PURLs Program Development (Personalized URLs) Integrating Direct Mail with the Internet

The Internet has changed the way buyers buy, sellers sell, and even the way students and their parents make the higher education decision. It has definitely changed the role of today’s media approach for our key target audiences!

Statistic #1 – 2010 DMA Study Also reinforced by the KCTCS brand study 60% of Americans prefer to receive a mail piece in the mail but do their shopping/responding online.

“Ford dealers who follow-up on Web leads within 4 hours are 4 times more likely to sell a car.” – Ford Motors How quickly do we follow up? Statistic #2 Major purchases have a similar decision process as the higher education evaluation.

PURLs Unique Problem: How do you connect a mail piece to the Internet? How do we respond faster to increase conversion? Solution: PURLs PURLs are personalized webpages. A PURL, when printed on a direct mail piece, drives the recipient to a landing page that is completely prefilled with the recipient’s personalized information. BillGates.increaseresponses.com SteveJobs.increaseresponses.com MichaelJordan.increaseresponses.com

The Direct Mail Component

Intelligent Mail Barcode Tracking Generates Blast – GO CHECK YOUR MAILBOX!

The Landing Page Skin-able Prefilled know fields Customizable based on School Academic Interest(s) High School View Book Interest Level Traditional / Non-Trad Student We select variables

Thank You Page Personalized Quick turnaround/ instant gratification Trackable Customized by school

Personalized Blast s to Non- Responders with their PURL 0.7% of the responders came in through one of the non-responder blast campaigns

Online Dashboard Track every activity for each PURL visitor Instant measurable results Real-time access to responders for faster follow-ups Dashboard can be location specific

Online Dashboard Track mail delivery with the IMB See reports of responders by day

The Results Lead automatically delivered to sales for immediate fallow-up Set to , phone, PDA

PURL Activation Enter your security code printed on your mail piece – “X321”

QR Codes Cell phone technology can take you directly to your PURL In addition to nonprofit mailing, KCTCS can also get an additional 3% discount on postage by using a QR code on the exterior of the mail piece.

Case Study Salem College Salem College is the oldest women’s college in the United States, and in 2009 the admissions department wanted to use a different marketing technique to gain interest in the school. In addition, the marketing budget had also been reduced by 20% that same year. Objective: Test effectiveness of incorporating PURLs in student recruitment campaign while reducing overall budget by 20%. Landing page featured a Web survey form and option to watch a video.

Case Study Test Results: 80,000 DM pieces were sent 4.4% PURL visits 47% of above completed survey & provided additional information (1,655) 717 prospective students requested spring visits Spring visits increased by 46% 303% increase in responses from previous year when only static mailings were used 20% decrease in overall budget 170 traditional-aged students enrolled for 2011—an 11% increase over 2009 From the original mail list, 32% of the incoming class completed applications, and 25% went on to attend Salem Followed up with 2010 and 2011 PURL campaigns Target Audience: Sophomore & junior high school girls with academic scores and interests in majors that Salem offered Incentive: A customized admissions video and receiving a customized one-of-a-kind brochure PURL landing page: Included a survey and customized profile page and a thank you page

Advantages of Using PURLs PURLs connect the mailbox to the inbox and to the Web PURLs create a PERSONALIZED webpage that is prefilled for the recipient. Easy for the recipient to respond! Webpages can be dynamic and change based on recipients’ answers to the landing page questions Clients that are using BREs can potentially cut reply mail postage by as much as 60% Client has real-time access to the data collected from the PURL campaign. Instant measurable results! Data that is being collected is “fresh data” and can be used for faster follow-ups. Timing is everything!

Advantages of Using PURLs IMB (Intelligent Mail Barcode) can activate blast s upon delivery of the mail piece to DDU Tracks responses even if there is no call to action. ALL activity is tracked and all visitors are tacked…even non-responders PURLs can continue theme of mail piece for a consistent and familiar message Helps automate and customize future mailings based on customer response A PURL landing page can connect directly to customers’ website or to any weblink

George Washington Scholarship Fund: (mouse over the girl in the purple and white shirt) Radio Shack: Disney: General Motors: AAA: Home Depot : Financial Times: Sample of a PURL with a security code: Password: 1234 Sample of a reverse PURL (customer enters activation code off card in order to activate card and access personalized info): Sample of a reverse PURL (customer enters activation code off card in order to activate card and access personalized info): Sample of a GURL that was activated via QR Code - (made for mobile phones) aredservices.com Sample Webpages

New Project Sample Timeline: 4-6 weeks Mail launchSept 1 Database file compiledAug 15 Client approval to go liveAug 15 Landing page design finalAug 11 Client comments/changes to all componentsAug 8 Rough draft of all elements delivered to clientAug 1 Art files to upload to all digital elementsJuly 15 Mail piece approvalJuly 7 Mail piece designJuly 1 Vanity URL purchaseJuly 1 Kick-off meetingJune 22 flexible based on actual schedule

Questions?