MBI Direct Mail + Digital

Education / Youth Activities & Organizations

Youth organization marketing that invites families to sign up

Youth organization marketing from MBI is family recruitment work: postcards and flyers that invite families to sign up, targeted Facebook and Instagram ads carrying the same invitation, and the printing behind both, planned and produced by one team.

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Youth organization marketing

What does youth organization marketing actually cover?

The short answer

Two campaigns, run together. A youth-sports or Scouting family-program or membership recruitment campaign built on postcards and flyers, and a Scouting or youth-recruitment Facebook and Instagram campaign carrying the same invitation. MBI plans both, prints the pieces, mails them, and runs the ads from one team, in-house since 1989.

The two campaigns. The two researched campaign concepts for this vertical are a youth-sports/Scouting family-program or membership postcard and flyer recruitment campaign, and a Scouting/youth-recruitment Facebook/Instagram campaign.

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Postcard · Direct Mail

Family recruitment postcard, 6 by 9: find their next adventure; explore programs, meet the team and see what fits; the explore page’s address; parent or guardian consent required for enrollment communications.
Family recruitment postcard, 6 by 9: find their next adventure; explore programs, meet the team and see what fits; the explore page’s address; parent or guardian consent required for enrollment communications.

Meta ad · Facebook

Trailhead Youth ClubSponsored
Recruitment feed unit: adventure looks better together; join a youth club built for confidence, skills and belonging; outdoor adventures, new skills, great friends, a place to belong; explore programs.
Adventure looks better together.Join a youth club built for confidence, skills, and belongingExplore programs
Recruitment feed unit: adventure looks better together; join a youth club built for confidence, skills and belonging; outdoor adventures, new skills, great friends, a place to belong; explore programs.

Direct mail

How does youth sports registration marketing reach a family at home?

The short answer

By post. Youth-sports and Scouting toolkits provide postcards and flyers that invite families to sign up, and MBI prints and mails that invitation to households. USPS requires each address in a mailing at commercial prices to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date, by an approved method such as NCOALink or Address Change Service.

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

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The 95 days

Recruitment postcards

What do youth program recruitment postcards put in front of a family?

The short answer

The invitation itself: the program, and how a family signs up. The pattern is a family-program or membership recruitment postcard, printed alongside the flyers a program hands out. 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.

The documented pieces. Youth-sports and Scouting toolkits provide postcards and flyers to invite families to sign up, and this evidence does not cover every youth-organization model.

USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1 sets a card claimed at card prices at not less than 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long and 0.007 inch thick; a stamped card at not more than 4-1/4 inches high, 6 inches long or 0.016 inch thick; a postcard at not more than 6 inches high, 9 inches long or 0.016 inch thick; and requires a card that exceeds 4-1/4 inches high or 6 inches long to be at least 0.009 inch thick.

USPS Domestic Mail Manual 201.1.2.1

postcard mailing services direct mail cost

Postcard · Direct Mail

Recruitment postcard: find your people, find your next adventure; after-school clubs, camps and weekend programs; build confidence, make friends, try something new; the club’s join page address.
Recruitment postcard: find your people, find your next adventure; after-school clubs, camps and weekend programs; build confidence, make friends, try something new; the club’s join page address.

Facebook and Instagram

What do youth sports Facebook ads add to the mail?

The short answer

A second meeting with the same invitation. Scouting recruitment materials specifically include targeted Facebook and Instagram ads, and MBI runs them alongside the mail rather than instead of it. Meta holds advertisers responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, so the ad is written to that standard.

The documented ads. Scouting recruitment materials specifically include targeted Facebook and Instagram ads; this is not evidence that the tactic is common across every youth organization.

Meta's advertising standards state that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices, including those meant to scam people out of money or personal information.

Meta Advertising Standards

FTC advertising guidance for small business states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive, that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and that an ad is deceptive when it contains a statement, or omits information, that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances and is material to a consumer's decision.

