Question: What’s one of the biggest reasons that direct mail campaigns fail?
Answer: Because a poorly targeted list was used.  While the mailing list is the number one influencer of the success of your mailing campaign, typically very little brain-power is devoted to crafting the right list.  This is a tragedy that small businesses, large companies and nonprofits are all guilty of.  If you think you may be guilty of this, read on to find out how to make sure that you’re taking the right steps to select the best possible mailing list for you.

Who is your target market? Please DO NOT say “anyone and everyone,” or “anyone with a pulse.”  Why?  For a variety of reasons:
1) Budget constraints: Very few organizations have the marketing budget to be able to afford to market  to everyone and anyone.  Even organizations with large budgets and mass appeal recognize that it’s not profitable to try to reach everyone, so they will typically pinpoint the most profitable segments of their target audience and direct unique marketing campaigns at each specific segment.
2) Relevance: The less well-defined a target market, the less relevant the marketing message.  Why is this important?  People will NOT respond to a message that is not relevant to them.  For example, if you own a store that sells fine imported cigars, you may think that it would be a good idea to target the closest people to your store-right?  In fact, this is the default approach that almost everyone takes to direct mail marketing BUT in almost all cases this is NOT the correct approach.  In fact, the hypothetical cigar store-owner would be much better served to target subscribers to a magazine like “Cigar Aficionado.”  Are mailing lists like this available?  ABSOLUTELY!  However, just like the title of this post, most people don’t know what they don’t know, and instead of asking questions, they make poor decisions about the list they use for their marketing.  Remember, the list is the most important part!

What sorts of lists are available? Lifestyle Mailing Lists may be the absolute best for identifying targeted prospects.  These lists looks at people’s passions and hobbies-they are very well suited for establishing an emotional bond with prospects.  Magazine subscription data, purchase habits, product warranties and surveys all help to profile people who end up on these lists.  The earlier example of people who enjoy smoking cigars qualifies as a lifestyle list.  Could there be a lifestyle list that pinpoints your target customer demographic?

For medical professionals, drug companies and makers of medical equipment, there are actually lists of people with specific medical ailments.  For instance, there’s a list of people who suffer from asthma-what a great prospect list for allergists!  The information on all of these lists is self-reported, typically at health fairs, and therefore it does not compromise the person’s confidential healthcare records.  Does your product or service improve the quality of life for your customers or does it help them to stay healthy?  If so, a medical ailment list may be a great option for you.

For those targeting other businesses as prospects, business lists are the logical choice, right?  Yes, but in addition to targeting by industry and geography, you can also target by number of employees, number of years in business, estimated annual revenue etc.  Leveraging these more specific criteria allow you to identify a more targeted list.  For instance a company could target simply plumbers, but they may find that plumbers who have been in business for at least 2 years and have at least 10 employees are a better fit for their product or service.  How would you know which criteria is best?  Look at the makeup of your existing customer list.

Of course there are even lists of charitable donors; these may be the perfect choice for nonprofits that are looking to grow their donor base.  These lists tap into people who already have a history of supporting charitable causes by making donations.  This certainly leads to higher conversion rates than a list created based on geographic criteria alone.

To summarize, you should work really hard to define a specific target market.  This will not only maximize your limited marketing budget, but it will assure that the communication you send to your target audience is relevant.  Remember, the default mailing list targets people or businesses in the closest zip codes, but there is almost always a better list available that captures your true target audience.  Ask questions and FIND the list that will get you the best return on your investment.  A superior list will take a marginally profitable campaign or an unprofitable campaign and make it profitable.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering about mailing list options for you, simply click here, and I’ll be happy to do a little homework and help to research a targeted list just for you!

Like what you’re reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog’s rss feed?

Thank you in advance for sharing your comments below about targeted mailing lists.

Reprinted from and copyrighted by Direct Mail answers for PR & Marketing Professionals, Nonprofits, and Small Business

If you’ve been a bit disappointed with the results of your past direct mail or email campaigns, I’d like to suggest that you give pURL marketing a try.  With pURL marketing, you would use your standard direct mail or email campaign to drive your prospect or customer to their own personal website.

Why is pURL marketing better than simply sending your prospect to your website home page?

Sure, you can advertise your home page in your direct mail campaign, but then what? When your prospect landed at your site, she would be greeted with the same generic message that every single website visitor sees.

