Direct Mail Increases Educational Material Return Rates

Challenge:

A global online education company needed a partner that could assist them in the return of their education materials at the end of the school year. The client was facing difficulties getting households to return education materials such as laptops, printers, textbooks and other components that were borrowed for the school year.

Solutions:

Darwill restructured and greatly improved upon the client’s existing direct mail efforts. We collaborated with the client to implement innovative strategies and created a smart direct mail campaign paired with an existing email communication that notified households to send back their materials.

Strategy:

Darwill collaborated with the client to create a campaign that would encourage students to send their supplies back at the end of the school year. We advised the client to:

•  Include an itemized variable list. This list communicates all the materials that were lent out for the school year and  states which items are to be returned and which can be kept.
•  Provide two UPS return labels, or boxes as needed, to the students and their families to make the return process as easy as possible.
•  Build a sense of community and excitement for students by creating "Welcome Packs." These packs would include resources to help the student begin the school year with all the information they needed.

Results:

By sending an itemized list and UPS return labels and boxes, the client has achieved positive results. It has greatly helped them gain back materials and refill their inventory for the next school year.  Additionally, the "Welcome Packs" helped improve upon student satisfaction as indicated by the clients’ satisfaction survey.

With Darwill's support and implementation of our strategic direct mail campaigns, the client saw an impressive increase in returned school materials.

"Darwill is one of our most trusted and reliable partners. They welcome new challenges and work alongside us to innovate and ideate to respond to changing business needs. They are fair, dependable, and honest at every step of a project, and their output is always the best in class. The students and families that we serve can count on getting quality print materials every time we produce them at Darwill and can know that their data is secure along the way. I don’t even think twice about sourcing a job with Darwill – if anything I think of new jobs or challenges that could be figured out by working with them."

– Print Production Manager, Operations