PURL (Personalized URL) Increases Revenue
November 17, 2008 by OneIMS · Leave a Comment
The Taser Inc. case finally gives us evidence.
The theory of using a personalized web page to grab a potential customer’s attention is a good one, but where are the figures to back this up? Personalized URL is certainly an exciting new addition to marketing strategy. Never before have marketers been able to connect with their customer base in such a personal way. There is a widely-held belief that VDP (Variable Data Printing) and PURL greatly increase response rates in campaigns and drive down the cost of each new marketing lead. Until now, however, there has been a paucity of numbers and evidence to show marketers just how good PURL is at boosting leads. The experience of one company is going some way to proving the theory.
Taser International (yes, that Taser - the makers of non-lethal immobilization devices) has seen a revenue growth in excess of 1600% since 2002, when it decided to focus much of its marketing drive on one-to-one strategies. Prior to 2002, Taser were relying heavily on general statistics that seemed stale and impersonal to their prospective buyers. So they made a switch and using a database of information they had on those potential customers (mainly law enforcement agencies - local and national), they developed a return-on-investment calculator and sent out postcards with personalized savings and return info to each customer. In this case return included statistics such as expected lives saved and officer injuries avoided over a 10 year period.
In 2006, Taser got creative an introduced PURL in to their marketing mix. The postcards sent out were now driving customers to a personalized landing web page which had Taser’s own return-on-investment calculator built in. The customers were able to adjust the inputs to the calculator according to their own department numbers and see for themselves an accurate estimate of savings and return. They combined this with an aggressive sales rep campaign (assigning a rep - and contact info - to each agency). After the customer logged off the website, the software generated an email to the customer containing a fully tailored quote, created a personalized brochure for the customer, and generated a customized power point presentation for the sales rep assigned to the agency. All the information gathered served as powerful research data for further improvement on marketing strategies.
So what about figures? Taser’s success since 2002 has been dizzying. Prior to 2002, less than 1400 law enforcement departments in the US used Taser. In 2007 that number was up to 9500 (more than half of major law departments). Their annual revenue grew from $6m in ‘02 to $67.7m in ‘06 and $100.7 in ‘07 after the introduction of PURL. In the first quarter of 2008 Taser revenues were $22.5m, a 47% increase over the same quarter in 2007. Given that there were a number of elements to this success, it is preposterous to assign all the credit to one-to-one marketing and PURL. Taser, however, attest that these innovative marketing strategies have been a major contributor to their growth.
Taser have also provided research data on the average cost per lead of their main marketing approaches. Cross-media PURL marketing has shown to be far cheaper per lead and far more effective at driving up revenue compared to traditional print advertising.
How to get Useful Customer Feedback
August 25, 2008 by OneIMS · 1 Comment
Direct customer feedback is by far one of the most invaluable tools available to businesses. While it may sound simple enough, doing so may prove a bit more complicated. Customer feedback is useful when learning which of your marketing or advertising campaigns was successful, and also to understand your conversion rates.
Most often when calling a business, you’ll be asked where and how you found out about them. In hindsight, this is a good approach at finding out the success rate of your marketing, but beware of the data you are collecting. Using a question like “How did you hear about us?” is not exactly the best way to obtain accurate data. Here’s why, and what you can do about it:
Problem:
Most people don’t want to answer the question and will tell you the first thing that pops into their mind. This can be detrimental to your data collection efforts, especially if you are running a mid to large size business. Most likely, the person that receives the initial call from a new customer is a receptionist or secretary, and are not fully aware of your marketing efforts and might not be concerned enough to collect accurate data. Someone may say, “I saw your ad in the newspaper.” While this is indeed good information, you still don’t know whether this was the ad you just placed with the new image in your local paper, or whether it’s the full-page ad in the city paper. Unidentifiable data is just as bad as no data at all.
Solution
When trying to collect data, be sure to ask more specific questions. To make it easier on yourself, you may try using special marketing characteristics for each of your campaigns. For example, you may want to color code your direct marketing campaigns (i.e. September post cards “blue” and October post cards “orange”). This will allow you to easily identify what campaign your customers are responding to.
If you are collecting data off your website, make sure you make it easy for your visitors to select the correct option. Don’t leave it up to them to give you information.
Problem:
When collecting customer feedback which helps determine the success rate of your marketing campaigns, a common issue that arises is launching a campaign that is not time sensitive. What do I mean by this? Let’s say you send out a direct mail piece without an offer. Someone may keep your postcard for future reference and may call you a year or two later to tell you they discovered your business through a postcard. So which postcard was it? Was it the one from this spring or from two years ago?
Solution:
A great way to make sure you are getting the responses you want is by creating campaigns that can be easily tracked. With today’s technology, this can be done very easily. VDP (Variable Data Printing) and PURLS (Personalized URLs) are great approaches to tracking results and recognizing the success of your campaigns. By integrating print media and web media together, businesses can accurately track and measure the results and modify their approach to improve the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
If you are providing an offer, you may want to specify a special offer code to use when calling. By assigning different codes to different offers, you will know exactly what marketing piece this conversion is due to.
So the next time you are ready to launch your marketing campaign, make sure to keep these suggestions in mind as it will help you calculate your ROI, ultimately leading you to better investments in the future.
For more information about PURLs and any other marketing needs, contact One IMS.
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How Going Green Can Make and Save You Money
July 17, 2008 by OneIMS · 1 Comment
In our environmentally conscious world, environmentally responsible businesses and companies can gain more than a good conscience. While most attribute switching to environment-friendly products and processes to save energy and hold on to some extra cash, going the extra mile to demonstrate your environmental responsibility can mean much more than that.
According to recent environmental surveys, the decisions of many consumers are based on the environmental impact made by the products and services they purchase. Take paper for example. Today, more and more companies and consumers prefer using paper made from post-consumer waste. You see this phenomenon just about everywhere; from paper cups and napkins at your local coffee shop or café, to birthday cards. More and more people are turning to products that are good for the environment.
What does this mean for you as a business owner? If you are already using eco-friendly products and offering environment-friendly services, spread the word about your actions to help conserve our environment. This can contribute favorably to your image and your overall reputation. Publicizing your efforts to conserve the environment makes you appear as a company that is responsible and conscientious about the world we live in.
If you haven’t yet embraced eco-friendly practices, now is the time to start thinking about it. Making some small changes may save you money in the long run and can also bring in new clients who are environment-conscientious. The way things are going, it won’t be long before the government issues new regulations demanding mandatory changes to your business practice, so why not do it voluntarily and attract some new clients?
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