AlmaMatters.org » Alumni Marketing

Use Large Window Envelopes to Get Attention and Get Opened

Ryan Erisman — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:38:24 +0000

Rule #1 of Direct Mail: Get the mail opened.

We’ve known for years that using large window envelopes leads to higher mail open rates. That’s why most of the direct mail campaigns we do for schools make use of a 6 x 9 large window envelope which allows the creative as well as the school branding to show through.

The December issue of USPS’s Deliver Magazine has another case study to prove our conclusion.

The Wilderness Society — a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit — adopted the larger windows for its bimonthly donor recruitment package, which it mails 2 to 3 million of annually. It now places the traditional single envelope used for the prospecting piece inside another envelope with an oversized window. And donors have taken notice.

When the double-envelope approach was tested against the single envelope, the oversized-window piece produced a 35-percent higher response rate, according to Robin Hickman, the group’s director of membership services. She adds that a subsequent test also generated a higher response rate, proving that doubling your efforts really can pay off.

If you want to see a boost in your mail open and resulting response rates, try a large window envelope for your next campaign and see what kind of lift you get.

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3 College Sports and Alumni Marketing Trends To Watch For In 2010

Ryan Erisman — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:48:23 +0000

As we wind down the year its time for everyone to come out with their “Top 10 this” or “Best 5 that” type lists. In the spirit of looking forward (because GREAT things are ahead of us in 2010) here are three trends to watch for and implement in college sports, development/booster, and alumni marketing in 2010.

Going Green
Everyone talks about the need/desire to go green and reduce their organization’s impact on the environment. We should use best practices such as emailing before sending out a direct mail piece for renewals. We should encourage people to renew or pay online. But perhaps the best green contribution college athletic and alumni organizations can make is through targeting. And many of you are already doing a great job at this.

Think about it. You’re probably not sending out ticket or membership renewals scatter shot…you’re sending them to people who were either ticketholders/members/donors last year, people who were previously ticketholders/members/donors who did not renew last year, and finally those who, based on prior relationship with your school (ie: graduates/alumni) might be highly likely to take action.

Contrast this with the pool care company that blankets a neighborhood with postcards sent to every home, instead of just homes with pools. I’m sure you can think of other examples of wasteful marketing, we see it everyday.

Pat yourself on the back, and think of ways that you can get even more targeted in your marketing and prospecting to 1) “go green” and 2) get even better results.

One possible strategy is profiling your current ticketholders/members/donors and finding out where they live, how many games they attend, what their annual giving habits are etc. Then go find other people that look just like them to target.

Localization
Alumni and Booster organizations are the best when it comes to practicing localization, defined for our uses here as using a member’s/donor’s current location as a connect point with your organization. You can see this in action with local chapters of alumni/booster organizations, usually in major metro areas.

But have you thought to use this in your marketing? Instead of a form letter or mailer that says the same exact thing to everyone, speak to each person individually. How about something like: “Join the other 2,419 Orlando area alumni by becoming a member today”.

This type of appeal lets them know that 1) you care about and “know” them as an individual and 2) uses the power of social proof (ie: the other 2,419 area alumni) to help tie them back to your organization.

Sound like a lot of work? Perhaps if you are doing all of your marketing in house. But to direct marketing companies like Replay Marketing that do this everyday, its all just variable data communication. We do it everyday, and can help you accomplish this.

Your data holds untapped power. It’s time to put it to use in 2010.

Integration
Many college sports and alumni marketing organizations experienced better results this year by integrating their marketing campaigns across multiple channels from direct mail, to email, and even personalized websites. This trend will continue to build momentum in 2010 simply because it works.

In tests in just about every industry it has been found that sales can be as much as 50% higher among those who receive a mail piece and click through to a personalized website than those who just visit the site on their own. An email either before or after sending a direct mail piece has also been proven to boost response significantly.

Isn’t this more expensive? It can be, but with proper planning probably not by much. You probably already use direct mail, email, and web in your marketing, just maybe not together. Integrate them, and your campaigns could be dangerously successful.

