I’ve had some interesting examples of spot-on marketing cross my path lately, from some pretty unexpected sources. One of the most interesting landed in my mailbox.

My 16-year-old daughter is starting to receive marketing packages from colleges. It seems like every day there are more letters, postcards, and packages arriving from schools that are inviting her to consider their school.

Because my daughter is most likely going to study art, she is on the radar of many schools with art programs. One package in particular really grabbed my attention, and has been by far, the most effective and impressive marketing strategy I’ve seen sent to her yet.

There are some great marketing practices that business owners can glean from how universities market to college students. Here are just a few of the things that the universities have right, things I think translate well into practically every business marketing plans.

1. Timing: My daughter is two years away from attending a college, but, because many students start their decision making process well before their senior year, getting to them before they really have a clear idea what they want is important.

Likewise, you need to know where your ideal clients are in the buying cycle, and start marketing to them and building the relationship early in that cycle, before they have started to make their decision. Once they have gathered a lot of information about other businesses or services, it might be too late.

2. Lumpy Snail Mail: Even though email is extremely effective, snail mail typically has higher conversion rates. A package that is lumpy begs to be opened, which attracts attention and may keep your prospects attention longer. Include something that has a little substance, yet doesn’t cost much to purchase or mail. Magnets, keychains, lanyards, things like this are inexpensive, tanglible, memorable, and definitely help grab the attention of the recipient.

3. Targeted: Most kids don’t use email very much, which colleges understand and cater to by utilizing the United States Postal Service. It’s critical to undersatand how your market likes to receive their information, and then inititate conversation through those channels.

3. Visual: Visual images engage 50% of the brain, and 65% of the population receives and processes visual information best, so using compelling graphics can be much more effective than just plain text. Make the images relevant and interesting, and you will capture the attention of the recipient more quickly—and keep it for longer.

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4. Creative Freebie: The cards in the photo above are extremely creative, in that the stack has the feel of being a gift, something that I would put on my coffee table, and something I have picked up several times to look at and can’t bear to throw away. The use of art is of course appropriate to their school, but all marketing should have artistic elements that make people want to bookmark, save, share, and refer back to later.

5. Social Proof: The College of Creative Studies in Detroit, who sent this package of cards, uses a past student in every card to demonstrate what their graduates have accomplished since attending their school.

Each graduate they feature in these cards has gone on to do something impressive and unique within their field of study. CCS illustrates a wide range of careers from photography, to graphic design, to engineering, to teaching, etc., by showing off the success of their grads.

6. Return on Investment: One thing I absolutely loved was their compelling tagline of “No Starving Artists Here.” Probably one of the biggest fears for parents—as well as their art loving kids—is the cliché about artists being broke. This generous stack of cards does an impressive job of dispelling that fear by displaying a large number of their talented and successful graduates.

As you consider how you are marketing your goods and services, think about how other companies use marketing—both within and totally outside of your niche. Take the best of the best, and put together your own personal marketing strategy that incorporates as many of these elements as possible.