A job title doesn’t define the most crucial marketing role at your school; it’s defined by the impact it has. Many school Heads of school believe they’ve checked the marketing box by hiring a Director of Communications, but the reality is more complex.
Schools often struggle to hire effective marketing professionals, not because of a lack of qualified candidates, but rather due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what these roles entail.
Consider this scenario: Your school needs to increase inquiries and enrolment. You create a position for ‘Director of Strategic Communications’ with a job description focused on communications tasks. During interviews, you explain that success will be measured by increasing web traffic and generating more inquiries. This disconnect between title, description and expected outcomes makes a successful hire nearly impossible.
This misalignment stems from a common issue: Many school leaders don’t clearly understand the distinction between marketing and communications roles, often using these terms interchangeably.
Marketing focuses on promoting your school to prospective families, creating strategies that enhance brand recognition and increase enrolment. It’s primarily concerned with recruitment.
Communications centres on fostering effective information exchange between the school and existing stakeholders. It’s primarily concerned with retention.
While these functions overlap, they require different skill sets, strategies, and metrics for success.
Instead of fixating on titles, consider conducting an audit of the skills present in your current team against core competencies needed for effective school marketing, such as:
- Understanding of the education sector.
- Strategic thinking and planning.
- Digital marketing expertise.
- Content creation and storytelling.
- Data analysis and reporting.
- Technology savvy, including AI proficiency.
This approach reveals gaps in your marketing capacity and informs your next hire based on needs rather than preconceived notions of what a specific title should entail.
When preparing to expand your marketing team:
- Identify specific marketing goals your school needs to achieve.
- Determine which competencies are essential to meet those goals.
- Assess which competencies are already present on your team.
- Create a job description focused on the missing competencies.
- Align the position title with the primary function (marketing or communications).
As Head of school, you play a crucial role in reshaping how your institution approaches marketing. Begin by educating your leadership team about the differences between marketing and communications functions. Encourage a competency-based evaluation of your current team and champion a strategic approach to future hires. The most successful school marketing doesn’t happen by accident – it results from intentional team building based on a clear understanding of what each function requires. When you move beyond titles to focus on competencies, you create a marketing foundation that truly serves your school’s mission and enrolment goals.