With a pURL campaign, your prospect can land on a website that was custom made just for her. She can be greeted with a headline that reads “Hi, Jane!” instead of “Welcome Visitor”.  She can see graphics that represent her and her lifestyle instead of generalized, hit or miss graphics that are geared toward no one in particular. She can read a message that is tailored specifically to her rather than a broad message trying to reach everyone.

Sure, it’s easy to drive your prospects to your home page, but then what? How will you know if your prospects went to your home page? And more importantly, how will you know WHICH prospects went to your home page?

With pURL marketing, you have complete and thorough tracking. You’ll know exactly which prospects visited their pURL website. You’ll know how long they stayed at their site. You’ll know which pages they visited, and how often they came back, and when they came back. In other words, you’ll exactly which of your prospects is truly interested in what you have to offer.

So you’ll know exactly where to spend your follow up efforts.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of all is that pURL marketing increases your response rates. It’s only natural that prospects are more likely to respond to a message that is customized specifically for them. In fact, some studies show that pURLs increase marketing response by as much as 400%. That is incredible ROI.

And speaking of ROI, creating your pURL campaign doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, Complete Purl offers full service pURL marketing at incredibly affordable rates, with plans available for every marketing budget.

If you’ve been frustrated by poor performing direct mail campaigns why not consider adding pURLs to your direct marketing plan? Get a free demo of a pURL campaign at CompletePurl.com today.

Here is some more information about pURL marketing and what it can do for your business.

What is pURL?

pURL stands for personalized URL and it is a system of marketing that utilizes the internet in conjunction with a direct mailing or email message.  pURL marketing allows you to send out highly personalized messages to your customers to advertise an upcoming sale, promote a new product, or even gather customer information via a survey.

The pURL message is extremely customizable.  You can create a personalized website for each of your customers or prospects; the website can include your customers’ names to present a very personalized message. If you have kept good records on your customers, or if you’ve purchased an in-depth prospect mailing list, you can even take it a step further.  Your pURL marketing messages can take details such as customers’ product preference, favorite color, or any other information you have available and use it to generate superbly customized mailings for each client.

Because your pURL marketing message is customized through a database, it’s not necessary to actually create the individual web pages for each customer one by one. All you have to do is supply the information, typically in the form of a spreadsheet or other type of mailing list. The information is converted, the page templates are created, and the pURL websites are generated, using as much or as little detail as you wish to include.

pURL Results

While pURL marketing is still new to the direct marketing industry, marketers who have used it are singing its praises. Studies show that pURL campaigns achieve higher response rates than traditional marketing. Customers and prospects are far more likely to pay attention to a pURL message that is directly addressed to them.  Take that a step further by customizing the message to meet all of their preferences and you are definitely going to get their attention.

Imagine getting a message from a company that you do business with, with your name on the message and in the web address, marketing a highly appealing product in your favorite color.  Would you not be impressed?  Would you not be more likely to buy?

pURL marketing messages really get the customer’s attention. For this reason, customers are more likely to make a purchase or fill out information.  Most statistics show customers are almost twice as likely to follow through with a pURL message as compared to a traditional direct mailing. This means that you can look to as much as double your profit by sending out targeted pURL messages as opposed to traditional direct mailings.

Full Service pURL

There are several pURL marketing software-as-service companies that have sprung up over the last few years.  But the software and setup can get a bit confusing. That’s why Complete Purl offers full service pURL marketing programs, which includes website design, copywriting, mailing list management, and tracking. If you’re interested in adding this new marketing technique to your own marketing program, why not get started today.

But today, businesses have smaller marketing budgets and more internet savvy consumers; and this combination has really changed the way marketing is done.  Now, businesses are looking more and more to the internet for affordable marketing solutions.  Marketing directors are being held accountable for profitable returns on their marketing dollars. And so many businesses are looking at pURL marketing as an affordable, trackable, highly responsive marketing method.

Here are some ways that you can use a pURL campaign in your own direct marketing program, as well as some reasons that you should.

What is a pURL?

A pURL is a personalized URL.  In other words, it is a website that has been personalized for an individual consumer to provide him or her with the best possible, one-to-one experience.  The “personalized” portion of the pURL is typically the customer or prospect’s name, such as www.yourbusiness.com/John.Doe.  When your customer visits his pURL, he will find himself on a website that is specifically marketed directly toward him.  This is the basic use of pURL marketing, though pURLs are also a popular way to conduct marketing surveys to find out more about the customer or prospect.

pURLs Allow for Customer Tracking

pURLs have many benefits over traditional marketing campaigns.  The biggest benefit is that they allow you the ability to find out more about your customers and your sales.  You can find out exactly who followed through, which pages of their pURL website they visited, how long they stayed at their website, and other factors that may have affected the sale.  This can help you to market better in the future. 