When doing your 2010 marketing planning keep these 3 trends in mind and look for ways to apply them effectively within your budget.

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Digital Experiences Matter in Collegiate Marketing

Ryan Erisman — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:07:35 +0000

There is a new report on digital marketing making the rounds and after reading it I thought it was important enough that everyone involved in alumni or college sports marketing should take some time to read.

FEED: The 2009 Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report is an annual study charting how technology is changing the way consumers engage with brands. Download the full report (pdf) or view a summary of the key findings embedded below.

FEED: The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report 2009 Key Findings

View more presentations from Razorfish Marketing.

As you are all well aware, a lot has happened over the past 12 months with the explosion of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others. It has no doubt changed the way we will all look at marketing going forward.

One big takeaway from the report is that, more so than ever, experiences matter. So much so that they are becoming the new advertising and marketing. And research proves that digital brand experiences create customers. According to the report:

“The overwhelming majority of consumers who engage with a brand online move from passive “receivers” to advocates almost instantly.”

This means that every alumni or college sports marketer must constantly be thinking about the kind of digital experiences they are creating for their alumni and fans, as well as how to make them aware that these experiences exist. What good is a viral video if only a percentage of your target audience is aware of it?

Of course use email, of course use Twitter, of course use Facebook. But don’t forget that traditional direct mail should also be used to drive people to your digital assets in order to provide an effective multi-channel and multi-touch strategy.

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3 Things Alumni Associations Can Learn From Magazine Publishers

Ryan Erisman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

In a parallel universe, I am sometimes hired by magazine publishers as a copywriter for subscriber acquisition and retention packages. While this in no way shape or form makes me an expert on such things, it has given me some insight into the various tactics that magazine publishers use to gain new subscribers and retain current customers*. Here are three strategies used by magazines that Alumni Associations should also consider when it comes to marketing to current and potential members.

Repetition – Think back to the last time you had a magazine subscription about to expire. How many mail pieces and reminders did you receive alerting you to the fact that your subscription was going to expire? Some publications start the barrage as many as six months before your subscription expires. This adds up to a lot of mail pieces and a good amount of money. But these savvy publishers are not doing this because they have some vendetta against trees. They’re doing it because it works. It is a proven fact in the direct marketing world that repetition drives recognition, which drives response. Quit after just one message? No way!

Now maybe you can’t sell internally the need and the budget required to send multiple direct mail reminders to current members or solicitations to prospects. That’s o.k. Repetition can work just as well when used across different channels, for instance, a direct mail piece followed up with an email. Just make sure you’re giving yourself more than one chance to succeed with every campaign you do.

Premiums – You’ve no doubt seen the offers that some magazines make. Subscribe today and get a free gym bag that you’ll never use. Or, get the complete guide to underwater basket weaving FREE with your paid subscription. While these may seem like trivial offers, they are all just a function of stacking the cool, and raising the perceived value of subscribing. This isn’t done out of goodwill, or the hope that people at the gym will see the magazine name on your new gym bag and go subscribe themselves. It’s done because it generates response and increases conversion by a factor of more than the cost of the premium. Pure and simple.

So what can Alumni Associations offer in exchange for renewing membership or joining? The possibilities are endless. Maybe a special edition t-shirt with the school logo. Maybe a limited edition print or personalized photo. If at all possible, offer something they can’t get anywhere else that has a perceived value that’s higher than the price of your membership.

Enlist Outside Expertise – A large percentage of people working at magazines are writers and designers. But what is surprising is that most publications go outside of their own staff when designing creative for mail pieces or writing copy for them. The reason is that sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. Meaning, you are so connected to the product (magazine…or…alumni association membership) that you lose sight of the true value proposition and cannot communicate it as effectively as someone from the outside looking in can.

Maybe hiring outside designers and copywriters isn’t feasible for every campaign. But try it at least once a year and see if you don’t get a unique take on what you have to offer as an alumni association, and an increase in response to go along with it.

