Automated Personalization Boosts Admissions Mailing Accuracy, Engagement | Education

1/3/2024

RRD’s data programming technology helps a leading university optimize its acceptance letter process, increasing admitted student engagement

CHALLENGE

A leading university relied upon personalized admissions packets to attract prospective students and increase enrollment. When a student was accepted to the school, they received a mailed packet that featured the student’s name and student status — incoming freshman, transfer student, etc. — and other personal information, all in their requested language.

However, the university had begun experiencing personalization errors with its existing provider: Data was not matching up with the correct student, and the process of matching data to each student was inefficient and relied heavily on manual processes. The school sought a replacement partner to correct these errors and streamline existing workflows. 

SOLUTION

Due to an existing commercial print relationship with the university, RRD was entrusted to solve these objectives. RRD aimed to develop an automated personalization solution for the university’s admissions packets that would be error-free.

To enable the automated completion of each student’s acceptance letter, the RRD team built and programmed a custom template. Now, when the university uploads a new data list with student information, the data itself builds a personalized letter that is printed and mailed to each accepted student. All proofing is done internally by RRD — the university no longer needs to be concerned about incorrect data matches. 

RRD’s work on the school’s personalized admission letters has also extended to a significant volume of personalized specialty products for the university — for example, a personalized “mini acceptance banner” that students can display and share, enabling them to spread the news of their intended matriculation. Other specialty products have included personalized ready-for-framing letters featuring the university’s gold seal, luggage tags, invitations, and more. 

RESULTS

By automating the school’s acceptance letter production process, RRD was able to ensure that the university:

• Eliminated production-related errors when matching up student data in student acceptance letters
• Increased efficiencies by eliminating manual production processes throughout the data-entry workflow
• Increased their engagement with admitted students through personalized admissions packets benefiting from automated programming 
• Could pursue creating additional personalized products to further engage incoming students