Why reach students by email or direct mail?

Various studies have shown that students mainly use online sources to seek for labour market opportunities and are best accessible online. In addition to a more static, wait-and -see-approach with a website there is an alternative: a dynamic, proactive approach by using email or Direct Mail. This allows you to send relevant information directly to the target audience, without letting them get caught up in the abundance of information coming at them. Relevancy of the content is key to differentiate yourself from competitors.

What distinguishes Direct Students from Media & Communication agencies?

Other providers do not have the infrastructure (an up-to-date and segmented database) to be as specific as Direct Students. We use our network of associations, universities and higher education institutions to segment based on study, city, gender, nationality, etc.. This is also the reason why a number of Media & Communication Agencies directly do business with Direct Students.

What is the benefit for me as a customer?

Via Direct Students you can fill a vacancy for a starter by identification of suitable candidates. Additionally, there is always a PR exposure of your message among the target audience, which could be thousands of relevant students. They will all receive your message or that of your competitor if they are already using the services of Direct Students.

What is the benefit to the university, Higher education institution or association?

Only the most relevant information is sent to the student to help them in finding the best career opportunities. This also provides the association or institution additional income for the organization of activities for students. The student gets directly in contact with interesting companies and organizations. Direct Students does the matchmaking, you can make the selection among the candidates.

I have no specific target student audience in mind, what to do?

Direct Students can also use a less segmented approach which is cheaper. You could reach students per country, regardless of the discipline, gender etc. You can also select a specific city without specific segmentation. Very useful to communicate a local job, internship or other message, regardless of training or study. A less focused approach, for less money.

Is this concept 100% legal?

Based on the current Dutch legislation and in accordance with the guidelines established by the Data Protection Authority (CPB) Direct Students only works with assocations who use a double opt-in approach with full consent of students. Students have explicitly stated, to Direct Students or to the partnering association or institution, that they are willing to receive career-related information. This allows for a higher degree of openness and conversion ratio/ click-through ratio and also guarantees the SPAM effect to be minimized (at least 1x because of opt-in consent of the students to be reached with career-related information and 1x opt-out option to unsubscribe for receiving the HTML emailings).
This is 100% legal anno 2009 according to Dutch law.

What if the information sent by email is perceived as SPAM by the student?

Based on the Dutch WBP (Privacy Protection Act) it is statutory duty to a recipient of commercial emails to provide the possibility to object to the content (the right of resistance). This is done by offering an opt-out possibility in the email. The mailing software of Direct Students provides a button to unsubscribe from receiving the information. In addition, a student, when one becomes a member of an association, explicitly authorized (by ticking one option in the application form) at the member association or Direct Students to be approached with career-related information. This allows for a 100% permission to send the email.

I need to justify this investment internally, how do I do that?

By showing a PDF file providing an overview of the effectiveness of the Campaign. Very handy to show to your supervisor and evaluate the Campaign. Furthermore, numerous scientific studies show that communicating online with students is much more successful than through the ‘old’ printed media, although a cross-media (a full-scale old & new media campaign) approach is even better. This increases the effectiveness of other media vehicles, such as a website, weblog, ads in newspapers and magazines.
Just give this new and innovative digital approach a try!

Can results be measured?

In the Email Campaigns one can measure;

• how many students received the email

• how many students have opened the email

• how many students to click through to your website

• how many students filled-in the recruiter contact form or registration form on your website
  
  

Not all partnering associations work with our software yet, but the number of associations using our software is growing every month.

An association would also like to increase its professionalism and wants to know whether its members are willing to receive the emailing campaigns. The software allows that.

This gives a competitive edge compared to the traditional postal campaigns, which are by far harder to measure on impact and effectiveness.

What is the difference between a student fraternity association and a study-, student- or faculty association?

A student fraternity association has the primary objective to learn students to network, learn to organize and learn to lead a project or committee, and, above all, to have a lot of fun together.
A study-, student- or faculty association aims to help students in all facets of the chosen field of study, often financed by the faculty / university and by name affiliated to the university / discipline. This is particularly education related, fun is a secondary objective. These associations are often more serious in nature and have the key objective to help students achieve a successful career.
(Example student association: STAR, Study Association RSM Erasmus University)
(Example fraternity association: RSC, Rotterdamsch Studenten Corps)

Why would I not directly get in contact with the associations?