Anyway, I hope these three tips have given you some new ideas and something to think about for your next campaign.

–

*Please Note: I’m fully aware that some magazines are losing subscribers left and right, and some have even gone out of business. But I firmly believe its not for a lack of skill in communicating their message and squeezing everything they can out of their marketing. The broad availability of content online has simply changed people’s reading habits. Many people, as is their inherent right, simply don’t wish to pay good money for something they can have for free.

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NCSU Alumni and Boosters Cut Direct Mail Costs With a CoMailing

Ryan Erisman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:48:43 +0000

Everyone is looking for ways to save on their marketing costs, and rightfully so. But sometimes this is hard to do without either sacrificing the quality of your marketing or the quantity (amount of people you can reach).

One tactic that a lot of companies and organizations are using that can easily be copied by college athletic, alumni, and booster organizations is to do what are called “co-mailings”. As the name suggest this is simply partnering up with another organization (either internal or external…but could be both) and communicating your marketing messages in the same mail package.

This works best for decent size mail packages where there is a lot of real estate to get everyone’s messaging across. You probably want to stay away from things like post cards in this case.

A recent example of a co-mailing we did was for the NC State Alumni Association and the Wolfpack Club (NC State’s Booster Organization). They have worked together on similar initiatives in the past, so this process was pretty simple. They even had a joint offer where the ask was to pay one fee and become a member of both.

The Wolfpack Club and Alumni Association gave us a selection of field shots that they wanted personalized for the outside of the mail piece. They used a field shot with the band spelling out each recipients first and last name on the field.

They were able to further reward their target audience through our partnership and affiliation with Replay Photos. In addition to the 5 x 7 personalized photo included in the mail piece, each recipient was also able to visit a special website and obtain a code for a free 9 x 12 photo. This is just another advantage of working with us and its a great way to reward and/or incentivize your audience.

You can see what the final piece looked like below, but if you’d like more information on how a co-mailing could help you save on costs but still be effective in communicating with your target audience, give me a call or send me an email.

Outside of mail piece with personalized field shot

Inside of mail piece

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Personalized Holiday Cards for Alumni

Ryan Erisman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:09:39 +0000

We do some very cool things with personalization at DME Collegiate Marketing. A lot of the personalization we have done has been focused on sports photography.

But we also have the ability to personalize other things, whether it be certain objects or campus imagery. Some schools have contacted us to do personalized holiday cards for their alumni and supporters, so we decided to build a program around it. We have 6 or 7 photos to choose from, but, you can also use your own custom image that we will work with you to select. Details are in the pdf below.

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List of Alumni Associations on Twitter

Ryan Erisman — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:22:23 +0000

Here’s a list of Alumni Associations I have found using Twitter. This list will be updated as I find more. If I missed you, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add you to the list.

If you’ve thought about using Twitter for your alumni association but haven’t jumped in yet, you should read Andy Shaindlin and Elizabeth Allen’s white paper titled Activating Alumni Networks on Twitter

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How UF, ESPN, and NCAA Are Winning With Direct Response

Ryan Erisman — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:32:22 +0000

Response Magazine is a publication I receive and read every month being that I’m in the direct marketing industry. But it might not be on the reading lists of many people in the collegiate world but there was an article in this months issue that was very relevant to college marketing professionals. It’s called “Scoring Big With DR” and written by Doug McPherson. You should go read it here.

The article focuses on how different organizations in the collegiate arena….UF, CBS Sports, Fathead, ESPN and others are using various forms of Direct Response marketing to improve their results.

Here are some of the important takeaways:

Appeal to emotion: This should be easy to do for college marketers. People love their teams and alma maters like nothing else. There is so much emotion tied to the person’s history with your organization, that you just “have” to play on this emotion in helping to boost your response and results.

How do you accomplish this? Personalization (both in imagery and text), relevance, and timeliness are three of the best ways that we preach to clients everyday.

