Hecom are one of the UK’s leading education marketing specialists, with a focus on the higher education sector. They were seeking to drive universities and colleges to the “marketing services” section of their website, to discuss promoting their courses post-pandemic.
The Challenge
Higher Education was one of the hardest-hit sectors of the COVID-19 pandemic. With staff released and furloughed, Hecom’s email campaigns were suddenly experiencing a high bounce-rate and low response-rate. Connecting with universities and colleges is challenging in normal times, due full email inboxes, sensitive email address data, and no obvious job titles in which to target – but COVID just made it harder.
Hecom wanted to be the marketing partner for these institutions nationally and internationally once the pandemic was over, but their usual channels of email, paid ads, and direct outreach were not paying dividends. They reached out to MHI for help.
The Solution
MHI suggested a plain-text A4 letter in an envelope with a strong call-to-action, alongside an additional A4 printed insert detailing their marketing services and a QR code to reach their website.
MHI also provided them with 500 address records for universities and colleges in the UK, as well as 500 addresses in China, the United States, and Malaysia.
Using MHI’s award-winning international postal network, Hecom achieved an optimised service over 4 postal authorities, including Royal Mail and the USPS.
The final costs reached just above £3,500 including data, print, production, personalisation, and postage. Hecom crossed their fingers that direct mail would have the effect that other channels had not. In comparison to other paid channels, this works out to around 35p per recipient.
The Result
Hecom reported triple the number of website visitors through code over the following two weeks as the direct mail landed, as well as 11 universities and colleges asking for quotes for their marketing services.
We learned that Hecom’s average annual gross profit per client worked out at around £4,500. Therefore, at a quote conversion rate of50%, they are set to generate a forecasted £22,500 worth of profit over the coming year from an initial £3,500 spend.
This equals a forecasted 650% ROAS.
“I am delighted with the results of this mailing. We have dabbled in mailings with MHI before, but never in such unprecedented times. The database was spot on, the communication brilliant, and we have since had contact with 11 institutions who are currently in the quoting phase. I would 100% recommend MHI’s direct mail service!”
Brand Manager - Hecom
