Instead of viewing smartphones as a student distraction, what if you reframe your mindset to see mobile phones as a tool for better engagement and retention in higher ed?

Texting platforms for higher education institutions are designed to help staff members, including admissions and enrollment counselors, reach prospective students for marketing, outreach, recruitment, enrollment, and engagement. This process works by sending SMS messages straight to student mobile devices.

In this guide, we’ve carefully compiled a list of top texting platforms by looking for software choices that are user-friendly, engaging, and tailor-made for higher education. 

What Is a Texting Platform?

A texting platform, also known as texting software, is a tool that lets you send bulk SMS text messages to contacts. 

These platforms might have features like automated messages (allowing you to schedule messages ahead of time), or the ability to respond to incoming texts. Most of the platforms on this list were specifically designed for educational institutions.

Importance of Text Message Marketing and SMS in Higher Ed

Do students prefer SMS marketing over other channels? To answer that question, simply glance out the window of your office, where you’ll likely see students walking around campus gazing at their phones. 

Statistics also back it up: Gen Z consumers prefer text over email, and 44% of them look at the notification within a minute of getting a text.

Texting platforms are helpful for higher education institutions because they give you a direct line to students who are almost constantly on their phones. Text message marketing is particularly helpful for student engagement (how many of your emails do you open vs. how many of your texts?) and retention as you provide a consistent, personalized experience over time.

Based on our research, here are the top texting software options for your next student outreach or digital marketing campaigns.

Top 14 Higher Education Texting Platforms in 2024

1. Element451

Element451 is the only AI-first CRM and student engagement platform. Element451 makes it easy for higher ed institutions to connect with prospective students via SMS. Use the Element Ignite CRM to send unlimited omnichannel messages, or the BoltBot chatbot to provide real-time SMS support. However you choose to implement text messaging for your school, Element451 transforms your SMS strategy into one that's simple, time-saving, and successful.

Benefits of Element451

• Provide personalized, timely information for each student inquiry
• Set up automated workflows to send out SMS messages and appointment reminders
• Use text messaging to engage new prospective students, parents, and enrolled students

What Customers are Saying

Higher ed institutions that use Element451 love the advanced, flexible communication options. The College of the Albemarle (COA) in North Carolina saw a 40-50% increase in engagement by using Ignite to implement texts into their communication plan.

"We love the Conversations module. That’s something I didn’t see in other platforms. We’ve used this to create synergy across campus. We add faculty as users so they can text students without giving out their phone number. The relationships students build with faculty are key to their future." —Lenelle Hahn, Director of Admissions

2. SMS Magic

SMS Magic is a conversational messaging platform that lets you integrate your Salesforce or Zoho CRM to share student communications across a variety of channels. Create personalized SMS campaigns that are globally compliant, meeting all relevant privacy regulations. And you can also use SMS Magic to help source new talent for your faculty and staff.

Benefits of SMS Magic

• Use plug-and-play platform requires little to no setup
• Respond to new student inquiries in real time with personalized messages
• Work with QR codes, chatbots, CTA buttons, or shortcode communication options

What Customers are Saying

According to online reviews, SMS Magic is a personal and user-friendly platform, but customers wish more features were included in the standard package rather than coming at an additional cost. 

3. Modern Campus (Signal Vine)

Modern Campus includes a comprehensive suite of features designed to streamline higher education management — including AI-based blended messaging. Formerly known as Signal Vine, this conversational text messaging lets you integrate your CRM or SIS data to segment your audience and build targeted communications using smart targeting.

Benefits of Modern Campus

• Schedule texts ahead of time with an easy-to-view calendar
• Respond to common student questions with a chatbot
• Measure texting responses rates and engagement 

What Customers are Saying

Integrations and automation options are limited. But users praise Modern Campus for its helpful customer support. 

4. Mongoose Cadence

Self-described as “higher ed’s premier engagement platform,” the Mongoose software improves higher ed communications through solutions like Cadence, its texting platform. You can use this platform’s SMS marketing services to create text message campaigns and engage applicants, current students, or donors. Cadence also uses a GPT model-trained chatbot to save you time by providing timely, accurate information about your institution to leads.

