Email remains a tried and true option for any marketing campaign and the same is true for reaching millennials and college students alike. The key to success is narrowing the target student demographic and spending more resources on a smaller audience.

Direct email is a great way to reach the college and millennial segment although many would not consider it the most exciting or engaging medium.  It is however a safe and well-practiced channel in which to invest. As Colby Cavanaugh, SVP of marketing at Emma put it for MediaPost, “Email is a channel that works, and continues to work as a marketing channel’” he goes on to say, “Because of that, it sometimes get neglected and companies don’t invest in email. They just let it run.”

The problem many marketers run into is there is too much to choose from in terms of total audience and not enough ad dollars to go around.  If you take  college students for example, a marketer must know and have a refined version of their target student demographic and you must have a partner who is capable of providing listings to provide that type of search and fulfill that need. As a marketer, are you looking to reach males, females, year of graduation, geographical location, etc.

In a recent MediaPost article, ‘The Flexibility of Email Marketing’ by Jess Nelson, a case study was pointed out where this practice and strategy is clearly laid out. Tito’s Vodka utilized an approach of segmentation where they were able to determine and focus their ad dollars based on demographic and geographical locations where they were seeing the most activity. By focusing on these factors, they were able to retain an open rate of over 90% and click through rates of over 36%.

By refining this approach and really narrowing down the search parameters of a target demographic, a brand can really begin to establish an organic listing that will more often than not reflect strong open and click through rates. This process can best be achieved and started by having the right partner to make sure you’re utilizing the best and most through listings.