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Northwest University was founded in 1934 and is located near Seattle, WA. A top ranked Christian liberal arts college, they offer over 70 majors and academic programs to nearly 3000 students. A regionally accredited college, they award associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees through on-campus and online programs.
The college wanted to increase engagement with potential students to help them complete the application process. The school found that students weren’t replying to emails and that getting them on the phone was also difficult.
- Kyle Hamar, Email Specialist, Marketing, Northwest University.
- Melissa Eller Assistant Director of Admissions Operations,
Northwest University.
The college began by texting application deadline reminders and event reminders, like recruiting event reminders. They also send messages for lead generation and setting appointments.
Messaging for Lead GenerationThey have also used texting for lead generation at an education fair. Students sent a text to opt in to communications from the college and be eligible for a giveaway.
Once the student sent the text message, the college sent another message with a link to a form to enter the giveaway. Northwest University generated 900 leads at the event with their messaging campaign.
Northwest University’s advising office sends one-to-one messages to students. They are having a great deal of success in getting students the information they need to register via text messaging.
Sending appointment reminders has helped to ensure that new students keep their meetings with advisors and is especially effective at helping advisors schedule meetings at the last minute,
when the need arises.
Last spring, many students were interested in going to Northwest University at the last minute.
Student admissions counselors also use messaging to converse with students individually. Many of them would call students earlier, but they’ve seen better results with text messaging.
- Kyle Hamar, Email Specialist, Marketing, Northwest University.
Messaging for Campus VisitsThe college uses automated messages to send reminders for events like Northwest Fridays, where students and their parents can visit
campus for a day, attend classes, have lunch and ask questions of the faculty.
Messaging for RemindersThe college also sends reminder messages to students over summer to finalize their housing. These text messages have a link to a page with information related to housing.
Northwest University also sends orientation day reminders to ensure students reach campus on time on their first day of college.
If the college has both the email address and mobile number of students, they send a text message to remind them about the email to increase event attendance.
- Kyle Hamar, Email Specialist, Marketing, Northwest University.
“When we send out an SMS to say sign up for an event, right away our counselors are getting several signups and questions,” says Eller.
An important metric for the college is engagement, especially around on-campus visit events. They want prospective students to ask questions and engage in conversations with their enrollment teams.
Northwest University also noted that when they compared the opt-outs received for both email and SMS, messaging opts outs were only happening at 5% of the rate of email opt outs. More students staying opted-in to receive SMS communications empowers them to continue significantly more conversations.
The college has also seen a “huge leap in productivity,” says Hamar, after they started using text messaging. Earlier, student counselors were messaging individually through their phones. Now, they send out one bulk text through Salesforce and reply to the responses that come in.
The more a student engages with Northwest University, whether it is communicating with a counselor, browsing the website, particularly visiting the campus, the more likely they are to enroll in and go to the college. Messaging helps in this engagement, so students understand and recall the Northwest University brand better and are more inclined to visit campus.
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