Aug 21 2025
How Montcalm Community College Gets Higher-Than-Average Reply Rates With Coach-Led Texting
How Knox College Drove 230+ Quiz Completions and Clicks With Creative Texts
TL;DR
Prospective students click, reply, and follow when a text has personality. Knox College, a private liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, has used Mongoose since 2020, and since late 2023 Digital Communications Specialist Natasha Caudill has run its texts as part of coordinated admissions marketing across email, text, and social. Mascot welcomes from Blaze the Knox Fox, live-texted traditions, and quiz links have drawn more than 230 quiz completions and clicks, and social follows spike within minutes of a send.
- 230+ quiz completions and clicks
- Social follows spike within minutes
- Mascot texts from Blaze the Knox Fox
- Counselors freed for 1:1 conversations
Download the Full Case Study
When Knox College admits a student, the first text comes from Blaze the Knox Fox, the college’s mascot, with a cheerful “Congrats!” A second text follows with links to Knox’s Instagram and TikTok, timed to catch the student while they’re still excited. Within minutes, Knox sees a spike in follows.
“I could see students clicking the link, then commenting on the post within 10 minutes. It showed us just how powerful texting could be.”
Natasha Caudill, Digital Communications Specialist, Knox College
Knox is a private liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, known for its campus culture and creative spirit. It has used Mongoose since 2020, and under Natasha, texting has become part of a coordinated admissions marketing plan built to delight students, not just inform them.
Why Knox’s Early Texting Felt Like a Utility
Before Mongoose, Knox counselors texted students from personal or work phones, then copied those conversations into Slate. It was inefficient, inconsistent, and nearly impossible to track. Even after adopting Mongoose, use stayed basic: one-on-one conversations and a generic weekly welcome message.
Natasha was hired in late 2023 into a newly created digital communications role, and she saw Mongoose as a chance to bring creativity, personality, and planning to student engagement.
“The first few messages I sent, I was terrified. But I quickly realized we could do so much more, and students were actually paying attention.”
Natasha Caudill
How Knox Built Texting Into Its Admissions Marketing
Natasha maps out each campaign in advance, whether for application season or yield, and coordinates email, text, and social into one content plan. Mongoose brings those campaigns to life with texts that feel fun, personal, and timely. Key changes included:
- Coordinating campaigns across email, text, and social.
- Using texts to spotlight TikTok videos and Instagram posts.
- Sending welcome messages from Blaze the Knox Fox.
- Handling bulk outreach and event promotion so counselors can focus on one-on-one conversations.
Creative Campaign Highlights
Blaze the Knox Fox
New admits get a “Congrats!” message from Blaze, followed by a text with social links. The result is a noticeable spike in Instagram and TikTok follows within minutes.
Knox in Your Inbox
To fill a messaging gap the team spotted in the fall, Natasha and her team created Knox in Your Inbox, pairing scheduled emails with biweekly texts. Topics ranged from athletics to study abroad, each with a video, meme, or quiz to keep it interactive.
Live-Texting Flunk Day
Knox’s most beloved and secretive tradition, Flunk Day, got the live-text treatment. Natasha sent playful real-time updates and photos through Mongoose, giving prospective students a sneak peek into campus life. “It made something exclusive feel inclusive,” she said.
What Changed
Knox doesn’t lean heavily on quantitative data, but the results are clear:
- More than 230 quiz completions and clicks on interactive text links.
- Social engagement that rises within minutes of a text send.
- Counselors freed up for one-on-one conversations while Natasha manages bulk sends.
- Happy students, many of whom reply positively to the fun content.
“Students aren’t just opening these texts. They’re clicking, replying, and then following us on social. We’ve seen it happen in real time.”
Natasha Caudill
Shared inboxes keep counselor texts separate from mascot-driven sends, and Natasha picked up the platform quickly as a first-time user. She now supports the whole office’s messaging.
“Our counselors love it, and students don’t hate it, which honestly means it’s working.”
Natasha Caudill
What Other Admissions Teams Can Take From Knox
Give your marketing team a seat in texting, and decide what success looks like for each send. A text with a link is built for clicks and follows, and across Mongoose’s 2026 data, a URL lowers reply rates in every team, so measure those sends by what students do next. That’s the case for looking past open rates to the signals that matter. For conversational sends, compare your numbers with these admissions texting benchmarks and FAQs.
Other teams have seen what creative texts can do. Carnegie Mellon boosted alumni responses 170 percent with one question and four t-shirts, and Towson Athletics gets 30+ signups per campaign with game day texts.
Looking Ahead
Knox plans to build on what’s working: more creative, real-time texting during campus traditions and events like Flunk Day, more experimentation guided by student feedback, and closer ties between texting and its other digital content.
“Trust your marketing and social media people. Students respond to personality, creativity, and fun. If your team has a good idea, let them run with it. Texting doesn’t have to be boring, and when it’s not, students notice.”
Natasha Caudill
Download the Full Case Study
For a two-page summary of Knox’s campaigns to share with your admissions and marketing teams, download the Knox College case study (PDF).
Want to see what creative texting could do for your admissions team? Book a demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
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