What I learned today (or why I like to take advantage of speaking opportunities)

My webinar on PURLS this afternoon went really well - always worry in doing webinars about the ability to generate enough energy and interest in order to keep the webinar going with no audience response. Kind of makes me understand why radio talk show hosts usually either have a side-kick or go to the phones or both.

In any case, my presentation was on utilizing PURLS to engage and empower and I spent a couple of weeks putting information together and doing research on this topic. In doing so, I looked at for profit, non profit and higher education use of the tool and found one consistent thing that puzzles me.

Many places have paid good money to put a PURL based marketing campaign out. Many places have paid good money to a printer or other vendor to push the mail and email communications out to get folks the address. Yet nobody seems happy with the marketing effort.

Almost everything that I see has over-generalization, everyone seems to be trying either for a one size fits all PURL or for a limited marketing stream. Yet we are selling a "Personal" URL. It seems to make so much sense for this to utilize variable data printing to provide each individual with unique marketing materials customized to their record in the same way the PURL is.

It is a good first step to identify a PURL that may connect with folks. The next step is to identify imagery that would do the same. The example that I used on the webinar was related to my own Alma Mater, Allegheny College. Utilizing a PURL of scott.vandeusen.gatoralumni.com would connect to some extent. That on a postcard with a picture of campus might have some additional connection, but that PURL on a postcard with a picture of my fraternity brothers taken from one of the yearbooks when I was a student would have far greater connection and likelihood of me opening and interacting with it.