Seriously, it’s not. The increase in the use of email marketing has given many colleges the impression that direct mail is just not used anymore, but that’s not true. Let me explain…

The use of direct mail has decreased in the past few years, as companies experiment and make use of email technology. However, recent studies have shown an increase in direct mail as a consumer’s preferred contact method, while the preference for email has decreased.

This is interesting since today’s college student is technology focused, but not surprising as the rate of scams, spam and junk mail increases. As a college, your prospective students are more digitally savvy than many of us will ever be, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the only way they want to be contacted. As email messages, whether or not college related, bombard a student’s inbox, it becomes harder to grab their attention. So what’s going to make your school stand out?

A great way to really hit home with marketing messages is to use a cross-media approach. Sometimes it’s more effective to connect with prospects offline in order to encourage interaction online. For example, design a great mail piece, such as a postcard with a call to action, then send out a corresponding email, both driving the student to a personalized URL (PURL). This combined effort has a much higher probability of generating a response than each individual piece by itself.

Many generations of people are still interested in getting direct mail pieces, regardless of their interest level in technology and all things digital. Generation Y (born 1985-2004), which is the group you are currently trying to recruit, is nicknamed “millennials,” “echo boomers,” and “the net generation,” and as children of the baby boomers, it’s the largest generation of all. While this group was raised with computers, the Internet and is now crazed with Facebook, Twitter and various Blogs, you can still grab their attention with non-digital messages. Direct mail will give students a tangible way to interact with your college or university. It rounds out the entire college search process in the 21^st century – online applications and registrations, live chats with admissions reps, private social networks, and the like.

Direct mail is NOT dead. It’s simply underestimated.

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posted by Erica on May 20th, 2010 Posted in Admission | 4 Comments »

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