Benefits of Mongoose Cadence

• Create text message campaigns using preset, customizable templates
• Use a chatbot that’s been specifically trained on your campus
• Analyze text conversations to find emotions, sentiments, and trends

What Customers are Saying

While customers appreciate the software’s clean interface, it can be difficult to search for individual templates or texts. Lacking search makes contact management slightly more challenging.

5. Ready Education

For Ready Education, the name of the game is empowering you to engage your student community — and this platform recognizes that mobile communication is the best way to do so. Ready Education features a campus mobile app for students to use. Through this single, centralized login, students can interact with each other throughout their academic career — and you can interact with them, using the 30+ unique campus engagement features.

Benefits of Ready Education

• Send push notifications so updates are easy to keep up with
• Use the events management tool to organize student get-togethers
• Empower students to connect through the community feed

What Customers are Saying

Several online reviews state that while Ready Education can be confusing to use at first, the customer service options are useful for getting back on track.

6. Ocelot

Trying to improve student retention rates? Use Ocelot, a higher education texting platform that uses machine learning to get the right information to students at the right time. Two-way texting, including the management of inbound messages, provides the perfect mix of AI and a human touch, while the chatbot option can share documents and videos directly within the chat for a richer experience. Plus, Ocelot can integrate with your existing on-campus systems.

Benefits of Ocelot

• Integrate Slate or Salesforce to personalize each student interaction 
• Use Ocelot’s AI chatbot to provide real-time answers from your institution’s knowledge base
• Enjoy pre-built content libraries designed for higher education texting

What Customers are Saying

Reviewers describe Ocelot as straightforward and easy to use. The chatbot does tend to be limited to generic inquiries, though, and a real person almost always has to respond to more detailed student questions eventually.

7. Signal Kit

Signal Kit (recently acquired by ParentSquare) bills itself as a complete communication suite for your K-12 community. This platform was specifically designed for school districts. Use it to share secure mass messages with everyone in your school — or send 1:1 internal messages or notifications about attendance or lunch balances. 

Benefits of Signal Kit

• Gain efficient mass communication tactics that are ideal for emergencies
• Enjoy access to every communication touchpoint in one centralized dashboard
• Give parents more control, with notification settings based on personal preference

What Customers are Saying

Many public reviews state that Signal Kit is a great way to streamline school communications. On the other hand, users do have some concerns about data privacy and safety when it comes to more advanced marketing use cases. 

8. Sinch MessageMedia

Sinch MessageMedia helps you connect with students using the channel of their choice — including SMS. Get a dedicated mobile number so students will recognize your messages instead of dismissing them as spam. Then send campus-wide messages to keep everyone up-to-date, or communicate with new applicants one-on-one via two-way SMS conversations.

Benefits of Sinch MessageMedia

• Let your whole team access the SMS inbox so no messages fall through the cracks
• Send and receive SMS messages on the go via your email inbox (using any standard email service)
• Use the same sender ID each time so recipients know who you are

What Customers are Saying

Sinch MessageMedia customers appreciate the ROI they see for the budget-friendly price. They also say the software is intuitive and easy to use. 

9. Pathify

Pathify helps you bring students together through its Engagement Hub. This centralized experience encompasses tools for the application journey, a student portal, and alumni relations. Send SMS announcements or let students message each other privately through the portal.

Benefits of Pathify

• Send announcements via SMS 
• Send mobile push notifications via the native mobile app to ensure you’re reaching all students

What Customers are Saying

Pathify’s performance sometimes lacks reliability, but the tool is customizable and useful for engaging students at every stage of the journey.

10. Textedly

Known for being the #1 rated texting platform on the market, Textedly offers mass texting services that let users send bulk mobile text messages to contacts. From collecting payments to asking for reviews to engaging in two-way SMS conversations, Textedly allows you to do just about anything you can imagine via SMS.

