Plavidian Response™ · Personal URLs and QR codes

Personal URLs and QR Codes for Direct Mail: Know Who Responded

Plavidian Response™ gives every recipient in your mailing a short code of their own, printed with the address as a web address and a QR code. The code opens a page made for that person, or your own website, and each scan, visit and form answer is recorded against the piece that went out. Add it to an addressed mailing when you order.

New Available on your next addressed mailing. Choose it when you order, and Plavidian sets up the codes and your page with you.

Add It to a Mailing Get a Custom Quote

Questions? Call 760-666-3130 or schedule a phone or video call.

A Response Page on a phone: the headline greets the recipient by first name, an offer shows their code, and a short form requests an appointment — A Response Page on a phone. Sample business and recipient.

How it works

Add it when you order
In the job builder, choose Plavidian Response on the Impression and Response step, then pick where the code takes people: a page made for each recipient, or your own website. You can also add it from your job page until the pieces are addressed.
We make a code for every record
When your mailing list is final, each record gets its own short code. Our inkjet prints it with the address, as a web address and a QR code, so a postcard, self-mailer or flat needs no separate print file for it.
Recipients scan or type it
A phone camera opens the QR code. The web address can be typed with or without the hyphen, in capitals or not. There is no app to install and nothing to sign in to.
You see who responded
Visits, scans and form answers show in your Plavidian account, by day and by ZIP, with each one tied to the piece that was mailed. Form answers are emailed to you as they arrive.

Response Codes

One code per piece, and no names in the web address

A Response Code is the short code printed on one piece. The QR code and the typed address open the same page, and your results count them apart, so you can see how people chose to respond. The code is the whole web address: no name or street appears in any link, on any job, so a forwarded link or a browser history shows nothing personal.

The codes are made from your final mailing list and travel with each record through presort, so after the mailing is prepared every code is linked to the Intelligent Mail barcode on its own piece.

Illustration of the address side. The QR code and the short address both carry the piece's code; the name and address are samples.

Response Pages

A page made for the person you mailed

Each code opens a Response Page: your offer, a clear next step and, if you want it, a headline that greets the recipient by first name. Build it yourself from your job page or from Plavidian Studio, or ask us to build it. Start from a ready-made layout:

Appointment request
Offer redemption
Event RSVP
Survey
Donate or volunteer
Update your info

Then change it block by block: a headline, text, images, two columns, an offer that shows the recipient's code, buttons, a form, a video, locations and hours, a countdown to the offer's end, and a footer. Pick the colors, lettering and button style, or take the colors from your mail piece's own artwork so the page matches what arrived in the mailbox. The preview shows the page as one recipient will see it.

Pages show your business or campaign name, not ours, on a neutral web address, so agencies and consultants can use them for clients. Political and voter-file mailings show no name on the page by default.

The Response Page builder in a Plavidian account: the page blocks in order, a layout picker, the look of the page, and a live preview for one recipient — The page builder in your account, with a live preview for one recipient. Sample business.

Your own website

Or send them to your website, tagged as coming from the mailer

Choose your own website instead and each code goes straight there. The visit is counted on the way through, so your Plavidian results are the same either way, and the link arrives with tags your analytics already reads: the source is direct mail, the medium is print, the campaign is named, and the piece's code rides along so a sale can be traced to the mailer that started it.

What your analytics sees

?utm_source=direct_mail&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=campaign&plv=code

Form answers come to you

When a Response Page has a form, every answer is emailed to the addresses you choose as it arrives, and all of them download as a spreadsheet. Forms carry a consent line you can edit, and submissions from robots are screened out before they are saved.

Results

Know who responded, piece by piece

Results open from your job page. Every number is counted from the codes on the pieces you mailed, not estimated from a call log or a coupon count.

People who visited: How many recipients opened their page, and what share of the pieces that is.
Form responses: How many sent the form, with the share of pieces, and the latest answers on screen.
Scanned or typed: QR scans and typed visits counted apart, plus visits to the campaign page without a personal code.
By day, against the mail date: Visits and form answers per day, with the day the mail went out marked on the chart.
By ZIP: Pieces, visitors, responders and the visit rate for each ZIP Code in the mailing.
Two downloads: Every form answer, and every piece with its code, its Intelligent Mail barcode and its visits.

Visits from search engines and link checkers are left out of every count, and seed pieces you mail to yourself are left out of the rates.

Tied to the mailing

Response and Insight on the same job

Plavidian Insight™, included with every addressed mailing, follows each piece by its Intelligent Mail barcode through USPS scans. Response links each code to that same barcode. So one job record holds both halves of the story: when the pieces moved through the mailstream, and who answered. Insight's delivery curve draws the response visits day by day on the same dates as the deliveries, and the piece download lists each barcode beside its visits.

Pair it with a Plavidian Impression™ Informed Delivery campaign and recipients who see your piece in the USPS morning email can click through from the email as well.

Plavidian Insight delivery map: every mailpiece plotted at its street address and colored by USPS scan status — Plavidian Insight on a live mailing: one dot per piece, colored by USPS scan status.

Private by design

What a recipient's page does not do

A personal page should help the person who got the mail and no one else. These rules are built in on every job.

No names in links: The code is the whole address. Nothing in a link identifies the person it was mailed to.
Hidden from search engines: Response Pages tell search engines not to index or follow them, and their robots file turns every crawler away.
No cookies, no tracking scripts: Response Pages set no cookies and carry no analytics or ad scripts. Forms work without them.
An end date you set: When the campaign ends, codes open a general page instead of the personal one.
Personal data removed: 90 days after the end by default, names, addresses and form answers are deleted. The counts stay.
Your name on the page: Recipients see your business or campaign, on a neutral web address. Plavidian's name is not on the page.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

What is a personal URL (PURL) on direct mail?

A web address printed on one mailpiece that belongs to the person it was mailed to. With Plavidian Response, each piece carries a short code that works as a typed web address and as a QR code, and opens a page made for that recipient. Because every code is unique, a visit tells you which piece, and which person, responded.

Do recipients need an app?

No. A phone camera reads the QR code, and the short web address works in any browser. There is nothing to install and no sign-in.

Can the code send people to our own website?

Yes. Choose your website when you add Plavidian Response and each code goes straight there, tagged with utm_source=direct_mail, utm_medium=print, the campaign and the piece's code. The visit is counted in your Plavidian results on the way through.

Is anyone's name in the web address?

No. The code is the whole address, on every job. A Response Page can greet a recipient by first name, and political and voter-file mailings show no name by default.

Who builds the Response Page?

You can, from your job page or from Plavidian Studio, starting from one of six layouts; or ask Plavidian to build it. Plavidian makes the page live once the codes are made, and changes you save after that show to recipients right away.

How long do you keep the responses?

Until the campaign's end date and then 90 days by default, when names, addresses and form answers are deleted and the counts are kept. Download the form answers and the piece list from your results before then.

What does it cost?

Plavidian confirms the price with you before anything is billed. It is billed with the mailing; postage is paid separately, as on every mailing.

Which mailings can carry it?

Addressed postcards, self-mailers and flats on Mailing and Print + Mail jobs, chosen in the job builder or added from the job page before the pieces are addressed. The codes are made from your final mailing list.

Does it work on EDDM mail?

EDDM pieces carry no names or addresses, so there are no personal codes. A route mailing can carry one campaign address in its artwork instead, opening one page for everyone; its visits are counted for the campaign as a whole, not by piece. Ask about it when you order.

Put a response on every piece

Plavidian Response is new. Add it to your next mailing in the job builder, or send us the piece, the list and the date and a mail specialist will price the mailing with it.