Best of CASE District V Award
 

Institution: Miami University

Title of entry: Leveraging digital advertising to increase the ROI of printed search

About this entry: As institutions nationwide question the value of direct mail in student recruitment, Miami University sought to test whether integrating digital outreach could modernize and strengthen this traditional tactic.

We piloted a “smartmailer” strategy that combined a high-impact print piece with targeted household-level digital advertising. A mailing list of 300,000 high school sophomores and juniors received a personalized print mailer supported by digital ads delivered to the same household before and after the piece arrived. On the day of delivery, recipients also saw a related advertisement through USPS Informed Delivery.

To measure impact, we tracked the first cohort of students who received the integrated campaign and compared their application behavior with the previous year’s cohort, which received a search print piece without complementary digital outreach.

The results demonstrated the value of an integrated approach. Students who simply received the smartmailer and digital reinforcement were 1.8 times more likely to apply. When they also engaged with digital elements, the likelihood to apply increased up to 8.62 times.

The project provided enrollment leadership with clear, data-driven evidence that modernizing print search with coordinated digital outreach can significantly increase engagement and application rates. The campaign also generated new parent and family contact data, strengthening Miami’s early-stage recruitment communications.