Because pURLs can be completely personalized, they are great ways to present surveys, questionnaires, feedback forms, etc to your prospects. The best tip for using a pURL for customer feedback is to keep the form down to no more than 6 total clicks.  More than this or more than one page tends to lead customers to link abandonment.  In other words, asking too much will turn customers away, so keep your pURL marketing simple and concise.

pURLs Gain More Follow Through

pURL marketing is statistically much more successful than traditional forms of marketing. In some surveys it has shown to be up to 40% more effective. Customers today are more likely to follow through with a link, complete a survey, or purchase a new product when a pURL leads them there.  Customers like the personalization and they like the ability to access these things quickly and easily over the internet.

pURL Marketing is Easy

The best part about a pURL campaign is that it is not all that complicated.  You still need a good copywriter and a successfully planned email or direct mail campaign to drive your customers to their pURLs. But with the Complete pURL marketing service, all you need to do is provide your list of customers or prospects, and we will handle the rest.

In today’s barrage of constant marketing messages, customers are looking for personalization, relevance, and one-to-one to help them filter through the noise. A pURL marketing campaign is an excellent way to provide exactly what your clients are looking for.

pURL Campaigns Are More Effective than Other Types of Mailings

In recent surveys the Direct Marketing Association discovered that almost half of all consumers surveyed were more likely to respond to a marketing message via the internet.  They found that in fact, about one-quarter of respondents would only respond to a marketing message via the internet.  What exactly does this information mean to your business? Since pURL marketing campaigns utilize the internet , they have the potential to boost your response rate drastically.

In general pURL marketing campaigns are shown to be about 40% more effective than other types of advertising.  Some studies show that they can lead to an increase in follow through of up to 400%.  Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

pURL Campaigns Have Built-In Tracking

One major benefit of a pURL marketing campaign that you do not get with other types of marketing is that you can track a great deal of information.  When customers visit their pURL sites you will know exactly who visited, because the sites are personalized. And just as valuable, you will also know who did not respond. Even more, with your pURL tracking, you’ll be able to gather information such as what the customer did after they responded to his pURL site, how many web pages he visited, how long he stayed at his personal site, and how often he visited his site. When you compare this to the (non-existent) tracking that is built into a traditional direct mail campaign, you can see how this tracked information can greatly effect your future marketing efforts.

pURL Campaigns Have Several Uses

There are several different uses for pURL marketing.  While you can certainly create a direct mail campaign that includes sending your prospects to their own pURL websites, you can also incorporate pURLs into your email marketing program. You can also include pURLs on customers’ monthly statements, or create a postcard campaign using pURLs. The promotional opportunities are limited only by your own creativity.

You can not only promote your pURLs in many ways you can also use them in many ways.  pURL sites can be used to gather survey information to be used in later marketing campaigns. pURL campaigns can also be used for the promotion of a new product or to provide loyal customers with a discount.  The sky is the limit on what exactly you decide to promote using your pURL campaign.

pURL Campaigns Are Affordable

pURL marketing can be very affordable compared to other traditional marketing campaigns.  This is one of the benefits that have really led to an increase in popularity of pURLs over the last few years.  With the current economic state, businesses are looking for ways to cut their marketing costs.  pURL marketing offers an excellent opportunity for streamlining your marketing budget, tracking your results, and knowing exactly where to put your follow up efforts.

pURL campaigns have become increasingly popular because of their cost effectiveness and improved response rates. If you’re interested in reaching your prospects on a highly personalized, one-to-one basis, consider adding a pURL campaign to your marketing mix.

Use a Consistent Message

When first getting started with pURL marketing, many small business owners believe they need to have one message in the direct mail piece and another message on the landing page. They think their visitors will “get bored” reading the same thing over and over. They want to maximize their advertising dollar by getting out as many messages as possible.

But this is exactly opposite of what you want to do. Presenting separate messages can be confusing. You want your prospect to arrive at your pURL web page and immediately say “Yes, this is exactly what I came here for.” By presenting the same message that you gave in your direct mail piece, your visitor will know he is in the right place.

