For our second project in my Public Relations publications class, we worked on direct mailers. Direct mailers for the sake of this assignment were postcards that would hypothetically be sent out by OU’s recruitment services to students and/or parents.

For my direct mailers I chose two different audiences. The first was high school seniors, who have not decided on a college or university that were from southeastern Oklahoma. The second mailer was targeted toward parents who have children in their senior year of high school. The purpose of my mailers was to inform students and parents about their unique opportunities at OU. For example, the parents’ mailer gave information about how they can join the OU community through the parent’s club or parents’ weekends.

I chose my first audience of southeastern Oklahoma students for two reasons. The first is that I am from southeastern Oklahoma. The second is that I wanted to highlight a unique student organization I am a part of called SEOK Ambassadors. This is a registered student organization ran by the southeastern Oklahoma recruiter for OU. We realized there was a significant problem in our recruiting from the southeast, and have set up this organization to fix the problems many students from this area face. We have think tank session as well as created a scholarship for students from the area and a mentorship program for when they get to OU. The organization is something I am very passionate about since I am from the area, and I know first hand the struggles these students face in regards to higher education.

I had a little more pressure added to this assignment. I had emailed our advisor about using our logo for the assignment, and he told me he wants to see the finished product because recruitment services might use it, and send it out to students. This is very exciting, but nerve-racking at the same time.  I have uploaded a picture of the front and back of the mailer. You can tell me what you think!

I chose my second audience of parents because I thought it correlated with parents of the students I was targeting, as well as parents from all over the world who are sending their child off to college. When parents send their children off to college they are usually sad and wish they could just pack up and go with them. OU is unique in the fact that they kind of can. OU has multiple ways for parents to be updated on the happenings on campus. I used the front of the mailer to talk about our parents’ association and our parents’ day weekends. I used the back of the mailer to appeal to both their logical and emotional needs. I used buzzwords about the university highlighting some of the great aspects of our campus. I also used emotional language such as “your child belongs here” to really get their attention, and have them research the University of Oklahoma. I have attached the front and back of that mailer as well.

Through this assignment I have learned a lot about targeting specific stakeholders and what appeals to them. With our design assignment we also did a segmenting stakeholder matrix. This was a chart that helped us really think about who are stakeholders were and what they wanted. I was able to use this the most with my parents direct mailer. Since I am not a parent, it can be difficult to know exactly what they would want. With the help of the chart; however, I was able to discover and tailor a message specifically to them.

Overall, I found this assignment to be very enjoyable. I am excited to give my assignment to the advisor of SEOK Ambassadors. The idea of OU actually printing my work is very exciting…keep your fingers crossed!

Originally posted at OU Public Relations Publications