It must be the season of giving, though I thought that was around the holidays. It was a bit odd, but both my wife and I received mailings from our alma maters at the same time this year. I was a bit surprised because you would think the end of January would be the worst time to ask for donations. People are still hung over from the holidays and the credit card bills for the excesses of December have started to arrive.

The two mailings arrived, but they were two very different packages with two different approaches. My wife opened the letter with the usual mild anticipation of the school’s quarterly newsletter. Instead she received a form letter by the president of the college, seeking donations. What I received surprised me a bit. I opened my envelope, slightly thicker, and was pleasantly surprised at the shiny keychain engraved with the college’s logo on it. There was also a letter from the president, looking for money, but the package was much nicer. I don’t think the keychain impressed me as much as the thought that went into the package.

Colleges and universities are facing a huge marketing challenge. One of the designers in our creative department, Gina, recently sent around a great article that highlights the problem. Rick Green, a columnist for The Hartford Courant, made the observation that educational institutions are getting desperate. The marketing pool has gone down as a declining number of kids are graduating from high school and getting the attention of a student that age is not easy. Green’s point was that the quantity of mailings (and emails) have gone up significantly, but the effectiveness of these mailings is lower than ever. He also reminds us how quick and easy it is for his teenage son to completely disregard the endless stream of plain envelopes and form letters.

Reaching prospective students and potential alumni donors is not much different than any other industry’s marketing challenge. You have to get your customer’s attention, engage them and motivate them to take an action. I could explain to you how we do that, but I’d rather show you. Take a minute to look at a few examples of colleges and universities that have used Structural Graphics for their donor and recruitment marketing.

So there I was, keychain in hand, deciding if I should make a donation to my alma mater this year. For my wife, the decision was an easy one. Besides the generic form letter, the school hadn’t even bothered to personalize it with her name. “Dear Graduate” is not too heart-warming and personal. I sent my school a check, albeit a small one, if for nothing else than to let them know this marketer was impressed. For them, I am sure an “A” for effort counts as something, but a response is worth so much more.

In the run-up to the Super Bowl there seems to be more buzz over the advertising than the two teams playing the game. Acura is spending untold amounts of money to resurrect the infamous Seinfeld “Soup Nazi” episode in a new ad featuring the two characters from the Seinfeld sitcom. Not to be outdone, Honda released a preview of their Ferris Bueller ad featuring the original character played by Matthew Broderick, now 25 years older than when he starred in the feature film. Apparently now, Ferris doesn’t want to go to work. How that becomes an ad for an automobile, one can only wonder. However, let’s hope they don’t try to compare a Honda to the original 1961 Ferrari GT that was the centerpiece of the film.

Advertisers don’t spend millions of dollars for a 30-second spot during a football game because of the enormous television audience. They make that investment because they understand the overwhelming amount of residual ROI their ad will garner. From pre-game buzz to post-game review, the ads are discussed, rated and reviewed, not to mention seen millions of more times on YouTube.

So what does an overrated marketing event… ahem… I mean football game have to do with dimensional direct mail? It’s simple, residual ROI.

One of the benefits that attract marketers to Structural Graphics is the staying power that our work has. Because many of the designs we do are interactive for the end-user, they are often shared with friends or co-workers. Not only does the message of the piece become more powerful, but it is seen by more people than just the original recipient.

You get mail every day; credit card offers, bills, flyers, etc. A plain white envelope is easy to ignore and even easier to toss in the trash. However, if you receive something that pulls open to reveal a great offer, or slides, flips, bursts open (literally), lights-up, or even plays a jingle, you’re just not as likely to ignore it.

Residual ROI is only achieved when something is truly impactful, memorable and simply worth sharing. While clever Super Bowl ads are discussed and shared on Facebook and Twitter, dimensional mail stays around and adds impacts with everyone who sees it. It sits on the desks of your prospects, is brought into meetings, and of course, is spared a swift, untimely death in the waste basket of lost marketing dollars.

See examples of dimensional mail that’s fully trashcan proof.

The SEO (search engine optimization) landscape is an ever-evolving challenge for web marketers which is why taking the assistance of companies like Search Engine Optimization Root is the optimum solution to get promising results in today’s competitive world. Like most things, it was a lot simpler in the old days (1999) when all you needed to do was pack your website full of keywords and useless content. Soon after came the era of the mighty link, when the only thing search marketers were discussing was how to get more inbound links to their sites. Google’s rank algorithms have evolved significantly and have become so much more sophisticated, so now quality is the new king. Recent changes to Google’s ranking algorithm pose less of a new challenge for markets and more of a positive step forward for, marketers and consumers.

Minimize your advertisements: Google recently announced that they will begin to penalize sites that have too many advertisements “above the fold.” This is that key real estate on your website that makes up the top 500 or so pixels. Google is going after the blogs and websites that do nothing but post poor quality articles and surround them by tons of ads. Undoubtedly, it will hurt the millions of websites that regurgitate useless content in an effort to steal traffic from quality resources online.

Develop a content strategy: As I mentioned above, quality content is king. Gone are the days when auto-blog scripts that fill your website with regularly updated and recycled content will be effective content strategies. Google is looking to see that you are consistently updating your website with fresh information and useful content. The exact method Google is using to make this determination is a closely guarded secret, but that doesn’t really matter. Put together a plan for adding new and relevant content on nearly a daily basis. If you’re an insurance professional and want to rank well for highly-competitive insurance search terms, than content is the key. Perhaps you can post a daily blog with financial planning tips. Create unique content like insurance guides or calculators. Stuff that will keep people (and search bots) coming back for more.

Plan a social strategy: When you think of social networking you may have visions of useless status updates and countless “likes” or retweets. While the terminology may be a bit ridiculous, the strategy is important for search optimization. You may have noticed that when you conduct a search with Google (or other major search engines) you get a lot more than a page of links. You now see results that include videos, tweets, live news feeds, images and more. This is a trend that began when Google started offering up YouTube videos in their search results and it has only become more prominent. As you develop your content strategies, be sure to include a Facebook business page, Twitter and now, Google+.

More articles on SEO.

Recently, the online magazine, Social Media Examiner put together 30 predictions for social media in 2012, provided by industry experts. There are a wide variety of predictions, but I especially like #25, “Traditional marketing interweaves social media“. The expert reminds us that traditional marketing principals need to be part of the discussion when planning a social media campaign or strategy.

There are several great predictions so it’s well worth scanning the list. Click here to read the article.

Other Social Media Blog Postings

Today a colleague sent me an article from the Harvard Business Review. I really couldn’t believe what I was reading. It included shocking statistics about how long it takes most companies to respond to online leads. Then I thought about all of the times I was the prospect and realized it was very believable.

Ironically, just this morning I submitted an information request for a service we are researching. I immediately got contacted by an account manager (5 minutes). They asked to setup a call. I replied that I was in my office all morning and to give me a call. That was four hours ago. Perhaps it was an automated email. A bit disappointing considering their initial contact was so timely.

Since a large part of our business deals with digital assets, it’s important that our clients have an organized and reliable lead response plan in place. We have discussed this before in our blog. See below for related articles.

Check out the article. Do the results surprise you? Sound off below in our comments section!

Other articles: The 15 Minute Rule of Lead Follow Up : Does Sales Know What Marketing is Doing?