Benefits of Textedly

• Send messages with photos or attachments
• Set up drip campaigns to automatically send messages over a period of time
• Collect subscriber data and see comprehensive analytics 

What Customers are Saying

Unlike most other options on this list, Textedly was not designed specifically for educational institutions. However, it’s affordable and simple, making it a contender for schools just starting out. 

11. EZ Texting

EZ Texting helps K-12 and higher education institutions make an impact through text messaging. Schedule a campaign of automated, personalized messages, and track each one to gain valuable insights for the future.

Benefits of EZ Texting

• Send mass messages to your entire audience or segment your audience for smaller campaigns
• Use reporting tools to access key data and optimize future messaging
• Personalize messages and add Shutterstock photos to increase engagement 

What Customers are Saying

Some features are only available if you pay an extra fee, but customers appreciate the software’s intuitiveness and ease of use. 

12. Tatango

Looking to raise funds for the new academic year? Tatango might be a great fit for you. This SMS platform is known for helping clients like March of Dimes, World Hope International, and the Navy Seal Foundation raise the donations they need via automated text message campaigns.

Benefits of Tatango

• Collect phone numbers from leading donation platforms
• See an average 99% open rate and 500% ROI on SMS marketing 
• Retain visibility into text receipts, opens, clicks, and donations

What Customers are Saying

Tatango makes it easy to segment your SMS list and conduct A/B tests. However, users say some features, like the interface to compose a text or technical bugs when sending, can be difficult to work with.

13. ClickSend

Whether you’re sending text messages to a few people or a few million, ClickSend has you covered. SMS marketing, SMS blasts, multimedia texts, interactive text messages, and text-to-speech are just some of your options with ClickSend, allowing you to reach students and staff all from a single unified dashboard.

Benefits of ClickSend

• Leverage several popular integrations to connect with other workflows
• Send SMS messages at scale via API
• Use other features including email, rich media, and direct mail

What Customers are Saying

Customers report ClickSend can be sluggish and doesn’t have great customer support, but they appreciate how simple it is to set up SMS messages.

14. Mozeo

Mozeo’s text messaging tools help you get information out to an unlimited number of users. The entire service is web-based, making it easy for you to handle everything from one place. You can also get your own phone number where contacts can text you.

Benefits of Mozeo

• Send automatic responses and replies to incoming texts
• Go beyond simple texting, and send group SMS messages of up to 300 characters
• Plug the Mozeo Messenger into your website so students can text or email you from your site

What Customers are Saying

Customers like the simple functionality, but say it’s confusing to sort through replies.

Features to Consider in Texting Platforms

What should you look for in a higher education texting platform? Here are a few key features we recommend if you want to make more meaningful connections using this outlet. 

Two-Way Messaging and Communication

Texting was never intended to be a one-sided conversation. Look for an SMS service that gives students the ability to respond to incoming messages and vice versa, allowing prospects to get direct, personal answers to their questions about your school.

Automated Messaging and Campaigns

Your staff is busy, and they don’t have the time to manually create and send text message campaigns and text reminders for every student. A good SMS software includes the scheduling capabilities necessary to let you schedule drip campaigns ahead of time. 

Multimedia Messaging Services

Consumers (especially consumers aged 18-24) say that receiving multimedia messages with photos, emojis, and GIFs helps them feel more connected to and engaged with a brand. It’s worth looking for a platform that supports MMS, especially when your target audience is Gen Z. 

Audience Segmentation and Targeting

Segmenting your audience helps you target a specific customer profile more efficiently. Ideally, your higher ed texting platform will make it simple for you to split a larger audience into different groupings and individually message each one. Although segmentation might be included in a platform's more advanced features, it's crucial for sending the right messages to the correct people.

Integrations with Other Communication Channels

Finally, you’ll save time on all fronts if your SMS platform integrates with the communication channels you already use. Whether that’s your existing CRM (like Salesforce) or simply social media platforms (like Facebook), make sure to take a look at which integrations the software supports before making your final decision. 

Add SMS to Your Dynamic Higher Ed Campaigns

Ready to tap into the power of SMS marketing? We’d love to help. Contact us to get a free demo showing how Element451 can jumpstart your SMS campaigns with prospective students.