FTC, Advertising FAQ’s: A Guide for Small Business

digital advertising services direct mail and digital marketing

Meta carousel · Facebook

Local-program carousel card: what are they curious about; move, make, lead.
What are they curious about?Move · Make · Lead
Local-program carousel card: what are they curious about; move, make, lead.

Reel · Instagram

BrightPath Youth Collective
Mentor and coach introduction Reel: meet the people who show up; mentors, coaches, community; the people page’s address.
Mentor and coach introduction Reel: meet the people who show up; mentors, coaches, community; the people page’s address.

Printing

What does a unit put in print for Scouting recruitment marketing?

The short answer

Postcards, flyers, posters and display materials — the printed set a youth-sports or Scouting recruitment push is built around. MBI prints the run in-house, commercial and variable-data, so the piece that is mailed and the piece handed out at the program are produced together rather than ordered from two suppliers.

The formats. The researched print formats for this vertical are postcards, flyers, posters and event display materials.

In house. Printing at MBI is commercial and variable-data printing, in-house.

printing services direct mail cost

Guide · Printing

Family program guide: a place to try, grow and belong; programs, people, next steps; the programs page’s address.
Family program guide: a place to try, grow and belong; programs, people, next steps; the programs page’s address.

Guide · Printing

Parent decision guide: choosing a good fit, a simple conversation guide for families; interests, schedule, support, questions; the fit page’s address.
Parent decision guide: choosing a good fit, a simple conversation guide for families; interests, schedule, support, questions; the fit page’s address.

Questions

Questions a youth organization asks before it mails

Searched for youth sports marketing, youth program marketing or youth sports club marketing? Same work, same answers.

  1. What is youth organization marketing?

    Youth organization marketing is the recruitment work a program runs to invite families in: a youth-sports or Scouting family-program or membership campaign built on postcards and flyers, with a Scouting or youth-recruitment Facebook and Instagram campaign beside it. MBI plans it, prints the pieces, mails them and runs the ads.

  2. How does direct mail recruit families into a youth program?

    Youth-sports and Scouting toolkits provide postcards and flyers that invite families to sign up. MBI builds that same invitation as a mailed campaign — the postcard printed and mailed, the flyers printed for the program to hand out — so a family has the sign-up in front of them.

  3. Where do Facebook and Instagram ads fit in youth recruitment?

    Scouting recruitment materials specifically include targeted Facebook and Instagram ads, which is why MBI runs them alongside the mail rather than instead of it. A parent then meets the same invitation twice: once in the mailbox, once in the feed.

  4. What does MBI print for a youth organization?

    Postcards, flyers, posters and display materials — the pieces a program mails, hands out and puts up. Commercial and variable-data printing is in-house, so the mailed postcard and the flyer handed out at the program carry the same invitation from one team rather than three vendors.

  5. Does every youth organization recruit the same way?

    No. The postcard-and-flyer pattern comes from youth-sports and Scouting programs, and it does not cover every youth-organization model. MBI starts with how a particular program signs families up — a membership, a family program — and builds the mail and the ads around that.

  6. What does a recruitment mailing cost a youth program?

    Nothing is quoted from a rate card. A drop is priced on what is produced and what is mailed: how many households, the size and stock of the postcard or flyer, the data behind it, and postage. The direct mail cost page, /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost, takes each of those in turn.

  7. How big can a recruitment postcard be?

    A youth organization's recruitment postcard is specified to the USPS commercial card-price standard: 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.

  8. What has to be behind a claim in a recruitment ad?

    Evidence. The FTC says advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive and that advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims, and treats an ad as deceptive when a statement or omission is likely to mislead a consumer acting reasonably and is material to their decision.

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The recruitment postcards and flyers that invite families to sign up, the Facebook and Instagram ads that carry the same invitation, the posters and display materials behind them; and the league, unit or program they recruit for.

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