There are many reasons as to why a direct mail campaign can fail. Time of year, message being presented and type of list are just a few things to keep in mind when preparing your campaign. We take advantage of our Business Intelligence team to provide us even more information on the front end, so we have every possible edge in making a campaign successful. The Business Intelligence team uses the client’s start data to create a market potential report of each campus. These reports use Claritas software that combines updated Census data, MRI lifestyle, behavior surveys and the full mailing addresses of starts to generate an overall student profile. Once this profile is created, the Claritas software analyzes the markets on a ZIP code level to find those areas with the most households that match that student profile. This detailed-level analysis allows us to geo-demographically target direct mail lists and produce more quality leads for our clients, focusing only on those communities (zips) with the greatest potential for student recruitment. For example, if School ABC did a drop for a 30 mile radius, they may hit all of the areas that get leads/starts, but they may end up spending a lot of money mailing to areas that only get very few leads/starts. Using the Claritas information, we are more likely to hit areas that are more likely to respond. The map illustrates the power of Claritas and the information it provides. The colored areas represent the Claritas software’s opinion of where the best areas for the drop would be based on the student profiles. The dots are the actual starts received from the school. This will allow us to weed out the start-poor areas and focus our dollars on the start-rich areas, leading us to a more successful direct mail campaign.