Marketing Manager

Under direction of the Senior Director, the Marketing Manager (MM) is assigned to work on educational programs in the Division of Professional and Continuing Education to: manage marketing strategies and campaigns that yield a quantifiable and significant return on marketing investments across the spectrum of channels; positively impact the fiscal performance of the programs and the quality of Professional and Continuing Education relationships with internal and external constituents who are collaborative partners; and is responsible for creating brand promise and attributes that are unique and important to the target audience for each degree program presented to the marketplace, developing compelling messaging campaigns, and stewarding the campaign process with all stakeholders. Increase inquiries and enrollments by prospective students while decreasing cost per inquiry. In addition, the MM leads and implements brand strategy development, research, copywriting, interpersonal collaboration, project management, analysis, and staff/vendor management; Generates effective unique positioning for assigned existing programs and those targeted for launch; and conceives, plans, coordinates, and implements a comprehensive and multi- channeled marketing and communications program with the goal of increasing student enrollments and revenue in a self-supporting environment and positively shaping Professional and Continuing Education’s identity, profile and visibility within the community.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with and support the Senior Director, Program Departments and  Recruitment Services teams to build marketing campaigns that find and acquire student prospects and help convert them to students:
  • Recommend budget for marketing spend and CPL for each program and participate in each re-forecasting initiative.
  • Monitor the budget for each marketing program campaign with the goal of optimizing return on marketing investment.
• The Marketing Manager works with the Senior Director to plan and implement program- specific strategic and multi-channeled, integrated marketing and communication plans for degree programs including: selection, negotiation and booking of media, lists, career and educational portals, print, broadcast, referrals, and Web activities for social media and search activities for each program assigned:
  • Conduct the planning, placement, organization, distribution, and evaluation of all promotional print, television, Web, radio advertising, social media and direct mail marketing of programs/courses assigned.
  • Work with the Senior Director to define keywords, audience profile, write content, and position programs for pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), and online education directories (OEDs).
  • Write copy and work with external vendors including digital agencies, designers, printers, marketing services and mail processing to develop and execute jobs, such as, collateral items, HTML email, website and landing pages, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, direct mail, print, etc.
  • Develop a communication and marketing strategy that addresses the student life cycle and takes into account program priorities including: using customer data to establish optimum, cost effective contact practices; combining customer data to determine best ROI for promotional efforts.
  • Implement electronic and online marketing efforts including: the development, maintenance, and optimization of the architecture and usability of Professional and Corporate Education’s online degrees website; the incorporation of search engine optimization and digital marketing techniques, and the utilization of other social and emerging digital marketing channels.
  • Assist the Senior Director in developing relationships with a wide variety of constituencies within the USD campus, throughout the San Diego area, nationally, and internationally, to advance Professional and Continuing Education’s goals and to enhance the organization’s image.
  • Coordinate with USD’s Media Relations on various public relations and media planning opportunities as they arise.
• Support an integrated product marketing and communications strategy and implementation:
  • Support the Senior Director, Program Directors and Program Managers/Coordinators, to adapt and tailor the organization’s strategic marketing vision into a multi-channeled and comprehensive marketing plan for each program.
  • Develop and implement marketing and communications product strategy, targeting, branding, creative services, print and online advertising, publication distribution, digital marketing, media planning, public relations, quality assurance, and on-time deliverables for all assigned programs.
  • Develop a high-converting stream (lead-to-student) of inquiries from a diversified marketing mix that emphasizes strategic deployment of resources to the highest converting lead sources.
  • Strategically evaluate and select outsourcing opportunities to vendors and contractors for various marketing projects in order to optimize internal and external resources.
  • In consultation with the Senior Director, manage marketing-related contracts.
• Conduct market research, enrollment analysis, and marketing assessments:
  • Develop and implement data-driven, metric-based marketing research, analysis and assessment tools.
  • Assist in interpreting market research data for Professional and Continuing Education’s leadership team and academic departments in setting institutional and departmental curriculum development priorities for internal and external clients.
  • Use market research to adjust marketing plans in order to optimize student recruitment and retention.
  • Research marketing channels for specific audiences as support for assessing the ability to reach the target audience and build a marketing promotional plan.
  • Research new opportunities and threats in the marketplace.
• Monitor, track and report on all campaign activities:
  • Track inquiries from potential students for courses, certificates, and degrees from national, regional, and local audiences.
  • Analyze database of prospective students to forecast future student conversions.
  • Track and report on campaign response rates.
  • Determine return-on-investment (ROI) on campaign expenditures.
  • Track and report on cost-per-lead (CPL) by source.
  • Track and report on cost-per-start (CPS) by each source per program.
  • Provide, monitor, and update consolidated marketing costs per program by source.
• Other duties as assigned.
• Common problems are anticipated and solved by the employee.
• Collaborate with program staff the student facing marketing strategy including, research, messaging and positioning, copy, campaigns, and media placement for all programs
• under contract and new program launches as they occur.
• Stay informed of continuing developments in the industry and applies best practices on behalf of Professional and Continuing Education.
• Continually improve lead and student volume and ROI for dollars invested on each program.
• Implement marketing campaigns, testing new initiatives, and yield managing the marketing investment to achieve program specific goals in alignment with the investment strategy established for each program.
• Develop, measure and publish key metrics for marketing operations per program and division-wide.
• Share key findings and developments for the benefit of other stakeholders and roll global enhancements across all program sites and campaigns.
• Develop measure and report progress on an integrated project plan for each program.
• Manage departmental costs to meet or spend less than budget.
• Formally present summarized results of revitalized program marketing to operating and executive teams.

Special Conditions of Employment:

• Must be able to work flexible hours including evenings and weekends in order to meet project deadlines.
• Must be able to work with all required technologies and tools.

Effective June 1, 2023, based on CDC guidance, the University strongly encourages all campus members to stay up to date with Influenza and COVID-19 vaccination recommendations.  For more regarding information USD's COVID-19 protocols, please visit sandiego.edu/onward.

Background check:  Successful completion of a pre-employment background check.

Degree Verification Requirement: Persons offered employment in this position will be required to provide official education transcripts for degree verification purposes.