Direct mail is one of the most common ways colleges and universities communicate with their students, prospective students and alumni. It’s a reliable way to get key information out and encourages recipients to respond when they’re interested.
Every year, educational institutions mail thousands of postcards, flyers, brochures and other types of mailers for recruiting, raising money, and engaging with alumni. Given the constant flow of these communications, universities and colleges can benefit from automating their direct mail for higher education marketing.
Automated direct mail is convenient because mailer campaigns don’t have to be planned out or scheduled. Print pieces are automatically mailed based on certain triggers, like when new students are added to a roster, or when alumni from a specific graduating class turn a certain age.
The other benefit of direct mail automation is that a professional mail house is in charge of making sure all print materials are delivered on time to the right contacts. You won’t have to use your own resources to print the postcards or brochures or worry about addressing them or managing a massive mailing list. Every aspect of the direct mail marketing campaign is managed by an experienced team of mailer marketing professionals with their very own in-house print facility and automation expertise.
Take a look at these marketing ideas on how you could use automated direct mail for your next campaign.
1. Increase Student Enrollment with Direct Mail Marketing
College admissions marketing is at the forefront of many leaders in education. As a top concern, colleges and universities must be fairly aggressive with their marketing tactics, and direct mail offers a convenient and effective way to send information out on a regular basis.
With direct mail triggers in place, you could mail brochures to all students who have just completed junior year in the surrounding areas of the university, or even across the entire country. Within the trigger of mailing to high school seniors, you can also specify the types of schools – public, private, college prep schools, or military academies for example.
These direct mail campaigns can also be triggered based on seasons and dates. So for example, when SAT scores typically go out, or in May when school is out. Once you determine when you want the mail to be sent and set up the direct mail trigger, it will continue to churn out those college admissions marketing mailers on a schedule until you tell it to stop.
Of course the more mail you send out the better because students and their parents will be reminded of the educational opportunities you are providing to them.
If you need more marketing ideas to increase college enrollment, you can always take a look at some of the education industry case studies PostcardMania has on its site. You’ll be able to browse postcard designs and read about successful direct mail campaigns.
2. Improve Alumni Engagement with Direct Mail
A college or university’s communication with alumni never stops because former students are alumni for life. Even when graduates move from place to place, often one of the first things they do is reach out to their college and let them know about their new address so they can stay in-the-know about their alma mater.
Newsletters, alumni magazines, postcards, and other print materials get mailed out to alumni throughout the year so an alumni mailing service is a must-have. But the best way to send alumni mailers is by setting up an integration within an API. Automated direct mail will save time and also increase the amount of engagement you are receiving from alumni.
You can even set up a mail trigger that automatically sends a postcard to a person who has visited your alumni website. But any triggered mail you start will save you time and energy because you won’t have to put in any effort on getting the mail piece out exactly when you need to.
Other opportunities for connecting with alumni through a mailer include alumni events, announcements, requests for donations, and alumni news to name a few.
How do I set up direct mail marketing for colleges and universities?
PCM Integrations has a whole team of experienced professionals in the direct mail marketing industry who know exactly how to create automated triggered mail for you. Instead of wasting a lot of time, energy, and money on creating a mail campaign yourself, you can work with us to set up regular mailings. Even if you have to change a mailer design or update a mail trigger, we will get it done for you lightning fast.
Curious about the impact direct mail automation could have on your marketing strategy?
Contact us today and see just how easily you can get started.