Get help from professionals: Just because your title is Director of Marketing, that doesn’t mean you need to shoulder all the responsibility for your organization’s success. Find partners who are the experts in doing what it is you want to accomplish and partner effectively with them. In 2009 and beyond, “vendorship” is dead. If you are going to be successful you need to find good partners that will stick with you through thick and thin. You may not win all the battles together, but with the right team you have a great chance of winning the war.

The University of Florida partnered with Football Fanatics to market their officially licensed products and Ticketmaster to help make the ticket sales process much more efficient.

Embrace mobile marketing: It is said in the article that “mobile is destined to become the first screen” and you should believe it. Everyone now knows at least one person with an iphone or similar device.

The NCAA, AT&T, SEC, and ESPN have all rolled out programs and initiatives to engage fans and customers using college sports as the thrust behind the effort.

By the way, AlmaMatters.org is optimized for the iphone and other mobile devices. Just navigate to our site like normal and you’ll be presented with the mobile friendly version automatically. Try it today!

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Build a College Athletics or Alumni Association Facebook Page

Ryan Erisman — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:31:44 +0000

Like it or not Facebook is here to stay. Not a day goes by that I don’t read a story either online or in print about Facebook and how businesses and organizations, both for profit and not, are using various forms of social media to strengthen ties to their customers.

Some college athletics and alumni organizations have been reluctant to embrace this shift in relationship building for fear of the unknown or a lack of knowledge about how to leverage these social mediums.

But when they are integrated into your current marketing and communication strategies they can pay huge dividends in the way of increased response, loyalty, and desired action on behalf of your audience.

Does your organization run a Facebook fan page? If not, why not? There’s nothing stopping one of your fans or alumni from starting one for you (in all likelihood someone probably already has), so you may as well take the lead and control the message and guide the conversation the way you want.

Facebook fan pages are very viral. When someone joins your fan page the action is posted to News Feed so all of their friends see that your alumni or fan has taken this action. Odds are good if the person seeing this has a relationship with your organization, they’ll join your fan page too, and the viral effect really kicks in.

You can use your fan page to update your fans on upcoming games or events and link to ticket or donation pages. Just shot a viral video for your upcoming season? Post it to your fan page for everyone to see (and hopefully pass along to others).

Attention spans are short these days. People need to see your message and your brand everywhere for it to be effective.This means not only do you need to show up in their mail box and their email inbox, but in the places they hang out online as well.

Here are 4 steps to building and profiting from your organization’s Facebook fan page:

1) Research the fan pages of organizations similar to yours to get some ideas. Here is Facebook’s page where they’ve posted examples of pages that work.

2) Create your page and add information about your organization. Be sure to post important phone numbers and website links. If you are so inclined you can really dress your page up using HTML or FBML … just make sure you let someone in your office with the correct skills to do this for you.

3) Engage your fans by giving them useful and relevant information about events you’ve got coming up. Your Facebook page should be a place where they can connect with other fans. You should also try to include applications they can use, and special updates or offers just for them.

Try not to overdo it with messaging your fans. 2-3 times a month is enough. But keep in mind that the more fans interact with your page, the more News Feed stories for users’ friends are created, increasing the awareness of your page.

4) Promote your fan page outside of Facebook. Put a badge on the homepage of your athletics or alumni association website. Mention your fan page in all communication with your audience including print mail, email, and don’t forget your voice mail message. Make sure everyone who works within your organization knows about your page and ask them to mention it as well.

Do these few things and your fan base will grow very quickly, your message will be spread farther than it could have been on its own, and you’ll find that there is much more excitement about your organization than you may have thought.

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Alumni Marketing Case Study

Ryan Erisman — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:12:22 +0000

Wanted to post this case study based on a marketing campaign we did recently for Auburn. No matter what kind of campaigns you might have coming up, and no matter if you’re selling tickets or memberships, you need to be creative and interesting in the eyes of your audience. These days folks are deciding whether they want to get rid of cable TV, or cut out the weekly night out for dinner and drinks. You need to do an extra good job of convincing them they should still spend money with you.

Hopefully you can get some good ideas from this case study.

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