Education / Schools & Higher Education
College Enrollment Marketing
College enrollment marketing from MBI Direct Mail + Digital is one recruitment cycle run end to end: prospective-student direct mail, brochures and recruitment-fair signage that all carry a single text keyword, Facebook and Instagram lead ads for a course guide, and SMS that invites a student to a campus visit, information session, open house or tour.
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What is college enrollment marketing?
The short answer
College enrollment marketing is prospective-student recruitment run as one campaign. Direct mail, brochures and recruitment-fair signage carry a single text keyword; Facebook and Instagram lead ads offer a course guide, an information session or a campus event; and the texts that follow invite the student to a campus visit, tour or open house.
The three campaigns. The three researched campaigns are a prospective-student direct-mail and campus-visit recruitment campaign, Facebook and Instagram recruitment lead ads for a course guide, information session or campus event, and an SMS keyword opt-in and campus-visit or open-house communication campaign.
What gets printed. A college recruitment campaign prints direct-mail pieces, brochures and recruitment-fair or booth signage.
One team. MBI plans, produces and delivers direct mail, print and digital campaigns from one in-house team, with data, print and delivery in-house since 1989.
direct mail marketing services direct mail and digital marketing
One-sheet · Printing
Kit · Printing
Direct mail
How does student recruitment direct mail carry the campus-visit invitation?
The short answer
Education direct-mail guidance supports campus visits and information-session invitations, so the mailing asks for one of them by name. The same piece carries the text keyword that the recruitment-fair signage and the brochures carry. MBI plans, prints and mails the whole set from one in-house team rather than sending the file out.
The documented mail. Higher-education SMS guidance places a text-keyword call to action on recruitment-fair signage, direct mail and brochures, and education direct-mail guidance supports campus visits and information-session invitations.
A folded self-mailer is formed of panels that are created when one or more unbound sheets of paper are folded together and sealed to make a letter-size mailpiece.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.3.1 requires an unenveloped machinable or automation letter to be sealed or glued completely along all four sides unless it is prepared as a folded self-mailer, booklet or postcard or as another permitted unenveloped piece, and 201.3.14.4 requires a folded self-mailer to be sealed using tabs or glue.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201
Mailer · Direct Mail
One keyword
SMS
How does text message marketing for colleges start from a printed piece?
The short answer
Higher-education guidance puts a text-keyword call to action on recruitment-fair signage, on the direct mail and in the brochures, so every printed piece points at one opt-in. The keyword captures a prospective student's interest, and the texts after it invite that student to campus visits, tours, classes, open houses and local events.
The keyword. A text keyword captures prospective-student interest, and the texts that follow invite the student to campus visits, tours, classes, open houses and local events.
Before it runs. The guidance is to review program, cost, aid, accreditation, licensure and employment statements before a campaign runs, and to keep SMS consent and student-data handling controlled.
One keyword
SMS
Facebook and Instagram
What do Facebook ads for student recruitment ask a student for?
The short answer
Student-recruitment sources describe Facebook and Instagram ads built on student stories, outcome content and campus-event promotion to generate inquiries. MBI runs them as lead ads for a course guide, an information session or a campus event. Meta's ad standards bar a lead-ad question from requesting financial, health or government-identifier information without Meta's prior permission.
The documented ads. Student-recruitment sources describe Facebook and Instagram ads using student stories, outcome content and campus-event promotion to generate inquiries.
Advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and a lead ad must not request account numbers, financial information, government-issued identifiers, health information, or criminal or arrest history without Meta's prior permission.
Meta Advertising Standards
Meta ad · Facebook
Reel · Instagram
Recruitment events
What does college open house marketing invite a student to?
The short answer
College open house marketing invites a prospective student to an admissions information session, an open house, a campus visit or a tour — recruitment events rather than traditional public seminars. The mail invites and the printed pieces carry the keyword. The campaign to run turns open houses, virtual tours and faculty sessions into RSVP-to-application nurture.
Recruitment events. Admissions information sessions, open houses, campus visits and tours are documented recruitment events; they function as education and recruitment events rather than traditional public seminars.
RSVP to application. Open houses, virtual tours and faculty sessions are turned into RSVP-to-application nurture.
The Department of Education's misrepresentation rules apply to an eligible institution, one of its representatives, or any ineligible institution, organization or person with whom the eligible institution has an agreement to provide educational programs, or to provide marketing, advertising, recruiting or admissions services.
U.S. Department of Education, misrepresentation rules
Postcard · Direct Mail
The cycle
When does a recruitment cycle have to land against program start dates?
The short answer
Incomplete applications are recovered through counselor-led, consented multi-channel sequences that match program start dates, so the calendar is set backwards from those dates. Inquiry generation is segmented by program, transfer, adult learner and graduate pathway, and each segment's mail, ads and texts land while a student can still act.
Incomplete applications. Incomplete applications are recovered through counselor-led, consented multi-channel sequences that match program start dates.
By segment. Inquiry generation is segmented by program, transfer, adult learner and graduate pathway.
Families too. Parent and family financial-aid and decision-support content is part of the cycle.
A misrepresentation is any false, erroneous or misleading statement made directly or indirectly to a student, a prospective student or any member of the public, and it includes any statement that omits information in such a way as to make the statement false, erroneous or misleading.
U.S. Department of Education, misrepresentation rules
Checklist · Printing
Explainer · Printing
Set backwards
Questions
Questions an admissions team asks before it mails
Searched for college recruitment marketing, higher education enrollment marketing or university enrollment marketing? Same work, same answers.
What does enrollment marketing mean for a college?
College enrollment marketing is prospective-student recruitment run as one campaign, with the campus visit as the thing it asks for. MBI plans the campaign, prints and mails the pieces, and runs the response path behind them.
How does one text keyword connect signage, mail and brochures?
One text-keyword call to action goes on recruitment-fair and booth signage, on the direct mail and in the brochures, so every printed piece points at the same opt-in. The same mail carries the campus-visit and information-session invitation. MBI sets the keyword once and prints it across the whole run.
What happens after a prospective student texts the keyword?
The keyword captures that student's interest, and the texts that follow invite them to campus visits, tours, classes, open houses and local events. MBI builds the keyword, the opt-in reply and the sequence after it, so the invitation arrives on the phone the student already answers.
Do Facebook and Instagram ads work for student recruitment?
Facebook and Instagram recruitment ads use student stories, outcome content and campus-event promotion to generate inquiries. MBI runs them as lead ads for a course guide, an information session or a campus event, and routes each inquiry into the same cycle the mail and the texts feed.
Are admissions information sessions the same as a public seminar?
No. Admissions information sessions, open houses, campus visits and tours are recruitment events, not traditional public seminars. MBI treats them that way — the invitation, the RSVP path, the reminder and the follow-up are built for an admissions calendar rather than a seminar programme.
Which printed pieces does a recruitment campaign use?
Direct-mail pieces, brochures, and recruitment-fair or booth signage. MBI prints and mails all three under one design, and every one of them can carry the same text keyword, so the printed set and the phone response path read as a single campaign rather than three separate jobs.
How are program, cost and aid claims kept compliant?
The guidance is to review program, cost, aid, accreditation, licensure and employment statements before anything is printed or posted. The Department of Education's misrepresentation rules reach any organization the institution has engaged to provide marketing, advertising, recruiting or admissions services. SMS consent and student-data handling stay controlled throughout.
What does a college recruitment mailing cost?
MBI quotes a recruitment drop against the campaign rather than a rate card, because the piece, the print run, the prospective-student list and the postal class each move the number. What changes it, and what MBI needs before quoting a cycle, is set out at /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost.
Get started
Start a recruitment cycle.
Say which of the three campaigns it is, and the programs or campuses it runs for. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.