The PURLS Concept:
A PURL is the missing link between a great offer, and the customer's ability to identify him or herself as "interested" in your offer. The sales process cannot begin until a conversation between the salesperson and the potential customer begins, when you allow the customer to comfortably identify him or herself as "interested," the amount of conversations that take place grows exponentially.
Imagine yourself standing in front of 10,000 people in a movie theater. A traditional call-to-action is similar to asking anybody who is interested to please come to the front of the theater. With this type of required action, only those who are enthusiastically interested will make their way out of their seat to join others at the front of the stage. While this is an effective way of determining who is interested, there are still hundreds of people in the theater who "may" be interested, but need more information first, or simply do not feel comfortable making their way to the front of the stage. This type of discomfort is especially common in industries known for hard sales tactics such as the automotive industry.
The adaptation of PURLS allows you to change your call-to-action to something that helps identify all of those people who have interest in your product. Using the same example, imagine if you were standing at the front of a theater and you were able to ask after your sales pitch, "Anybody who is interested, please raise your hand." The much simpler method of asking somebody to raise their hand will dramatically increase your participation rates. If you could then clear out all of the people who did not raise their hand and only speak to those who showed an interest, you would then have a captive audience in front of you. Knowing that everybody who remained in the theater was indeed somewhat interested in your product would then allow you to refine your message and begin a more detailed conversation with your audience.
By using a combination of handwritten personalization and technologically advanced personalization methods, PURLS allow you to provide a comfortable "next step" to those people who are interested in your offer. Instead of having to pick up the phone or drive to your location, your customers can now visit a private website to respond to your incentive. Their visit to this private website is a personalized conversation that not only gives you their information so you can immediately follow up with them, but it also allows them to take a more detailed look at what it is you are offering them. The simple fact that they do not need to leave their home, they do not need to talk to a live person, and they do not need to commit to anything will dramatically increase the number of respondents your marketing piece receives.
The concept is more powerful than just a website visit, because the website they are visiting is 100% personally customized to the specific customer. With their own name in the domain name and their name splashed on the page next to the word "Welcome," your customers are given a personal experience designed with their comfort in mind.
The power of the PURL is the fact that their visit to the site allows the sales conversation to begin. Through the act of the customer claiming their incentive, your sales staff will be sent their information for a quick, personal follow-up, and you will instantly have access to the hundreds of people who have identified themselves as interested in a car purchase in the near future. Good information is as good as cash when it is in the right hands.
How does it work?
The PURL process ignites a series of follow-up events that serve to hit those who are interested in your products numerous times over the course of a few days. When the customer visits his or her private web page to claim the incentive you offered, they will also be agreeing to receive a series of personalized messages from you in a predetermined schedule.
The PURL works in the following steps:
1. The customer activates the incentive you offered, which may require them to visit to receive its full benefit.
2. The activation of their incentive also enrolls them into a series of personalized, yet automated; follow up emails all tailored to your unique selling proposition. This step is optional, and we will work with you as we create this properly.
3. Upon activation of the customer's incentive, the customer will then have a handwritten thank you note go out to them from a team of hand writers who take care of everything so you do not have to do anything. (This is done by our organization on your behalf on a correspondence card with your logo on it.)
4. Upon activation of the customer's incentive, the organization immediately receives an email with the customer's name, address, email, and telephone number for a salesperson to follow up with their request and/or to schedule an appointment for a test drive.
5. The organization can check the results of their mail campaign via a personal, secure website. These reports do not require the customer to "do" anything other than visit the website. With each domain being personalized you will know exactly who is browsing their PURL in "real time."
6. The organization is able to increase the amount of phone calls and visits to their website through the use of the same marketing pieces. This allows your marketing dollar to go even further because customers now have multiple "roads to your car lot." After the customer submits their reservation code and activates their incentive, they are then dropped onto a page with specific vehicle information, links to your main website, links to your "online specials," and links to get "pre-approved" for financing. This "deepening" of your marketing message allows customers to get more actively involved with your event and with your organization, while simultaneously getting your salespeople involved in a real conversation with people who might not have normally responded at all.
7. PURLS can be added to any marketing program (newspaper tear sheets, magazine tear sheets, invitation cards, or any other mail program) through the use of certificates or the use of customized variable data right on the marketing piece itself.
Why PURLS work so well:
These tools work so well not only because they give the organization incredible amounts of information about those people who are interested in shopping for what it is you are selling, but because they get people involved in ways that lead to fruitful sales conversations. Products are sold when personal conversations take place, and the incorporation of PURLS into our marketing programs will yield more conversations - period.
Even on those weekends when the weather may effect your sale, you will still have incredible amounts of traffic to your phones, to your salespeople's email boxes, and to the organization's website.
Now, with the use of PURLS, your customers can respond to your marketing campaign at 3:00 am in the morning as they browse your online specials, fill out your contact forms, and answer questions that would have previously prevented them from responding at all. In essence, this type of marketing supplement "kicks up the rabbits" that would have otherwise remained in the bushes.
Perhaps most importantly, PURLS allow you to extend the life of your marketing campaigns, as the PURLS will remain active for up to 30 days after the event date. When you incorporate PURLS into some of our humanized marketing pieces, the act of saving the highly creative piece actually goes straight to your bottom line as you will find a few stragglers finding their way to your lot two or three weeks after the event.
The entire incorporation of PURLS to your next marketing event allows you to create a clear and comfortable path for your customers to come visit you. Instead of only capturing those who are highly motivated, you are now able to quickly cultivate a relationship with those who "may" be interested. The cultivation process works to fan the flame of their desire and convert mild interest into white-hot interest in the matter of a few days through the use of strategically choreographed reminders and personal correspondence.
Never before has such a thorough and complete marketing program been offered, but we are proud to announce that it is ready for you. In an age where customers are hit on by every organization in their area, and in an economy where buyers are fewer and farther between, the organization that has the ability to personally cultivate a relationship which ends with a conversation wins the business in the end.