Case Study: Northwest University achieves 15X student engagement with SMS-Magic

Northwest University Sees 15X Student Engagement with Text Messaging

Northwest University, a regionally accredited liberal arts college near Seattle, faced low engagement with prospective students—emails were largely ignored and phone calls were ineffective—making it hard to drive applicants to complete enrollment steps. To address this, the university adopted SMS-Magic’s text messaging platform (integrated with Salesforce) after seeing a demo and positive AppExchange ratings.

Using SMS-Magic, Northwest University deployed automated and one-to-one SMS for application and event reminders, lead capture, appointment scheduling, and last-minute advising; they even replaced their student call center with an SMS-based center. The results were measurable: engagement jumped from roughly 0.1–0.5% via email to 10–15% via SMS (about 15x improvement), they captured 900 leads at one fair, opt-outs fell to about 5% of email rates, and overall productivity and event attendance increased.

Northwest University

Melissa Eller

Assistant Director of Admissions Operations