College marketing campaigns are becoming more important in the quest to attract new, non-traditional students in today’s competitive landscape. Direct Mail is Still a Powerhouse to Find New College Students.
Direct mail marketing is an excellent way for acquiring new students for higher education classrooms. This is particularly effective when reaching out into the community to market to adult learners, bringing in new people to your programs, and filling classrooms.
Proactively reaching out to people enables you to catch their attention and refer them over to your website or social media to learn more.
Your approach to choosing who should receive your information depends on the education programs you are promoting.
Recommended Direct Marketing Steps for Night School, Continuing Education, Community Enrichment and Other General Adult Educational Programs
The first step will be to determine WHERE you want to mail.
Some schools will pick out the areas where they currently have the highest concentration of students. Others will target areas where they want to grow visibility. Select zip codes or postal carrier routes which are smaller. Maybe a distance or drive-time radius would work for you.
The next step will be to choose WHO you want to mail to. Two different approaches are commonly used.
- Select a demographic target – such as age, income, gender, or marital status
- Blanket the community – mail to all households in your target geography
Direct marketing gives you the power to target people based on their unique demographics. These can include education level, occupation, age, marital status, interests, and many other attributes. It is a proven marketing channel for attracting new students.
You can always decide to split your target audience to test which segments respond best, and what type of mailpiece (brochure, catalog, postcard) works best for your student marketing.
This is a good time to reach outside your existing student database to inform people about the programs you offer.
ListAbility has the expertise to guide you through the process of obtaining a highly targeted mailing or email list. A better list will pay dividends when getting your school noticed by the right people. In addition, accurate lists will garner savings with reduced printing and postage costs.
