As technology has evolved, so have consumers’ concerns surrounding the use of their personal data. Not only are they leery of providing information, consumers also are leery of who uses their personalized data and for what purposes. Marketers can ease their customers’ concerns by taking precautions, especially surrounding their online marketing efforts. Here are a few tips to think about when creating a personalized URL campaign:

1. Define and Assess Security Risks of the Website
In the planning stages you should define and assess the potential security issues with your marketing campaign to minimize their impact. If the website includes sensitive data, consider creating a threat model to identify the risks and possible vulnerabilities. The analysis assists the development team in its website set-up.

2. Take Complete Stock of the Website
Information security is not just about preventing theft or damage. It also includes ensuring your website is available, fast enough, complying with legal and regulatory requirements, providing accurate information, preventing release of confidential information to unauthorized users and inappropriate use, protecting your users, and providing the ability to analyze and learn from incidents.

3. Password Protection
Consider using a unique four-digit number when creating the pURL string. This keeps recipients from accidentally or purposely viewing another individual’s site. For example, you may have several individuals in your mail file with the same first initial and last name, so in this case you’d have to use a number to identify each (JSmith1, JSmith2, JSmith3 …). If JSmith2 was inclined, he could access JSmith1’s pURL. It’s better to assign a random multiple-digit number to each pURL so your recipients can’t crack your code. Some marketers use separate passwords included in the marketing offers with the p-URLs so recipients can securely access their sites.

4. Test Before and After Rollout
All projects must include structured testing. Security testing involves checking what is not allowed on the site as well as the intended functionality. This requires thinking outside of the box to foresee any potential obstacles. You should proof pURL sites before a marketing campaign deploys as well as after.

5. Monitor Your Reports
Review your data collection reports often to identify abnormal behavior and how these problems occurred. Problems with capturing information can skew your results and possibly prevent a future marketing campaign. It’s also a good idea to protect the reports from alteration. In some instances, we’ve seen recipients of pURLs pass their personalized landing page information to friends, who then access and use the recipients’ identities to fill out the pages. This wreaks havoc on your reports. You may want to consider locking each pURL so the recipient cannot change her name, and instead provide her with the option to refer the friend so he gets his own p-URL.

Above all, use caution in handling sensitive information. For most marketers, customer data is their livelihood, and possible security issues can wreak havoc on their reputations. The Direct Marketing Association encourages marketers to establish their own security policies and procedures for secure information systems. This includes staff training and routine assessments, as well as agreements between all business partners and service providers that handle personally identifiable information.

As noted in recent Email Insider posts, e-mails are most likely to get opened not only when they are personalized, but also relevant to the recipient. This is especially true for the subject line. A mere 50 characters (the length of a typical subject line) are all you have to grab the attention of readers, enticing them not only to open your e-mail, but to take the desired action rather than report the e-mail as spam. For consideration, we share the top five insights for writing subject lines that are not squandered, but rather ensure campaigns are destined for success.

Tip 1: Read the newspaper. Do you want to develop subject lines that result in higher open rates? Pick up your local paper. News headlines provide an excellent example of how to highlight an important point with brevity. A good headline, and, by extension,  a good subject line,  is short and intriguing enough to compel the reader to read on. Where possible, the subject line should clearly state what readers can expect from your e-mail: what’s in it for them or what you want them to do as a result.

Tip 2: Remember your objective. Your objective should drive the content of your subject line. Before developing your subject line, think carefully about your objective as it is key to the success of your e-mail. If your objective is for your readers to buy something, your subject line should reflect that call-to-action. Ideally, try testing your subject lines on a small number of targets — or, at the very least, some co-workers outside your department — to see if their actions are on target with your objective. If not, re-work and try again.

Tip 3: Remember where you’re “from.” A good subject line sells recipients on opening it, but that could be all for naught if they don’t know where the e-mail came from. Ideally, the “from” field should be the name of your company; then there’s no need to include it in your subject line, freeing up valuable real estate. If you’re e-mailing a recipient for the first time, make sure the subject line creates some familiarity and conveys credibility.

Tip 4: Get to the point — quickly. As mentioned earlier, you only have 50 characters to develop a subject line that gets noticed. This equates to an approximate two-second window in which a recipient will decide to keep reading and open the e-mail, or press the “delete” button. Therefore it is critically important to include the most information most pertinent to your objective up front, always keeping your end goal in mind. Subject line length may vary based on e-mail provider, so send a test e-mail to yourself in order to make sure that important information, such as time and date, aren’t cut off when they reach your inbox.

Tip 5: Make it personal. In many cases, subject lines can be personalized based on past purchases or Web site visits. However, if your customer database is up-to-date, you may also want to try personalizing your emails with first names, which may be even more persuasive. Be sure to use proper capitalization, such as “Alice” instead of “alice.” In addition, always include a link in your e-mail to where readers can update personal data and e-mail preferences to ensure you’re communicating with them in the manner they prefer.

Squandering the subject line is one of the easiest ways to subvert an email campaign. Here’s to better subject lines, leading to even stronger campaigns.