In theory, it is open to any organization to directly get in contact with the associations. In practice this is more nuanced. It is often hard to find the ‘serious’ associations who have a good price for quality ratio. Many recruiters (even those full-time approaching associations) do not have the overview of the number of associations in the Netherlands and their expertise / field. Even the difference between a student fraternity association and study-, student- or faculty association is not always well understood.

What if associations are not trading in a reasonable manner, by charging to high prices or providing poor quality given the fact that each year a new student delegation is installed as a board (continuation risk)?

Each association has a Supervisory Board and a Financial Audit Board (Board of the treasurers of the past 5 years). These board safeguard the strategic agenda of the association to ensure continuity and financial stability.
The daily board makes the decisions keeping often the knowledgably opinion of the Supervisory Board in mind. There's a lot of respect from the newly appointed board members to former members.
An association has a strong interest in maintaining good relationships with recruiters from companies to stimulate the matchmaking between the students and business. To charge a ridiculous market price is in particular not in the interest of the association (in addition to the fact that most associations are non-profit in nature and therefore have no need to pursue for profit).
Associations who have to high prices, put themselves out of business, or know that they have gold in their hands (scarce target audience) for which the customer is prepared to pay (there are associations who charge 3 Euros per person per email account while most are far cheaper).
Poor quality of the database is in essence not possible, because there is a continuation of an existing database that will be cleaned annually. An email address of a student remains an email of a student, nothing more, and nothing less.

What if a talent finds a job / or an internship and no longer wants to receive emails from Direct Students, is there a way to opt-out?

Yes there is always an opportunity to opt-out (unsubscribe) in every emailing campaign sent using the software of Direct Students.
This ensures the relevance of the message and prevents SPAM effect.
SPAM is the destruction of an organization like Direct Students, because the direct negative response and the quality of responses are severely affected. SPAM can be prevented (or at least minimized) by ensuring the relevance of the content and a strict selection of the target audience based on appropriate segmentation.
(Example: A student in economics is not approached with an offer for a position at a law firm)

Furthermore there is an annual refreshment of the associations’ databases around August / September (opening academic year, which runs from September to August) in which the students who no longer study will be removed. The university database is compared with the association’s database to provide the most accurate and up-to-date segmentation.
(There is regularly a lot of communication between the associations and the faculties and departments of the higher education institutions and universities)

Why is Direct Students relatively expensive compared to some other suppliers?

SDirect Students cooperates directly with universities, higher education institutions (HBO) or associations who charge a relatively high price. They know they have a more accurate database and are more often approaching students in a personal manner. This higher price is justified by a higher conversion towards a unified approach segment was aimed at students in general. The guaranteed relevance of the target audience, also allows them to charge this higher price because of the direct match with the file of the university or higher education institution (there is simply no alternative to reach such a high quality of students).
A large part of the price is used to organize relevant activities for students, who will be better prepared to enter the labour market (a fair deal towards the students).
There are other service providers who operate from a database they own themselves (having a hard-time to keep the database accurate and up-to-date) with a greater risk of pollution of the database (students who already work for an employer, students who changed study, stopped studying etc), and less specific segmentation possibilities.

I am a SME without a large marketing budget, what do I do?

Students can already be reached from 530 Euros and up via Direct Students (excl. Tax). The more accurate the segmentation, the higher the price. It will cost more if you indicate you want to reach students master econometrics in Tilburg in the Netherlands, than if you indicate you want to approach any student in Tilburg regardless of the study or level of education.

I have no graphics or IT service professionals or someone who can create a beautiful (e) mailing, now what?

Direct Students can design your content as part of the Emailing Campaign and support you in preparation of the message of the content, in consultation at your office.
Direct Students also provides recruitment consultancy (help you with your recruitment strategy) and matchmaking with the university and association representatives.

Direct Students - Communicate with Talent