The team is the key!
We know that the true driving force of marketing is the team behind it. It’s not just about having a marketing department — it’s about having the right people, with the skills, knowledge, and leadership capacity needed to respond to your institution’s context, goals, and stage of development.
When we talk about the ideal marketing team, we’re referring to a functional structure based on two core areas of specialization:
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- Promotion and Advertising
- Student Recruitment / Performance
This division allows us to clearly identify which profiles are needed, what competencies they require, and how the work should be organized to deliver measurable, scalable, and sustainable results.
But roles aren’t defined in a vacuum. They depend on the position of the marketing department within the institution, its level of involvement in decision-making, and whether its function is strategic and/or operational. Based on this, we usually encounter two key scenarios:
Basic Scenario:
This is common in younger institutions or those undergoing expansion. The marketing team is typically composed of junior profiles with operational leadership and little participation in strategic decision-making.
Their role is mostly executional: campaigns, content, social media, graphic pieces, etc. Recruitment goals are defined externally (by leadership, finance, or admissions), which limits the team’s ability to influence outcomes.
This setup tends to become strained when results fall short. In many cases, the issue lies not in execution, but in strategic planning. That’s when institutions begin to realize the need to involve marketing in setting goals and resources, review the team’s structure, and bring in a more mature form of coordination that can guide the team and actively participate in key decisions.
Key questions at this stage:
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- What kind of leadership does the team need?
- What should the ideal team structure look like?
- Is the current team capable of delivering on all projects?
- Can we outsource any services?
- Can tasks be delegated to other departments?
These are the questions that lead to building the ideal marketing team, one that can successfully manage all projects and deliver results. At CISD, we approach this using an agile methodology, through a series of strategic sprints that involve the team and stakeholders, helping us gather real needs and expectations.
Advanced Scenario:
In this scenario, we see more mature institutions where marketing plays a strategic role and is actively involved in defining institutional objectives. These teams typically include senior professionals, led by a director or manager who is part of the executive committee.
This leadership not only executes but also coordinates, reports results, and works in alignment with academic, technology, and commercial departments.
This is common in mid- to large-sized institutions. Here, the challenge isn’t building the team from scratch, it’s optimizing it: identifying specializations, reviewing the structure, analyzing workload, and ensuring the team’s capabilities match the market challenges and institutional goals.
In many cases, the department is led by someone from communications, PR, or administration, someone who has assumed the marketing role without necessarily having the training, background, or strategic vision for this critical function.
That leadership might work for day-to-day operations, but it limits long-term strategic development. A lack of expertise in digital marketing, performance, technology, or segmentation can reduce efficiency and dilute results.
Key questions that often arise:
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- Does the marketing team structure need to change?
- Is the person in charge truly qualified to lead marketing?
- Is there misalignment with other departments or systems?
- Is the issue related to market dynamics or timing?
- Is the team using the right tools in the right way?
All of these are key questions that lead us to reflect on the current structure and capabilities of the team. Sometimes, the challenge lies in the skills of those responsible for certain processes; other times, we find difficulties in the relationship with technology. In some cases, it becomes clear that a strategic rethink is needed, whether that means redefining objectives or adjusting the methodologies used to achieve them.
At CISD, we work through strategic sprints, engaging both the marketing team and institutional leadership to facilitate an organizational redesign that positions marketing where it truly belongs: as a driver of growth and institutional positioning.
SCOPE
At CISD, we use an agile methodology to help institutions identify, design, and build the ideal marketing team structure based on their current reality and goals.
Depending on the scenario, we work to define a strategic mix of qualified professionals who are specialized, proactive, measurable, and aligned with the institution’s vision and priorities. We can begin with:
- ISituational analysis (structure, roles, reporting lines)
- IDesign of the ideal team and organizational chart
- IFunctional and compensation-based role definitions
- ISupport in recruitment and talent selection
- IEvaluation of tech tools and digital competencies
- IReview of external agencies, partners, and collaborators