There’s no substitute for a good offer. Sylva Wilson, marketing analyst with St. Louis-based machine tool distributor Hartwig Inc., says it’s best for the offer to be a bit of a tease. A piece that Wilson mailed in late November employed a theme based on the NBC game show “Deal or No Deal.”

“On the piece, it’s got a picture of a case, and it says ‘Go to visit your personalized URL … and enter for a chance to win the contents of case No. 13,’” Wilson says. “Well, that’s not enough. So what we do is, right underneath that, we [say], ‘When you get to your site, you’ll be able to see what’s inside of case No. 13.’ That alone will entice.

Marketers can continue making incremental progress via the personalized URL, Wilson says. The way she encouraged progress was to make the “Deal or No Deal” offer good enough on the Hartwig personalized URLs for campaign prospects to go ahead and register for the campaign’s associated event and receive their giveaway. To make the giveaway relevant, she pays attention to audience interests and, particularly, to the hobbies prospects have in that “territory.” For example, Texas prospects win hunting trips.

Also,  the landing page with a name that’s longer than your arm? Jettison it, because nobody will type it in.

Hartwig prospects see a pattern in each offer. It’s their names, plus a numeral that exactly relates to how many offers they’ve received. Joe Schmoe’s third offer personalized URL would read: vip.hartwiginc.com/joeschmoe3.

Beyond these measures, a good way to provide extra security to personalized URL users is to clamp on a few random numerals at the end.

Because these URLs are so easy to track, Wilson even uses them to measure magazine advertisement response. Instead of a prospect name, she adds in whatever the advertorial concerns (i.e., vip.hartwiginc.com/bestwipers regarding windshield wipers; and vip.hartwiginc.com/customerservice regarding customer service)

Wilson says all this work reduces confusion. “I definitely try and keep it simple … We find that the simpler you keep it, the easier it is” for prospects to remember the personalized URL and easily type it in their browsers when they see a new offer.

Ever since the economy hit a major road bump more than a year ago, investment from most companies in direct mail similarly has slowed. Meanwhile, new, cheaper channel players like email, social media and mobile marketing are hogging the funds and growing in popularity.

Thus, many questions arise. Are these new players friends or foes to direct mail? Will the latest fashion—email, social media and mobile—fade over time and direct mail make a comeback of sorts? Or will trends of declining mail continue?

I asked these questions to some leading experts in direct marketing and direct mail. You may be surprised by what they had to say.

1. What Is Old Can Be New Again

There’s been some evidence that all the email we’re sending is hurting its efficacy, says one direct marketer. At the same time, direct mail has “rested” long enough so now it’s working even better than before—what’s old appears new again.

In other words, there can be a peaceful, and even profitable, co-existence between direct mail and the new channels. Neither have to fade, but rather simply find its rightful place in the communications mix.

2. Mail May Be Old, but It’s Wise

Many direct markers think mail can make a viable comeback, but only if mail is used intelligently rather than the “spray and pray” method. Another direct marketer asks that you don’t think vast quantities (mass media mind-set). Instead, think in terms of segments (relevant messaging mind-set).

As marketers get smarter about how their customers respond, there may indeed be a movement to segmentation of customers by those who respond well to email compared to direct mail. For example, some customers may need only an email to buy. Others may require the mail piece.

Additionally, another metric that will be important is average order values by email vs. direct mail.

3. Each Channel Has Its Strengths, Just Need to Play to Them

A nonprofit direct marketer says that there are certain things each channel does well … depending on the type (B-to-B, B-to-C, nonprofit, etc.) and stage (from cold call to advocate) of the relationship. The challenge for marketers is to develop a fuller appreciation for the uniqueness of those relationships and to avoid the temptation to have all of the channels be everything to everyone.

He urges marketers to get past the broadcast mentality. For example, stay with a consistent multichannel plan of using mail for acquisition, email for retention and social media for CRM.

This is a time of experimentation. Marketing directors are busy probing the weaknesses and leveraging the strengths of each marketing platform, says a publishing copywriter. These marketers hope to discover which communication platform performs best on its own, and which are more effective as team players.

The difficulty? They want answers BEFORE things start to change once again, but that’s like solving an equation with moving parts or changing numbers

4. In Some Markets, Online Remains Small Potatoes

Another prominent nonprofit marketer thinks that donors have NOT come to favor email over mail. Nor does he think they are likely to do so in the years immediately ahead. Habits die hard, in other words.

Even if response rates in the mail (principally in acquisition) continue to decline, he doesn’t anticipate that response online will pick up the slack. He’s seen no such signs, in fact, despite the self-interested boosters of online fundraising and the wishful thinking of organizations that want to cut costs drastically by switching to email.

In some way, it’s very simple. Social media will work for some companies but not for others. Currently, there’s a big rush of people who are trying it because it is free and the hot new craze. Soon, it will fill find its place, but it’s still hard to measure. Meanwhile, one marketer states that mobile is likely to struggle and email will become less and less effective over time due to misuse/abuse.

In other words, direct mail is going nowhere.

For companies that had their heads in the clouds when it came time to upgrade their computers, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and JDA Software Group thought it was time for some skywriting. The technology firms sent out personalized direct mail pieces that featured a man with his arms spread upward, experiencing an epiphany due to these fluffy words forming above his head: “Joe Smith, The Moment Has Arrived.”

