Location: Marietta,OH, USA
Job Description:
Position Summary:
The Executive Director of Marketing, Communication, and Brand Management is a key strategic leader responsible for advancing the College's mission through the development and execution of integrated marketing and communication strategies. This role focuses on enhancing the College's public image, driving enrollment, and increasing engagement with prospective students, families, alumni, and the broader community. Reporting to the Vice President for Enrollment, Marketing, and Communication, the Executive Director leads the creation of dynamic, cohesive communication plans that align with the College's goals and values, ensuring consistent and impactful messaging across all departments.
In addition to overseeing the College's overall communication and marketing strategy, the Executive Director provides strategic guidance to the Communications & Brand Management team, fostering collaboration and innovation across departments to achieve institutional objectives such as enrollment growth, brand enhancement, and community engagement. This position is essential in ensuring that all communication efforts resonate with key audiences, including prospective students, alumni, and external stakeholders, while promoting the College's unique value proposition. The role also involves overseeing public relations efforts, crisis communication, and market analysis to ensure the College's messaging remains relevant, timely, and effective in a constantly evolving landscape.
Essential Functions of the Position:
Comprehensive Communication Strategy Development and/or Execution: Provide strategic guidance to ensure messaging is consistent, clear, and compelling, resonating with key constituencies such as prospective students, families, alumni, and the broader community. Regularly review and refine communication strategies to ensure they are dynamic, responsive, and aligned with evolving institutional priorities and audience needs.
Campaign Development: Design and execute integrated marketing and communication campaigns to promote the College's brand and programs. Utilize various channels, including digital advertising, social media, and traditional media, to engage prospective students, current students, alumni, and donors.
Team Leadership: Mentor the Communications & Brand Management team, fostering a culture of creativity and collaboration. Work with academic and administrative departments to understand their communication needs and develop tailored strategies to support enrollment, student retention, and community engagement.
Market Analysis: Analyze market trends and audience behavior to refine marketing strategies. Stay up to date on industry best practices and emerging technologies to enhance communication effectiveness.
Crisis Communication: Develop and oversee the College's crisis communication strategy, ensuring timely and effective responses to crisis situations that impact the campus community. Collaborate with key stakeholders to manage communication during crises and mitigate potential risks.
Public Relations: Oversee the College's public relations strategy, including media relations and proactive promotion of achievements and events through press releases and media outreach.
Professional Expectations:
* Must be a proactive, visionary strategist who works closely with the Vice President and other campus constituents to design and implement impactful marketing, communication, and branding campaigns aligned with the College's mission and long-term goals.
* Must foster a collaborative, inclusive, and innovative team culture. This includes evaluating and mentoring staff, and ensuring effective collaboration across departments
* Must have excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders, from prospective students to alumni, faculty, and external media. Clear, persuasive communication is key in both strategic messaging and crisis management.
* Must be able to draft key, topic specific communications for the President and other College leaders as requested.
* Must be able to collaborate productively with key clients ? including the Office of Admission, the Office of Advancement and the Office of the Provost ? to and assure that key messaging is crafted in a professional, strategic and timely manner to achieve maximal effectiveness.
* Must possess the ability to remain calm and strategic during high-pressure situations, overseeing crisis communications that are transparent, timely, and aligned with the College's values.
* Must be results-oriented, regularly assessing the effectiveness of communication strategies, measuring ROI, and ensuring that campaigns are meeting institutional objectives such as enrollment growth, stakeholder engagement, and brand enhancement.
* Must stay informed on trends in higher education marketing, digital communications, and media relations. The role requires an ability to leverage emerging technologies and innovative marketing practices to improve engagement and outreach efforts.
* Must lead the CBM unit with integrity, ensuring all marketing and communication efforts are ethical, inclusive, and reflective of the College's mission and values.
Requirements:
Required Skills and Abilities:
* Proven ability to lead and motivate a diverse team, encouraging creativity, collaboration, and high performance.
