capture + Carroll college Case Study
How Carroll College closed an 8% deposit gap in one summer
with Capture
After an unsatisfying experience with EAB, Carroll College partnered with Capture and saw their best summer of deposits on record.
A small Catholic college that has never had the luxury of coasting
Tucked in Helena, Montana, without a big metro area to draw from, Carroll runs on traditional undergraduate enrollment, with more than half of its students coming from out of state. Every incoming class gets built one student at a time, often against much larger public universities recruiting the same Montana kids.
Erik Rose, Carroll’s Associate Vice President of Enrollment, keeps a close eye on the funnel and reviews conversion rates every week.
“We needed someone to help us carry our message to lots of different locations and student types, funnel work is really important for us.”
So when the numbers stopped moving, Carroll knew it was time to take a hard look at their strategy.
EAB partnership blind spots
Three years into an EAB contract, it was clear the model wasn’t built for a college that has to earn every name.
The marketing didn’t sound like Carroll
Carroll’s entire promise is that it isn’t the big, anonymous state school. But the marketing going out under its name reflected none of that. Families even confused it with a competitor running the same template.
“It felt like the product was built for institutions that didn’t have to work hard for enrollment.”
They couldn’t see their own data
No click-through rates, no student-level view of engagement. With opaque reporting, there was no honest way to prove ROI to leadership and the board.
“With EAB, it’s blind. We don’t get student-level information.”
From contract signing to admissions team in-platform: about two weeks
Carroll signed mid-cycle, fall deposits already lagging. There was no time for a slow ramp, and Capture didn’t require one.
The data in plain sight
The Daily Visitor Report put student-level signals in every counselor’s inbox each morning: who’s on the website, who’s a hot lead, who to call today.
“Having that daily visitor report hit every counselor’s inbox – showing the prospects visiting our website and other hot leads for outreach —was really valuable. It’s built in accountability.”
Strategy aimed at students they already had
Capture paired the data with a real summer plan: targeted yield messaging and counselor workflows built to convert the students already in Carroll’s funnel — no additional purchases needed.
Marketing that finally sounds like Carroll
Carroll’s Capture team learned about how to reflect Carroll’s brand voice, spotlight its tight-knit community, and adopt the language that fits their unique identity as a Catholic institution in Montana.
“With EAB, every set of emails meant multi-hour meetings to rewrite. With Capture, it takes minutes. It’s wonderful.”
“We started about 8% behind in deposits when we signed. Through the work over the summer, we caught all the way up. It was our best summer of deposits on record.”
— Erik Rose, Associate Vice President of Enrollment