Reframing Marketing as a Strategic System in Higher Education

Executive Summary

Redefined how a small faith-based university understood and practiced marketing by introducing a systems-based framework that connected brand, funnel strategy, governance, and execution. The work shifted marketing from ad hoc requests and disconnected tactics into a coherent operating model aligned with institutional values, enrollment goals, and internal capacity.

Context

Organization: Mission University
Industry: Higher education (faith-based, non-profit)
Role: Marketing Strategist (consulting)

Mission University operated in a highly values-constrained environment where marketing was often viewed as promotional output rather than a strategic system. Growth was necessary, but leadership was cautious about approaches that could dilute religious identity or feel overly commercial.

The Strategic Problem

Mission University did not lack effort or intent. It lacked a shared understanding of what marketing actually is.

Key challenges included:

• Marketing treated as a series of disconnected requests rather than a system

• No shared mental model of the marketing funnel or user journeys

• Website updates driven by ad hoc departmental needs, creating inconsistency

• Content creation and approval lacked governance, prioritization, and clarity

• Leadership and departments had no common framework for evaluating marketing impact

The core question became:

How do you help a mission-driven institution grow without compromising identity, clarity, or operational sanity?

Objectives

• Establish a shared understanding of marketing as a strategic system

• Align marketing activity to enrollment and awareness goals

• Preserve religious identity while broadening approachability

• Create governance models that respected academic autonomy

• Reduce friction, backlog chaos, and one-off execution

Strategy & Execution

1. Educated Leadership on Marketing as a System, Not a Tactic

I began by reframing marketing through a funnel-based, journey-driven model, tailored specifically for non-profits and higher education.

Key elements included:

• Awareness → Consideration → Conversion → Loyalty

• Clear articulation of:

  • Channels

  • Tactics

  • KPIs

  • Progression logic between stages

• Explicit adaptation of the funnel to non-profit and academic contexts, including donors, parents, students, and community advocates

This work established a shared language that leadership and departments could use to evaluate decisions.

2. Connected Strategy to Real User Journeys

To make the funnel tangible, I developed multiple persona-based user journeys, including:

• Prospective parents

• Community advocates

• Local business supporters

• Digitally native prospective students

Each journey mapped:

• Entry points

• Content needs

• Conversion actions

• Long-term engagement paths

This shifted conversations from:

“We need a new page” to “Where does this fit in the journey?”

3. Designed Governance for Website and Content Operations

Recognizing that strategy without governance would fail, I designed clear operational workflows to manage:

• News and content submissions

• Departmental reviews

• Marketing prioritization

• Web team execution

• Final approvals and publishing

Key features:

• Centralized intake via forms

• Backlog visibility and prioritization

• Defined ownership across departments, marketing, and web teams

• Semester-based content reviews to ensure accuracy and relevance

These workflows reduced friction while respecting departmental authority.

4. Built Systems That Balanced Control and Autonomy

A critical constraint was not centralizing everything under marketing.

Instead, I:

• Preserved departmental ownership of content expertise

• Introduced structured review and approval paths

• Created shared documentation and visual process maps

• Made marketing the facilitator and system owner, not the bottleneck

This approach increased adoption rather than resistance.

Results

While this engagement focused on foundational transformation rather than immediate enrollment spikes, it delivered measurable organizational impact:

• Leadership adopted a shared framework for discussing marketing investments

• Departments gained clarity on how and why marketing requests were prioritized

• Website updates became more consistent, accurate, and intentional

• Content backlog shifted from reactive to managed

• Marketing conversations moved from outputs to outcomes

Most importantly, the institution gained a repeatable marketing operating model aligned to its mission.

Strategic Impact

• Marketing maturity increased without importing corporate excess

• Growth discussions became structured and less emotionally charged

• Institutional identity remained intact while outreach became clearer

• Marketing shifted from “support function” to “strategic enabler”