Question regarding the customized urls

[Cecile_Maindron]

Hi,

This question has been raised during our MUG. What is the exact purpose of customized urls/PURLS?
I understand that it allows you to make the urls look nicer (for instance on prints) and that you can also personnalized the urls with the first names and last names within a specific smart list.
Does the fact that we have a series of unique urls make reporting easier?
Does that mean that somebody outside the smartlist cannot use the url? or that url cannot be used twice?

If you are using customized urls, can you let me know how and why?

thanks
 

Cécile Maindron

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The main reason we used them was to make them semi-private to people outside of the smart list and enable some level of personalization.  However with Segmentations and Dynamic Content this is no longer necessary and the URLs are even cleaner without the personalized extension.

I woulld say that the main reason to use them now is for snail mail to leads that are not cookied or in Marketo yet.

[Anonymous]

Hi Cecile,

I agree with Elliott, PURLS are meant to be used for direct mail as far as I know.  The best use case I have seen was for a client who makes medical devices.  My collegue worked on this consulting engagement, so I don't know the details, but if I remember correctly they used it to personalize the landing page with details about the device.  So, for example, if I were a new customer, they would mail me a sheet of paper with the PURL on it.  I would go to the landing page and it would be personalized with my name and details about my device. 

I hope this helps!