Q: I have a question for you please.
Previously, we have mailed catalogs out:
Winter/spring in late December/early January with January Information Sessions
Same winter/spring (with winter dates greyed out) early March
Summer in late April/early May
Fall mid-August
We are looking at sending out catalog out sooner and discontinuing the greyed out version using the following schedule:
Winter (Jan – Mar start dates) right after Thanksgiving with a reminder postcard with catalog cover in early January. (We believe that people have money in December or might purchase gifts of education.)
Spring (Apr – Jun start dates)in late February, including summer camp schedule
Summer (July – Sept start dates) in late April with August Information Sessions
Fall (Sept – Dec start dates) in early July with August Information Sessions
We would like to get your input. Do you think this slight change in our schedule would be beneficial or not?
A: Your original schedule for mailing is basically consistent with LERN recommendations. The ideal time to mail brochures to drop about 6 weeks prior to your first classe. There is a well documented reduction in registrations when brochures are mailed out much sooner than that. Mailing in November for a January-March start date would very likely have a negative impact on your registrations. One way to offset this is to mail the brochure again. . .we recommend that you mail twice in all cases, once to your full mailing list and again to your best customers.
If you want to test the impact of these changes, you might mail a small percentage of your brochures to your mailing list on your new schedule and monitor registrations. If the percentages are consistent or better than what you have seen in the past, you might be safe to change your schedule. If your registrations decline, which is most likely with classes starting later in your term, you may decide that your current schedule is best.
As with any change in marketing strategy, you should test new methods while maintaining your existing marketing methods. That way, if your new strategy is not successful, you have minimized any loss in registrations you might experience.
Just another note on mailing dates, many programs find that early August mailings are not as successful because they hit just when families are engaged in back-to-school activities. This can cause your brochure to be put aside because the priorities are all on getting back to the fall routine.
We do recommend that summer camp schedules go out early. February is the right time for that. You might consider a mailing of just your summer camp programs, rather than including the schedule only in your regular brochure.
And, as a final note, LERN recommends that terms not be more than 8 weeks in length. When they cover more time, the drop-off late in the term is substantial. If your terms are running twelve to sixteen weeks in length, you would be well advised to do a second mailing of the brochure at about the midpoint of your term.