Remove All Other Distractions

Most web marketers agree that removing all distractions from your landing page – i.e. take off the navigation bar, take off your logo linking to your home page, get rid of any other advertising, etc. – you can increase your conversion rate significantly. And if your pURL marketing campaign is designed to collect additional information on your prospects through the use of an online form, I’d say this is a great technique to use.

But I do want to caution, this is not a one-size-fits-all solution for increasing your pURL web page conversion rates. You’ve got to know your business, know your message, and, above all, know your market. For some audiences, the bare bones, no graphics, no branding web page technique might look like spam. If the branding in your direct mail piece is strong, your prospects might think they’ve landed at the wrong web page if there is no branding included. Extremely web-cautious visitors might think it’s a phishing scheme. Know your audience and know their expectations before you dive into this technique.

Test as Much as Possible

A great benefit of a pURL marketing campaign is the built-in testing possibilities and immediate feedback available. Since pURL marketing is based on templates, it’s extremely easy to segment your list and send half of your prospects to one template and half to another. And thanks to the tracking capabilities of pURLs, you’ll be able to see almost immediately which template is achieving a better response rate.

Take Advantage of Your Thank You Page

If you’ve removed all the distractions from your pURL landing page, your Thank You page is a great place to take advantage of some of that stripped-down content.

Your Thank You Page is the web page that visitors are taken to after they have responded to the call to action on your pURL landing page. This is an extremely under-developed piece of real estate for most small businesses. Instead of presenting a plain Jane message like “Thank you. We received your submission and will respond shortly” why not present another offer or a product for sale? Remember, customers who have recently responded to you are the ones most likely to respond again.

Or how about presenting a freebie bonus offer to really win the hearts of your prospects? You can explain a complimentary service that you offer, advertise an extended warranty, encourage your new customers to refer their friends, etc. The possibilities for your Thank You Page are almost endless, and since this page will typically receive a very high response rate, this is an opportunity that you definitely want to take advantage of.

Your landing page is a tremendously important aspect of your pURL marketing campaign. By following these easy tips, you can make your pURL landing pages more effective and improve your campaign response rates.

The other day I got a letter from my home mortgage company that said something to the effect of “If you have a home loan, call this number. If you have a business loan, call this number.” I was very disheartened by the fact that my own mortgage company, who received a sizable chunk of money from me each and every month, didn’t even know what my loan was for. So rather than calling the appropriate phone number listed in their very cold and generic direct mail letter, I started calling other mortgage lenders instead.

My decision to choose another mortgage company could have been eliminated – in fact, my the lender could have turned me into a stark-raving, referral-generating, shout-it-from-the-rooftops fan – simply by using a pURL campaign with this direct mail piece.

And they could have saved themselves a ton of money, and improved response rates in the process.

Let me show you how their pURL campaign could have worked…

1. First, the bank could have segmented their mailing list and created one list of homeowners and one list of business owners. They obviously already have that information in their database, so the division would have been very easy.
2. Next, two simple but relevant postcards could have been created, one designed for homeowners, with appropriate graphics and messaging, and one designed for business owners with its own graphics and messaging. Using variable data printing, the postcards could have been tailored to create a personal, one-to-one message. My own postcard could have had a headline that read, “Karen, We Have Important Information About Your Home Mortgage”.
3. Rather than sending me a 7-page (probably very expensive) direct mail campaign, my personalized postcard could have directed me to my own pURL website where I could have gotten all the information – and more – that was included in the generic direct mail letter. Only this time, the information would have been meant for me and me alone. My pURL could have been www.LenderSite.com/Karen.Scharf, which would have definitely gotten my attention. After all, my own name in my own website, how could I have resisted checking it out. And when I logged in, the headline could have continued with “Karen, Here is the Important Information About Your Home Mortgage”.
4. And, since the bank already has my personal information, such as my age and my family size, the graphics shown on my pURL website could have been appropriate for me. If the bank’s records showed that I was 68-years-old, married and retired, the graphics on my pURL site could have represented retired married couples. If their records showed I was a 26-year-old single mother of 3, the graphics on my site could have shown young children playing in front of a lovely home. And, since the lender already knows the value and location of my home, the graphics could have been even more personalized, showing homes and neighborhoods that are similar to my own.
5. On the flip side, if I had been a business borrower, my pURL website could have said “Karen, Here is the Important Information About Your Business Loan for Modern Image Communications”. And the graphics and wording could have been relevant to a small business owner in my industry or SIC code.
6. Each page on the pURL website could have been personalized with my name and information. Rather than sending me 7-pages of generic information, my mortgage company could have sent me information that was meaningful and specific. Rather than feeling slighted and insulted that my bank had apparently no idea who I am, I could have been made to feel like an extremely special, valued customer.
7. And, since a pURL marketing campaign is completely trackable, the bank wouldn’t have had to ask me to call a phone number to guarantee that I received the information they sent. The pURL campaign tracking could have shown them that I did indeed visit my pURL website. It could have also shown them how often I visited, how many pages I visited, which exact pages I looked at, how long I stayed on my site, etc. They would have been able to assess who expressed the most interest in the new services they were trying to upsell me, so they would have known exactly which customers to spend their follow-up budget with.
8. If the bank needed more information from me, they could have incorporated a feedback form into my pURL website. And since they already have much of my personal information, the form could have been pre-populated, saving me time and making me feel even more appreciated.

