What’s the ideal MarComm org chart?
You get to redesign a central MarComm division from scratch, no limits. What does the ideal org chart look like? And what roles should marketing own vs. support when it comes to enrollment?
Skills matter more than titles.
This isn’t just about marketing, this applies to any team you’re building. Worry less about the titles and structure, and more about the skills you need in a strong team.
Here’s my marketing dream team!
Someone who can surface insights from multiple sources of qualitative and quantitative data.
Someone who deeply understands your audience(s) and is continuously learning about them.
Someone who truly understands your institution and its brand.
Someone who can connect the dots between what your audience needs and what needs to be done to deliver on that.
Someone who understands best practices across your key delivery channels (email, social, web, print).
Someone who can manage resources and keep things on track.
Someone who can write in a way that hits home.
Someone who can write in a way people clearly grasp and understand.
Someone who can lay out content in a way that makes you feel something.
Someone who can lay out content in a way that helps you quickly understand it.
Someone with a sharp visual eye.
Someone who leads based on institutional priorities — and is biased toward trying things.
These don’t need to be individual people. Some can be grouped into one role, for others you may need more than one person. But you do need all of them covered. And you need them to have enough time to actually do their job well.
Most importantly, all of these people need role clarity (as Ashley would say), and to be in an environment that, when youput them in a room together, sparks fly.
Establish ownership by audience, not departments.
As for your second question: I think central owns what happens before a student becomes an actual prospect (that is, when targeted recruitment outreach begins).
Once they are a prospect, enrollment leads and central supports.
…
Here’s how I would prefer to do it, though.
I wish more universities structured their MarComm around audiences — not departments, not even strategic goals.
Otherwise, you risk the institution trying to message the same people, with different priorities, in completely uncoordinated ways.
Imagine instead:
A prospective students group with someone from central marketing, someone from enrollment, someone from athletics, someone from key academic units, someone from student affairs. Basically anyone who ever would communicate with prospects. And they meet regularly to coordinate messaging to them.
That’s a much better experience for the audience. And better audience experience is what actually supports your institutional goals.
More on org charts from these two smarties 🧠
Carrie Philips is writing about different org models (and has a part two coming).
Rob Zinkan is undertaking an org chart project and sharing updates on his LinkedIn.
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