Omnichannel Solution Advances University’s Student Search Efforts | Education
6/12/2025
RRD’s Marketing Hub LIFT℠ combines direct mail with digital advertising to increase outreach to prospective students and parents
CHALLENGE
A public university in the Midwest sought to increase the response rate to their direct mail student search efforts. Concerned that too few prospective students were adding the school to their consideration list for admission, the university wanted to ensure their information was generating substantial interest.
The university faced an additional challenge as well: Their less-than-satisfactory response rates, coupled with rising postage costs, were making it increasingly difficult for the university to justify sending their current mailers to prospective high-school students and their parents. They sought a way to improve their direct mail programming — and generate additional mail touchpoints.
SOLUTION
The university entrusted RRD, an established partner, with these challenges.
Following consultation with the university’s marketing, admissions, and digital teams, RRD deployed Marketing Hub LIFT℠ as an omnichannel solution for their direct mail challenges. LIFT leveraged the university’s existing CRM data and combined direct mail with digital advertising to increase the number of impressions. The resulting design changes and omnichannel integrations made the mailer more effective in the university’s student search process. RRD also provided the university with a user-friendly dashboard, enabling them to easily track results of each mailing and measure ROI.
RESULTS
RRD’s solution resulted in more impressions and higher campaign engagement. LIFT gave them the ability to track the results and make a connection with students and parents via integrated offline and online advertising as part of the outreach. Two initial mailings were executed utilizing LIFT. Specific results included:
- The first student search mailing utilizing LIFT generated 8.9 impressions per piece mailed. Nearly 4,700 respondents took direct action, including scanning a personalized QR code. The mailing, augmented by digital advertising, resulted in more than 2.65MM online impressions/ad displays.
- The second search mailing featured design changes. The interior of the piece included more personalization, and the personalized QR code was moved to the inside to create more interaction. As a result, the number of prospects that scanned the QR code increased by 55%, contributing to ongoing campaign engagement increases.