Closing the Gap Between Marketing and Enrollment: A Leadership Agenda

At many colleges, marketing and enrollment management sit in different divisions, report to different vice presidents and measure success differently. Marketing celebrates traffic and brand awareness. Admissions celebrates applications and deposits. Each blames the other when the class comes in short.

Prospective students do not see an org chart. They see one institution. Every handoff between the two teams, from ad click to inquiry form to counselor call, is a point where a student can be lost.

Where the gap shows up

• Different definitions of success
• Marketing is rewarded for inquiry volume; admissions is rewarded for yield. Neither owns the full journey.
• Disconnected data
• Marketing platforms know where a student came from. The CRM knows whether they enrolled. Without a connection, nobody knows which campaigns produce students.
• Slow handoffs
• An inquiry arrives on Friday and is not contacted until Tuesday. A campaign promotes a program the admissions team was never briefed on.
• Mismatched messages
• The ad promises flexibility; the counselor leads with campus life. The student hears two different institutions.

A five-point agenda for presidents

1. Set shared goals
2. Give marketing and enrollment the same targets: applications, deposits and enrolled students by program, plus cost per enrolled student. Shared goals end the blame cycle.
3. Connect the data
4. Require that marketing source data flow into the CRM and that enrollment outcomes flow back into marketing reports. One funnel, one source of truth.
5. Hold a joint operating rhythm
6. A standing weekly or biweekly meeting where marketing and admissions review the funnel together, stage by stage, and decide what to change.
7. Agree on service levels
8. Define how quickly new inquiries are contacted, what happens when they are not, and how campaign launches are coordinated with counselors.
9. Align the story
10. Positioning and program messaging should be developed with admissions, not handed to them. Counselors are often the best source of what actually persuades students.

What changes when the gap closes

Institutions that align marketing and enrollment usually see the same things happen. Budget moves toward the programs and channels that produce enrolled students. Inquiries get contacted faster. Conversion improves at the stages where students used to stall. And leadership finally gets one coherent answer to the question, "How is recruitment going?"

Talk with RAD

RAD Higher Ed was built to eliminate the friction between marketing strategy and enrollment execution. We work as an extension of both your marketing and admissions teams. Request a Strategy Assessment to see where your handoffs are costing you students.