As a new school year begins, promoting the campus credential and its related services is back to the forefront. A series of affordable, practical ideas are shared by participants in a recent NACCU webinar, Big Impact on a Small Budget: Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies for Campus Card Offices. Throughout the webinar, presenters show specific examples of the marketing materials discussed, giving viewers ideas to use on their campuses.

Leveraging free and low-cost marketing tools

The University of Alabama’s Courtney Petrizzi opens the conversation emphasizing that even at large schools, card offices often operate with minimal marketing funds. Her strategy revolves around maximizing free or inexpensive tools to stretch every dollar. She highlights three key resources:

1. Canva – She uses Canva’s free version to create flyers, postcards, digital graphics, and social media content. Canva templates allow non-designers to produce professional materials aligned with university brand standards. The Pro version adds a brand kit for colors, fonts, and logos, and new AI tools can even help with video creation.
2. Adobe Creative Suite – Through a campus IT partnership, Alabama students and staff access Adobe software at no cost. Petrezzi uses Photoshop for image enhancement, InDesign for print layouts, and Premiere Rush for simple video editing. She also leverages Adobe Stock for copyright-safe images.
3. Social media – Free platforms like Instagram and Facebook remain core outreach tools at Alabama. Using Meta Business Suite, her team schedules posts, analyzes engagement, and targets content to peak audience times. She pairs photos with graphics and trackable QR codes to connect students and parents to resources like Bama Cash. Giveaways and cross-promotion with dining and housing partners boost follower growth.

Because Alabama’s football team has a lot of money, people assume the card program does too, but they operate on a very limited budget.

Petrezzi designs small, single-sided business cards with QR codes for Bama Cash deposits, which parents often share with extended family. Digital signage around campus – including in residence halls, dining facilities, and academic buildings – provides free visibility. Trackable QR codes on these signs reveal which buildings generate the most engagement, informing future campaigns.

Repurposing content and embracing AI

Jennifer Banfield echoes many of these strategies from her experience at the University of Florida, where she is the sole marketing staffer for the card office.

Her philosophy is to keep communications “consistent, concise, and clear,” which allows extensive reuse of materials across campaigns. Like Petrizzi, she relies heavily on Canva, paying $120 annually for the Pro version to manage UF’s brand kit.

For $250, the UF card office shot videos of Albert the Alligator using the ID across campus providing content they’ve reused for years.

Banfield shares a creative, cost-effective campaign leveraging UF’s mascot, Albert the Alligator. For a one-time $250 fee, they filmed Albert touring campus card partner locations using student smartphones. The resulting videos and photos serve as an ongoing stock library for social media and promotional content.

She also embraces AI tools to accelerate content creation. AI helps her quickly generate friendly alligator graphics for badge holder displays and quickly draft polished press releases.

Collaboration and measurable results

Each presenter emphasizes the power of collaboration and relationship-building. Strong ties with dining services, bookstores, IT, and housing enable cost-free marketing opportunities.

• Bookstores share card promotions in outgoing communications
• Dining creates organic instructional videos for students
• Housing pushes urgent reminders through digital screens and text alert
• Off-campus merchants often donate gift cards or merchandise for student events in exchange for social media recognition.

The recurring theme is that creativity, partnerships, and smart use of free tools can offset limited budgets.

Join NACCU to participate in great educational programs that help build your campus card and auxiliary service programs.