Personal URLs - FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about online PURL marketing

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  • How does online self service work?

    It's easy. Create an online account, decide how many Personalized URLs your campaign(s) will need over time, and follow the step by step instructions to create and execute your cross media marketing campaign.

  • What kind of commitment is required?

    None. There are never any setup fees and no contracts are required. You pay by the month and you can add PURLs to your account at any time.

  • How long are landing pages hosted?

    Landing pages are hosted as long as you keep an account active with VDP Web.

  • How long are the PURLs active?

    Personal URLs are active for 90 days from the point they are assigned to a prospect. We will send an alert as PURLs near expiration and give you the chance to extend their use.

  • I already have a website, why do I need a landing page for my PURLs?

    VDP Web will assign a domain name for your landing page with your information. Landing pages are hosted on our servers so that you do not need to change any website configurations on your current site and so that our powerful reporting tools can collect visit data. The default format for your PURL will be: http://yourcompany.vdpconcepts.com/purlname and http://www.yourcompany.vdpconcepts.com/purlname or you can chose your own.

  • Can I use my own domain for the Landing Page?

    Absolutely. When you create a new campaign we will assign you a unique domain, in the format of "yourcompany.vdpconcepts.com" so that you can have immediate access to your landing page and personalized URL. You can then assign any domains that you own for your landing page or you can use a DNS record to point to the landing page. A dedicated website would look like www.yourfirm.com/purlname or a DNS site would be www.vip.yourfirm.com/purlname.

  • Why do you format the PURL with the prospect’s PURL name last?

    We know that 15% of respondents will truncate the PURL and exclude their name. By putting the name at the end of the personal URL the prospect still sees the offer the campaign is promoting rather than sending them to the sender’s main landing page. Additionally, the wildcard DNS record required for other formats can cause conflicts with security and email settings in many systems.

  • Can landing pages include special features such as video?

    Absolutely. You can add any feature that is usually available in HTML. Flash, video links to pay or free sites, and more can all be part of your landing pages.

  • What does phone support include?

    Enterprise level clients enjoy phone support as part of their account. This service is not intended to serve as a marketing consultancy or a training resource for HTML, CSS or general web development. Assistance with marketing and web development is available at additional cost.

  • Can my clients access the reporting module directly?

    Reseller and Enterprise customers can setup as many client companies and sub-accounts as required.

  • How do I order Custom Content Wizards or Additional Services?

    Contact us to order a new Content Wizard or upload your file(s) for full service data or design help. For API access please call one of our campaign specialists.

  • What about email?

    We do not provide email on the online application. To execute a truly integrated cross media marketing campaign with integrated email, unique 800#s, and more - consider the full service enterprise level VDP Web. For more information or to order this service, please call us. Or click here to contact us online.

  • What are "PURL Credits?"

    One PURL Credit creates a unique personalized URL for one prospect. PURL Credits may be purchased in bulk for use with multiple campaigns and clients. They remain useable for a period of one year from their purchase date, allowing you to budget ahead and buy in larger quantities for volume discounts.

    Each PURL Credit is valid for 90 days from the time it is associated with a prospect in our system. If a prospect is being targeted by more than one campaign, they will need to be assigned a PURL for each campaign.

  • What are "Landing Page Credits?"

    For campaigns where no Personalized URLs are assigned to prospects, landing pages are available. Landing pages, also called generic URLs (GURLs) or Constant URLs (CURLs) allow prospects to access your content, surveys and opt-ins from a standard domain name. GURLs are perfect for broadcast media, such as television & radio and also as a reliable tracking mechanism and data collection point for paid search placement.

    A Landing Page Credit allows you to create a single GURL campaign. The landing page will remain active as long as you keep your account or until you choose to disable it.

  • What are "Do it For Me: List Append Credits?"

    Each credit provides for the VDP Web support team to upload and map the contents of one data file to the system. Data can be emailed in .csv, .xls, .txt and many other formats for insertion to the system. Please note that these credits do not include merge/purge, de-duping, or list combination data services. Our support team will quote these tasks on a case by case basis.

  • What are "Do it For Me: HTML Coding Credits?"

    Each credit is good for creating one page of XHTLM/CSS landing page code from your design that is provided to us as a .psd, .ai, .pdf file layout

    The size of the layout must be proportional to the size you wish the landing page to be. This layout needs to contain all graphics, background images & photos, as well as samples of the preferred size and colors of headers, paragraphs, and the footer text. Remember that we can only use web safe fonts for text. Unique fonts will need to placed in the site as images.