There is a lot of debate as to whether email marketing is effective in reaching college students and studies say it’s still the number choice among marketers especially in making that first step in engaging millennials on college campuses.

Email marketing has been a tried and true medium for several decades now and is certainly a generally successful and ‘safe’ approach when allocating marketing dollars. Using email to reach college students is also an effective approach as it allows marketers to really narrow the lens and focus in on their ideals target demographic.

Lately the question that has been asked more and more among clients and during consultations is, “how effective is email marketing in reaching college students?” The millennial demographic, particular college students, are very media savvy and engage with brands and promotions through a variety of ways using social media platforms at the very least.

A recent MediaPost article by Ray Schultz titled ‘Email Goes To College: It’s A Top Recruiting Channel, Study Shows’ points out that, “Purchased names were the top source for private schools, accounting for 16% of inquirers and 20% of enrollees. In public institutions, purchased names produce 35% of the inquirers and 15% of the enrollees. The median purchase for private colleges is 80,000 names, compared to 64,000 for public schools.

And how were those students reached? Email was the main vehicle. Of the private schools, 74.1% use email for the first contact with purchased names, and 76.2% for the follow-up.  No other channel even comes close. The second choice, used by 39.7 for the first contact, is self-mailers or postcards: paper mail. And third is paper letters, used by 31.7%.”

Email is still a top option in reaching college students and the numbers indicate that clients you rely heavily on recruiting use email as a way of initiating the recruitment process. Email is an effective way to begin the engagement process while using a digital component and can allow for marketers to narrow the scope of their target student demographic.