And all this could have been achieved just by taking advantage of a pURL marketing campaign.

The bank would have made me feel like a tremendously appreciated, valued customer, which would have cemented my loyalty with them, even if I didn’t want to purchase their new services.

They would have had built-in tracking capabilities and the ability to see almost immediately which customers expressed an interest – something that no direct mail campaign could ever provide.

They would have boosted their response rates, since pURL marketing campaigns have been shown to improve response rates by almost 300%.

And, chances are, they would have spent less money than they did on their generic, insulting, ineffective mailing. Believe it or not, a pURL marketing campaign is actually very affordable. In fact, .COMplete pURL offers full service pURL marketing to fit every budget.

So when you’re brainstorming your next direct mail campaign, consider adding pURL marketing to the mix. You’ll create customer loyalty and improve your response rates in the process.

Traditional direct marketing does not have the feedback mechanism that pURL marketing has.  Once your direct mail piece has been sent, you really have no way of knowing what the prospect’s reactions were, unless she calls you to place an order. Did she open the envelope? Did she show any interest? Would she like more information without having to speak to a live representative?

Of course, you can always include a website URL in your direct marketing campaign and hope the prospect visits your website for more information. But if 137 prospects visit your site, will you know who they were? You’ll have no way of knowing exactly which of your prospects were interested and exactly where you should place your follow up efforts.

The truth is, with traditional direct mail marketing, there is no feasible way of tracking your response rates. And that’s where pURL marketing comes in.

A pURL is a personalized microsite, or a personalized landing page, that’s included in your initial direct mail message (or email message). The web address contains the name of your prospect, such as www.yoursite.com/John.Doe, and the web page or microsite is completely personalized for that individual prospect.  The headline can contain John Doe’s name, the website sales letter can start off with “Dear John” the web page can reference John’s city, or John’s occupation, or marital status, etc. Any information you have available on John can be incorporated into his pURL, making a truly unique and personalized marketing experience.

But the absolute best advantage of pURL marketing is that it is completely trackable. Once your prospect visits his pURL, we’ll be able to tell you exactly who has shown interest, how long he has stayed at his microsite, what web pages he has visited, and how he has come back.

You’ll know exactly who you should spend time following up with, and who might need a little extra nudge.

And because pURL marketing is so effective, you can save tons on your current direct mail campaigns. Rather than spending a fortune to design, copywrite, print and mail a 5-page generic direct mail campaign, you can send your prospects a simple postcard that points them to their pURLs – which will present all the information you would have presented in your 5-page campaign, only this time it will be completely customized and personalized. And trackable!

Despite their extreme effectiveness, pURL campaigns don’t have to be expensive. In fact, full-service pURL marketing campaigns are available from .COMplete pURL for less than you are probably spending on your typical direct mail campaign. So get started with your own pURL Marketing campaign today.

Chrisanne Sternal is an independent marketing consultant that has built highly effective and profitable marketing campaigns for many well-known brands and small businesses alike.

Sternal Consulting helps small businesses make the most of their budgets by avoiding costly mistakes with their marketing efforts. Creating emails, websites, landing pages, blogs, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, public relations, direct mail, newsletters, social media, branding and more.

Chrisanne is the co-creator of http://understandingmarketing.com, an online resource for small business marketing information. Understanding Marketing allows business owners and managers to learn the basics of marketing and find “how-to” articles to do it themselves.

About The Author:

Nial Robbins is the owner and webmaster of http://www.NDR-HomeBiz.com, the site for the best home business opportunities, free Internet home business training, as well as ideas to work from home and earn money at home.