The Role Of Marketing In Higher Education

Photo by Darlene Alderson

The educational sector struggles with having experienced marketers, unlike their counterparts like FCMG, tech and other sectors or industries. Higher education, I suppose, provides more knowledge services than the selling of goods; I am not sure.

Understanding the current marketing responsibilities and how to support your team during growth or transitions are essential skills for any marketing manager looking to assemble a team of in-house marketing specialists.

What is the marketers’ role?

Every marketer should have the technical knowledge of how to understand the customer as the focal point of the business. Without customer satisfaction, products and services will not be relevant in the market. Here are five processes to identify the role of your marketers.

Marketers must identify customer needs:

• Who are your customers?
• What are their various needs now, and how sustainable is our offer in the future?
• Who are our competitors, and how does our offering differ from the competition?

Marketers Satisfy customer needs:

• Ensure using the marketing mix in developing marketing activities that deliver customer value.
• Set strategic direction and growth aspirations for all the marketing activities and mission.
• Outline strategically, how your team can deliver tasks, and what the Unique Value Proposition they are selling.

Marketers should Develop and manage properly the marketing mix:

• The 4 Ps is the combination of 4 marketing elements, products, price, promotion, and place, which should be used by the team to create great offerings to customers.
• Contributing to longer-term organizational goals, objectives, vision, and direction and ensuring the strategic vision is met.
• Lead the concept of marketing orientation towards deliverables.
• Delivering the right product (or service), in the right place, at the right time and the right price, contributing towards creating satisfied customers and successful, efficient, and profitable organizations.

Marketers should be accountable for the financial delivery:

• Manage the budgets for tools, ads, and effective investment to deliver strong ROI for the business.

Marketers should understand reports, insights, and analytics from data:

• Monthly reports for all the activities done.

How to grow as a marketer

• Get marketing certification courses. 
• Attend webinars, trainings, events, and summits.
• Read current articles and trends from industry experts.
• Listen to a marketing podcast to understand the latest trends and changes.
• Subscribe to a newsletter from industry experts.