Leveraging CRM Data to Mail Targeted Merch to Specific Prospective Students

  • by Michael Wolaver, Founder/Captain of Magellan Promotions

Targeted Merch using CRM Data
I was recently talking with a Director of Admissions about their mailed admit packs. The college gets wonderful feedback on what they send and know it is an important part of their recruitment campaign (they just enrolled their second largest class). Their admit pack makes an immediate impression and creates a memorable and fun way to let the student celebrate their acceptance. However, from the college’s data, their team knows the pack is sent to a percentage of students that they feel are very unlikely to enroll. With the cost of each pack, we discussed how it can be tempting to create a two tier admitted student experience.  

This conversation got me thinking; what areas of the funnel would be perfect for integrating a targeted branded merch touch point? This conundrum of knowing that not everyone you market to has the same chance of converting is not new. What has changed is the ease of collecting data that indicates interest.  

Every college has their predictive modeling as to who is more likely to attend. The data used to be more simplistic. For example, did the student visit campus, fill out requested forms and attend events? Even with this simplistic data, it was really difficult with the original CRMs to create an automated system to target students. Thus a one-size-fits-all approach was most often used.  

Now with the elaborate communication flows through CRMs, there are now more ways than ever to foster engagement with prospective students. For example, was an email opened, did the parent sign-up for a group, how many text messages did they read, etc. The modern CRMs help identify where students are on the bell curve: Who are the students that are all-in, the group that is highly unlikely, and the undecided group? For our presidential elections these days, the undecided is a small group. Luckily for colleges the undecided group is much larger! Enrollment marketing’s job is to focus on this middle group, creating various pathways and engagement strategies to move as many as possible towards a commitment. That is where targeting can really play a key role and pay dividends. 

With this data to predict and score potential students, the opportunity to deploy automated campaigns to targeted students along the enrollment funnel is easier than ever. How this is executed matters.

While there are many ways to engage with students, it is well established that branded merch is a perfect vehicle to create excitement and influence memorable moments. We all know that another email, text or print mailer is not going to light up a prospective student. It is more noise in an already noisy world. The physicality of branded merch makes it truly unique as a marketing tool. Not only does their affinity increase and the merch makes an immediate impression when they receive it, but the product also makes the student feel special and cared for. The merch stays with them and serves as a long-lasting marketing tool.  

Luckily it is now easier than ever to integrate and automate branded merch into targeted student campaigns by utilizing custom queries in a CRM like Slate. The options to do this span the entire enrollment funnel. Below are a few examples:  

  • A college wants to grow enrollment from targeted states, so they create an automated flow through the CRM to send a special branded merch mailer after the application is received from students in those states.    
  • A college looks at students’ engagement scores and then launches an automated branded merch mailer when a student surpasses the set level. 
  • When pets are used to drive fun experiences, a college can collect pet related data through the CRM. Then an automation is set to have a mailer sent specifically to the pet four weeks after the student has been admitted.   
  • The FAFSA completion is a key step in the process (and here’s to hoping it will be smoother this year!). A college can set up a trigger for the admitted student to receive a mailer when the university is notified that the application is completed. Read how we helped St. Catherine University deploy this strategy.      


Colleges should explore this opportunity of combining the power of modern CRMs with branded merch to target key students through the enrollment funnel. Targeted Merch using CRM Data

Targeted Merch using CRM Data

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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”