During this excerpt from a presentation about online marketing, I gave a short description of what a pURL^* is and what you can effectively use it for.

“pURL” stands for personalized URL. Using software, you can general virtual, customized webpages such as:

• carma.joebloe.com
• joebloe.com/carma

Once the personalized URLs are generated, you can send them via email or postcard to people on your list to promote something. These customized web pages catch people’s attention because they are individualized. In addition to customizing the URL, you should also sprinkle personalized information, such as the recipient’s name throughout the web page copy.

pURLs are really good at helping drive traffic to an opt-in page. A typical pURL campaign might look like this:

1. Person receives postcard or email with their personalized URL asking them to visit the page.
2. She goes to that page where she is invited to opt-in to a list to receive information that is of interest to her, such as a video or special report.
3. She signs up and receives the gift, thus being added to your list.
4. You send her a series of three targeted follow up emails that gently show her your expertise and nudge her toward taking the next step with you, which could be scheduling an appointment or purchasing a low-cost item such as a book.

Depending on how much information you have in your database, you can customize each web page to include more than just the person’s name. This allows for a great deal of creativity and can be very impressive.

That said, be strategic about this technique. You don’t want to customize something that is too obviously mass produced. For example, I recently signed up on an angel reader’s website. Within a couple of days, I received an email saying that he had had a dream about me with an important message. I was appalled. If he really had a dream about me, specifically, there is no way he would have taken the time to create a web page just for me. That is a royal waste of time. It was so obviously a marketing ploy, I unsubscribed.

Using pURLs can be a powerful way to connect with your target audience — but only if you do so strategically, wisely and prudently.

Here are some additional resources for pURLs:

• pURL software: aboutpurls.easypurl.com
• Free ebook: How to Optimize Landing Pages & PURLs
• Article: Use PURLs to Catch Your Prospect’s Eye

* Not to be confused with a PURL, which a persistent URL.