We all know that retargeting is a critical component of any marketing strategy. Choosing to attend college is not an easy decision and prospects typically need several interactions to move from awareness to purchase (to use classic, consumer sales funnel language). Retargeting is the best way to stay top-of-mind.
While digital retargeting is something we have long recommended (through display and social ads), we’ve also been seeing great results with direct mail retargeting—specifically postcards. Since many colleges can send mail at reduced, non-profit rates, this tactic provides an economical way to combine digital retargeting with the proven power of direct mail.
“Our clients love postcard retargeting because it provides a tangible component to their media strategy,” says GradComm’s Client Success Director, Jamie McNinch. “We’ve seen great results in promoting counseling/advising services, workshops, open houses and other student engagement opportunities that inspire enrollment by putting a postcard into the hands of potential students and their families.”
The main goal of any retargeting strategy is to reconnect with prospects who have shown interest by visiting your website but haven’t been “converted” (aka taken the necessary action to reach your desired outcome). In the case of digital retargeting, this means seeing digital or social ads after they’ve left your website. In the case of direct mail retargeting, this means getting a postcard in the mail.
Direct mail retargeting can work a few different ways, but here’s how we do it at GradComm:
- Targeted ads drive a student to your website (say, the landing page for your current campaign) but he/she/they doesn’t click the apply button.
- Using a tracking code (that we give you and your IT adds to your landing page), your website identifies the visitor and forwards that information to our vetted, third-party vendor in a privacy compliant way. (This information is available for about 50% of visitors.)
- Our vendor then matches that visitor to a physical mailing address (using privacy compliant technology of their own) and sends out a postcard (that we wrote and designed for you) that day.
Pretty cool, right? Apart from copy and design approval, it’s pretty much a “set it and forget it” type of tactic.
It is also customizable to your needs. Not only can postcard delivery be controlled by your own budget (by setting a daily, weekly, or monthly limit), you can also refine delivery by zip code. So, for example, if you had a small budget and wanted to limit your spend to just your immediate service area, you could.
Along the way, we’ve learned a few things that have helped us increase efficacy:
- Using a trackable QR code allows you to track conversions so you can measure success.
- An oversized postcard (we usually recommend sumo size) will help your piece get noticed and not lost in the junk mail.
- Vibrant designs, targeted copy, and a clear CTA are critical to effective conversion.
Saddleback, Contra Costa, Allan Hancock, West Valley, and Cerritos colleges are just a few of our clients who have leveraged this tactic.
“One thing that is cool about what we do for AHC is that we have a postcard for every program, so when someone visits a program page on their site, they get a postcard for the program they looked at,” says Jamie. “The ability to customize the postcard to the user experience goes beyond just delivering an Apply Now message, it tells the potential student, we noticed what you are interested in and we want to help you start your journey here. Because it’s print on demand, it’s pretty cost efficient to design postcards that match the action individuals take on the website. We are about to implement a similar strategy for IVC.”
Including a direct contact number or email is another way to really kick up your ROI and move seamlessly from lead generation efforts to lead conversion (an important transition that community college marketing often fails to consider).
Here’s an example of what we did for Orange County Regional Consortium’s FutureBUILT career education campaign.
The problem with direct mail has always been its untargeted and untrackable nature. Like a billboard, it’s power is that it hits everyone that passes it, but that is also its weakness.
Direct mail retargeting is powerful because it changes all that.
By leveraging the data collecting and tracking abilities of the digital world, direct mail retargeting is a powerful and effective way to engage, empower, and convert prospects into enrolled students.
