If you were given information about a Web site that had your name embedded in the URL, wouldn’t you want to check it out as soon as possible? Toronto-based N5R is banking on that with their uniquely personalized new URL product – MySite. Talk about taking the whole ‘it’s all about me’ catchphrase to heart, if Roman Bodnarchuk, chairman and CEO of the digital online agency had his way, one-stop-shop Web sites would be out the door.
‘[Generic Web sites] just aren’t working,’ says Bodnarchuk. ‘So many companies put up generic sites hoping it appeals to all consumers but essentially they are just trying to fit too many people – new and past customers – into that one experience.’
MySite is a marketing solution that works in both the B-to-B or consumer environment, using email, SMS or DM campaigns to drive customers to their own personalized 10-page URL or micro-Web site. A home page welcomes you by name and includes anything from incentives, prizes or specifically tailored information.
At roughly $1 a micro-site, this new product, which has the user fill out a specialized profile, can be used as both an acquisition and retention tool.
‘The problem is most of us are living in the acquisition world, we don’t really do a good job at retention,’ says Bodnarchuk. ‘And yet we know that adage ‘it costs five times more money to add a new customer than keeping an existing one.’ So with MySite it’s an acquisition tool that automatically becomes a retention tool.’
A factor that was key for the Toronto Star when they utilized MySite for a campaign targeting their top 4,000 advertisers in July. N5R designed a unique over-sized postcard with a graphic of two naked guys running through a field, with their bottoms covered up (aimed at the key demographic of media and ad buyers). And although there was an incentive to win a Vespa scooter, $5,000 (USD) Amex gift certificate and 43′ plasma TV, along with a weekly prize, what also contributed to driving them to MySite was the subject – ‘ad buyer goes wild – to read the full story visit the site we’ve built for you (theirname.goeswild.com).’
‘It was very different than what we’ve done in the past but it worked very well – we got a 24% response rate on the postcard,’ says Lara Barlow, manager of marketing and strategy for Toronto Star ad division.
‘The fact that we have this list of advertisers, very few of which we had email addresses for… this application was fabulous for providing us a way to bring them to an online site to gather their information.’
Since Toronto Star completed their DM and MySite campaign, they have launched a customer newsletter, which allows them to keep in touch on a monthly basis.
N5R’s MySite has also done sizeable amount on the consumer side with clients like Aviawest Resorts and Foresters. The premise of the unique URL is the same with special offers and prizes based on a survey the user fills out each time they’re subtly ‘pushed’ to visit their personalized site.