After determining customers’ upgrade schedules, personalized direct mail and e-mail, complete with Personalized URLs, led recipients to personalized landing pages. There, recipients learned all about how hardware from Palo Alto, California-based HP and Santa Clara, California-based Intel would support software from Scottsdale, Arizona-based JDA Software Group. The $50,000 campaign’s yield: a 9.2 percent response rate and $13 million in sales.

Results like these are causing many marketers to consider direct mail-to-landing page campaigns, and some to drill down further and provide Personalized URLs. Marketers say the direct mail captures prospects’ attention, and the landing page holds it by providing more details. Then the personalization, minimally, provides leads and, optimally, creates relationships.

Personalized URL’s were essential for the conversations that started in fall 2007 with prospects who were considering buying $500,000 to $1.5 million software suites. Customers revealed more information about themselves each time they visited their Personalized URL, which allowed HP, Intel and JDA to reciprocate and nurture them throughout the sales cycle so when customers were ready to buy, they bought the software suite the trio was offering.

“Being relevant and consistent is what separates this project from the many projects I have done in the past,” says Daniel Johnson, strategic relationship manager for Intel. “Sending specific [information] to specific people does make a huge difference. … This type of project takes good program management and it is a bit more time-intensive to set up, but the results are worth it.”

Johnson says the campaign took a month to get off the ground, then six to nine months to show results. It reached out to 2,200 people who could view case studies, videos and product information relevant to them based on their job functions — manager, director or finance officer.

5 Business Reasons for Social Media

1. Listening & Research to your customers to find out their wants, wishes and pain points. We live in a Web 2.0 world, if you re not a part of it you re missing out on a lot of information.
2. Communicating with your customers and prospects, not just about your products and services.
3. SEO: Social media is more than just communications and connections, it is a powerful business tool.
4. News & Information: Consumer habits have changed, people rely on their social networks and other Web 2.0 sources for news and information.
5. It is in line with the business objectives.

Leaderfest is a  Regional Young Professional event on April 20th hosted by Pulse, the Young Professionals Network of the Fox Cities Chamber. Below is a video of one of the sessions as well as the presentation itself… Enjoy and comments are always welcome!

Here are five elements your organization should be including in your marketing and PR strategy in 2011:

1.       Integrate your traditional public relations with the social media channels that you have developed.  Making your communications seamless across multiple channels will give your organization better efficiency and help insure a consistent “theme” is shared with your audience.

2.       Increase options and methods to facilitate conversations with your target audience.  A “contact us” fillable form isn’t enough these days.  Look for other ways to engage your audience.  Twitter, Linkedin, chat and other tools can help you reach new levels of contact and responsiveness to your audience.

3.       Review your content – people want participation, not propaganda.  Make sure that you offer the audience information that they can use and respond to – this should  motivate action (hopefully in your direction!).

4.       “Video Killed the Radio Radio Star” and it will do some damage to traditional communication channels –actually, it already has!  Back in 1979 when The Buggles released that single, video was new.  Radio is still alive today but radio stars are no more – they have embraced multiple channels to share their talent and as communicators we have to do the same.  Video, from professional to low budget podcasting will have its place in an organizations strategy.  Where does video fit for you?

5.       Metrics, metrics, metrics.  As integration of the channels continues, more opportunity for measuring technology enabled communication will help demonstrate return on investment for marketing and PR activities.  Make sure your organization can measure the impact of your communications and marketing programs.

These are just a few key thoughts, one thing is for certain, change is constant so hang on for the ride or get behind the wheel!

We just finished our “Fall into Folders” campaign and reflecting on the hits and misses is part of every campaign I do. I want to take a few steps back and talk about the “4 P’s” of campaign success and how they can make any campaign a victory.

The first P of campaign success is Precision. Targeting your marketing efforts and tailoring your database to the proper audience is key. There’s little reason to send out a direct mail campaign to a nursing home if you are targeting people who enjoy using playground equipment. A bit extreme, but you get the idea.

The second P is Presentation. The design and message in your postcard and subsequent landing pages is very important. Remember you only have a short moment in time to capture the attention of your audience, less then 3 seconds to be exact. The use of personalized images is one great way to capture attention and distinguish yourself from your competition.

The third P is PURL. I’m talking about personalized URL’s here. PURL’s are a great way to add teeth to your message. Turn a cold lead into an instant warm lead. Your call to action and offer was engaging enough to get them to visit the landing page and complete the survey. Now put your sales hat on, make that phone call and seal the deal. Without a PURL, you will never know who is interested and who is not.

The final P and most important key to campaign success is Performance. When you run a multi-channel, multi-touch campaign, the worst thing you can do it not track results. We live in a numbers oriented society and results count. Things like landing page hit rate, email open rates and how many people finished the survey provide vital feedback to a successful campaign. In my mind, running a campaign without the proper metrics in place is a sin and can be almost as bad as not doing the campaign at all. Having the proper return on marketing investment numbers will get you the support you need to run successful campaigns in the future.