* Strong mentoring skills, with the ability to provide constructive feedback, professional development, and career growth opportunities for staff.
* Extensive experience developing and executing integrated marketing campaigns across multiple platforms (digital, social media, traditional media) to promote brand awareness and student engagement.
* Strong knowledge of branding principles, market segmentation, and audience-targeted messaging.
* Ability to draft strategic messages for senior leaders, including the President as requested.
* Ability to assess and analyze market trends, audience behavior, and competitor activities to refine strategies.
* Expertise in public relations strategies, including crafting press releases, media outreach, and managing relationships with media outlets.
* Experience promoting events, achievements, and institutional milestones to various external audiences.
* Ability to develop and manage crisis communication strategies effectively.
* Experience in managing internal and external communications during a crisis to protect the College's reputation and ensure clear, timely messaging.
* In-depth understanding of digital marketing tools and strategies, including social media management, SEO, email marketing, and content strategy.
* Familiarity with emerging digital trends and technologies to enhance engagement and communication effectiveness.
* Strong analytical skills to assess campaign performance, measure effectiveness, and provide actionable insights.
* Ability to utilize data-driven strategies to optimize marketing efforts, ensuring the alignment of campaigns with the College's strategic goals.
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling narratives and messages that resonate with diverse audiences.
* Proficiency in creating and delivering presentations to senior leadership, faculty, and external stakeholders.
* Strong organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
* Ability to adapt quickly to changes in the higher education landscape, evolving technologies, and shifting institutional priorities.
* Strong problem-solving skills, with the capacity to identify challenges and implement creative, strategic solutions.
Required Education and Experience:
* Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Business Administration, or a related field of study is required. However, a Master's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Marketing, Communications, Higher Education Administration, or Business) is strongly preferred.
* Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in strategic marketing, communications, and/or public relations, with at least 5 years in a leadership or senior management role.
* Demonstrated experience leading integrated marketing campaigns, brand management, and communications strategies with measurable success in driving visibility, engagement, and enrollment outcomes.
* Experience using a web content management system or other web development tools
* Experience managing a team and fostering a collaborative, creative, and results-driven environment.
* Strong background in managing communication strategies during crisis situations, including media relations, messaging, and internal communication.
* Experience with stakeholder engagement, including working with prospective and current students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors, and community members.
* Familiarity with market analysis and the ability to leverage data and analytics to inform strategy development and optimize campaign performance.
* Strong understanding of digital marketing tools, social media platforms, content management systems, and analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics, social media monitoring tools, email marketing software).
* Expertise in brand management and experience in shaping institutional brand identity and messaging.
* Experience with budget management, including allocation of resources for large-scale campaigns and initiatives.
Additional Information:
Preferred Experience:
* Proven experience in higher education marketing and communication, including experience working with both traditional and digital media, is strongly preferred.
* Evidence of expertise in web coding languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript
* Evidence of familiarity with web accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1), SEO, page optimization and general best practices
* Google Analytics and AdWords certification and/or evidence of proficiency
* Experience working with Adobe Creative Cloud, particularly image editing and optimization in Photoshop
* Experience with Drupal
* Experience with Asana, Teams, or other project management and collaboration tools
Physical requirements:
* Primarily sedentary work with the ability to attend meetings in other buildings on campus as needed.
* Use of office equipment including computers, printers, copiers with lifting of less than 20lb occasionally to fill machines or move files.
Application Instructions:
Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three professional references. All applications/resumes must be submitted through this online process. We regret that we are unable to accept applications or resumes submitted by mail, email, or fax. As you are submitting your application via this online process, please be sure to provide an accurate email address. You will then receive an acknowledgment indicating your application materials have been received.
Marietta College is an equal opportunity educator and employer that values diversity. The College seeks to enhance the diversity of its faculty and staff. People of color, women, veterans, and persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply. Marietta College does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, national or ethnic origin, disability, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation.