Capitalize On Incoming Student Enthusiasm with Branded Merch to Recruit Future Classes

  • by Michael Wolaver, Founder/Captain of Magellan Promotions

When incoming students commit to a college, from a marketing perspective, this presents an amazing opportunity to take advantage of their pride and excitement.  

Let me explain.  

With increasing competition in higher education, colleges invest heavily in marketing. Billboards, digital ads, print pieces, and more, create awareness but often lack personal connection.

Why Personal Connections Matter

Society’s trust in authentic endorsements are coveted. We are more skeptical of ads than ever before. People trust influencers, peers and authentic reviews. 

Thus when awareness campaigns are combined with personal and authentic recommendations, they become gold.   

Branded Merch’s Implied Endorsement

Enter branded merch. It is a unique form of marketing that turns students into ambassadors. When a student wears a Syracuse University pullover, not only are they advertising the college, they are endorsing it as well. If they didn’t believe in it, they wouldn’t wear it. This type of authentic and enthusiastic promotion is invaluable.

Thus colleges need to continually take advantage of this opportunity to have incoming students create awareness and provide personal endorsements.

 

naturally endorse your university with branded merch


Enter the Commitment Celebration

There are a number of points along the funnel where students provide implied endorsements. In our opinion, the most impactful is when the student finalizes their college choice. This is the ultimate stamp of approval. And the ideal time to activate students as brand ambassadors with merch. And as an upside, this strategy also doubles as an anti-melt strategy.

To maximize this impact, colleges need a strategy and the right tools.

Three Implementable Strategies 

  1. Social Influence
    Students sharing their college commitment on social media is a powerful organic endorsement. Provide them with engaging, photo-friendly merch with messaging that encourages social sharing. Even if they don’t use a school hashtag, they’re still building awareness within their networks.
  2. High School Graduation
    Graduation ceremonies and parties are perfect opportunities to celebrate and spread awareness. Branded items like tassel toppers, embroidered patches, mylar balloons, and party supplies (napkins, plates, mini pennants) integrate the college brand into these milestone moments.
  3. Outdoor Displays
    Yard signs and garden flags serve as personal billboards, signaling school pride while creating local awareness. Compared to traditional billboards, they’re a low-cost, high-impact way to showcase student endorsements.

By strategically integrating branded merch into the commitment, colleges can turn student enthusiasm into an authentic and influential marketing force for future classes.

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Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

  • CRID (customer registration ID)
  • Non-Profit Authorization Number (with USPS, not their nonprofit number for the university)
  • Non-profit indicia
  • Return address that is on file with USPS for the non-profit authorization number
  • Permit number

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list:
  • Send your data in a spreadsheet, saving it in the comma-separated values (CSV) format
  • International addresses must be separated from domestic addresses
  • Domestic addresses should at least contain data fields for “first name”, “last name”, “address 1”, “address 2”, “city”, “state” and “ZIP code”