The Direct Effect: Creating Integrated Marketing Campaigns with Direct Mail

Consumers live in an omnichannel world and marketing students are often taught marketing concepts through the traditional approaches of print and TV advertising or the digital world of websites and social media. Consumers are moving seamlessly through both these worlds, but there has been little academic attention paid to the reemergence of direct mail and how its connection to digital creates new opportunities for marketers. A complete direct mail and digital marketing class has been developed in an experiential learning framework in collaboration with the US Postal Service and other industry partners. Course materials are constructed as modules that can be used individually, combined with existing courses or used as a semester long experience. To facilitate experiential learning, the curriculum content is supported with resources designed to connect students with the direct mail and marketing industry through guest lectures, in class exercises, and a live omnichannel project experience connecting direct mail with digital.