Education / Childcare, Tutoring & Learning Programs
After-school program marketing built on postcards and partner flyers
After-school program marketing from MBI is a postcard-and-flyer acquisition campaign: targeted mail to families around your site, plus printed flyers and posters distributed through schools and community partners.
Not sure where to start? Talk with our teamAfter-school program marketing
What is after-school program marketing?
The short answer
After-school program marketing is how a program reaches the families who have not enrolled yet. One campaign carries the offer two ways: an enrollment postcard mailed to the households around the site, and a flyer that goes out through schools and community partners. MBI plans it, prints both pieces and mails the card.
The one researched campaign. The one researched campaign for this vertical is an after-school enrollment postcard and school/partner flyer campaign.
The formats. Postcards, flyers and posters.
Postcard · Direct Mail
Flyer · Printing
Direct mail
How does after-school program direct mail reach the families around a site?
The short answer
Direct mail for an after-school or enrichment program means targeted postcards. MBI selects the households around your site, designs the piece, prints and mails it, in-house since 1989, so a family meets the program at home rather than having to find it. Addresses are updated against the postal file before the drop.
The documented mail. After-school and enrichment direct-mail guidance supports targeted postcards, and sector recruitment guidance recommends flyers and posters distributed through schools and community partners.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and the National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink).
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5
Postcard · Direct Mail
At home
Flyers and posters
Which after-school program flyers and posters go out through schools and community partners?
The short answer
Flyers and posters, distributed through schools and community partners — a recommended way to recruit for an after-school or enrichment program. MBI prints them to match the mailed postcard, so a partner can hang one on a wall and send the other home with a child. Postcard, flyer and poster come off one set of artwork.
In house. Printing at MBI is commercial and variable-data printing produced in house.
FTC advertising guidance for small business states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive and that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and that an ad is deceptive if it contains a statement, or omits information, that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and is material — important to a consumer's decision to buy or use the product.
FTC, Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business
One set of artwork
Through schools and partners
One campaign
How do the mailed postcard and the partner flyer stay one campaign?
The short answer
Because a parent meets the same program twice: once at the kitchen table and once in a school corridor. Running the postcard and the partner flyer as one job means one list, one set of artwork and one press behind both. Data, print and delivery have been in-house at MBI since 1989.
One team. MBI plans, produces and delivers direct mail and print campaigns from a single team in DeLand, Florida, and data, print, and delivery have been in-house since 1989.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1 sets cards claimed at card prices at not less than 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long and 0.007 inch thick, and not more than 6 inches high, 9 inches long or 0.016 inch thick for each postcard, while each stamped card or each half of a double stamped card or double postcard is not more than 4-1/4 inches high, 6 inches long or 0.016 inch thick, and a card exceeding 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long must be at least 0.009 inch thick.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1
Guide · Printing
Sheet · Printing
Questions
Questions an after-school program asks before it mails
Searched for enrichment program marketing, afterschool program marketing or marketing for after-school programs? Same work, same answers.
What does MBI's enrichment program marketing include?
One campaign built from two pieces: an after-school enrollment postcard mailed to families, and a flyer for schools and community partners. MBI handles the list, the design, the printing and the mailing, so both pieces carry the same program and the same look wherever a parent meets them.
How do schools and community partners fit into the campaign?
Flyers and posters distributed through schools and community partners are a recommended way to recruit for an after-school or enrichment program. MBI prints those pieces to match the mailed postcard, so a partner can post one on the wall and send the other home in a backpack.
What printed formats does MBI produce for an enrichment program?
Postcards, flyers and posters. The postcard carries the enrollment offer to the mailbox, and the flyer and the poster travel out through schools and community partners. All three come off one set of artwork and one press: commercial and variable-data printing, in house.
What does an enrichment program mailing cost?
No list price exists for direct mail: every quote resolves to two costs, producing the piece and mailing it. Seven decisions move those numbers — quantity, format and finished size, paper, finishing, data and personalization, postage and sortation, and postal entry. The direct mail cost page, /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost, walks an enrichment program through each one.
How big can an after-school enrollment postcard be?
At commercial card prices a postcard must be no more than 6 inches high, no more than 9 inches long and no thicker than 0.016 inch. A card more than 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long must be at least 0.009 inch thick, which is what an enrichment program's card is specified against.
What happens to the mailing when a family on the list has moved?
The new address replaces the old one before an enrichment program's drop. USPS requires each address in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices, or USPS Marketing Mail prices, to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date using an approved method such as NCOALink or Address Change Service.
What can an after-school program promise a parent in print?
Only what the program can back up. FTC guidance says advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive and that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims. An ad is deceptive when a statement, or an omission, is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and is material to their decision.
Get started
Start an after-school campaign.
Say which site it runs from, and the schools and partners the flyer should reach. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.