  The other keywords quickly proved themselves to be ineffective fairly quickly. I was getting some good “clicking” action, but they were simply not converting.  This could be because of the Landing Page, so might have to do some more testing there.  But for now I removed they keywords that were not converting well.

What I ended up with is a list of only a few keywords – and they are the obvious ones that I would have used if I went directly to the Single Hook strategy.  So I believe I just wasted a lot of money to prove to myself that the keywords I thought would be the ones to work, actually are the only ones that work.

So is the Single Hook strategy the right one to use with your PPC campaign?  For me it was. But for you it may be different.  I would say that if you have a very large market (such as automobiles or insurance), and a large budget, then give the Cast Net strategy a go.  But if your like me, and have a niche product and a minimal budget, stick with the Single Hook strategy.

Do you provide your email marketing recipients with a link to visit your website? Chances are you do. Chances are also that you are using a Standard URL.

Yoursite.com is an example of a Standard URL format.

But what would happen if you added your recipients name to that URL? Something like JoeSmith.yoursite.com or SallyAnderson.yoursite.com.

Would you be more likely to click on that URL with your name in it? Research shows that most people are, and you can use this little trick to drastically increase your click through rates.

Instead of simply providing your email recipients with a Standard URL, give them a Personalized URL. The URL is literally personalized to each recipient of your email marketing campaign. People click because they are naturally curious and surprised you’ve gone to such effort.

Once the recipient clicks on their Personalized URL, they will be taken to a website that is personalized and relevant just to them. When your website is relevant to your visitors, it will increase visitor affinity and engagement, and ultimately your conversion rates.

Simply stated – by integrating Personalized URLs into your email marketing campaign, you will see an increase in both click through rates and conversion rates.

Purlem makes creating Personalized URLs extremely simple. And since you can try Purlem for free, you have absolutely nothing to loose.