And Carrie On

Earlier this year I talked about the key MarComm roles that exist in our higher education institutions. Typically, the most common MarComm models are centralized, embedded or hybrid.

You can read more about each model, along with benefits and drawbacks in this recent post.

Today’s post digs deeper into the organizational charts that exist within each model. The goal is to showcase how the roles vary based on how the work is approached. I’ll also share possible pitfalls to avoid with each model.

While institutional culture and team knowledge are huge components of what makes a model successful, I hope this post helps leaders assess their model and whether their organizational chart is best suited for their success.

For each model, I am assuming there is a senior leader (AVP/VP of marketing) who oversees the unit, and these are the strategic functions that report to that leader.

Centralized Model

1. Director of Creative

• Owns brand strategy, visual identity, and consistency across all units
• Leads creative services (design, copy, campaigns)
• Oversees designers, photographers, and marketing writers
• Ensures alignment between institutional priorities and execution

Failure point: Much of a MarComm team’s work funnels through this team. It takes a strong director to take a proactive approach and not just react to what campus partners want. This role has to manage partner requests but also the strategic approach that MarComm teams bring.

2. Director of Digital Strategy

• Oversees website, UX, and digital ecosystem
• Sets standards for web governance and user experience
• Oversees website developers and website content strategists
• Aligns digital presence with recruitment and conversion goals

Failure point: The website touches almost everyone on a college campus, so this person must build strong campus relationships. The leader must focus on accessibility and usability, while also ensuring campus users make regular content updates. Balancing the desire for flashy things, while still keeping the website user-friendly and accessible is one of the biggest challenges.

3. Director of Content (or Communications)

• Drives institutional storytelling and editorial direction
• Prioritizes high-impact stories tied to enrollment, reputation, and advancement
• Oversees writers, editors, and communicators
• Manages content calendar across channels

Failure point: Keeping the team focused on strategic narratives, and not just the news of the day is the hardest part of this role. Making sure there is meaningful content on social, the news site, and in pitching, while still covering and pitching news requires a strong leader. It can be tempting to react to what’s most pressing, which involves producing easy content that is less aligned with strategic priorities.

4. Director of Integrated Marketing

• Owns campaign development and execution across the institution.
• Connects brand, content, digital, and enrollment goals into actual advertising campaigns
• Oversees a team that purchases media (or works with an agency as the day-to-day coordinator of this)
• Ensures campaigns aren’t just a collection of tactics

Failure point: This role is critical to make sure advertising is integrated across a variety of tactics in a way that supports the overall goals. Without a strong person in this role, momentum is missing, and there may be many activities, but they don’t ladder to the strategic needs of the organization.

Embedded Model

1. College or Unit Marketing Directors (Unit-Level)

• Leads strategy for a specific college or division
• Aligns marketing with dean/VP priorities
• Partners with central marketing as needed but primarily operates independently
• May oversee communicators within the college
• Oversees campaigns, messaging, and local execution

Failure point: This role lives in constant tension between unit priorities and institutional goals. Without strong alignment, it can drift toward what the dean wants most, leaving broader brand and strategy behind. Because the unit operates independently, strong MarComm practices may vary based on the support the department receives from the dean.

2. Content & Communications Manager (Unit-Level)

• Produces stories, emails, social, and web content for the unit
• Supports recruitment and engagement specific to that audience
• Acts as primary storyteller for the college

Failure point: Because this role is embedded, it often becomes the catch-all, trading strategic storytelling for a constant stream of low-impact tasks. It can easily become a role that gets pulled into many other things, and focusing on those things means the role often loses focus on telling strategic narratives that can help support the institutional and unit-level goals.

3. Digital/CRM Manager (Unit-Level)

• Manages landing pages, email campaigns, and lead nurturing
• Optimizes conversion for that unit’s programs
• Works closely with enrollment or advancement

Failure point: While this role empowers better, data-informed decisions at the unit level, it can unintentionally create silos through customized reporting and disconnected systems. It is important that this role builds relationships with other data holders across campus to ensure a unified view of data that supports both college and institutional goals.

Hybrid Model

1. Head of Marketing

• Sets institutional strategy, priorities, and campaign direction
• Aligns central and unit teams around institutional goals
• Leads conversations about what should be handled at the college level versus overseen by central MarComm

Failure point: Relationships and clear expectations are key to this role. Without clear role responsibilities, this leader can create confusion and duplication. However, this role can be incredibly successful if clear division of responsibility exists.

2. Embedded Marketing Managers (College/Unit)

• Execute within colleges but align to central strategy
• Customize campaigns for specific audiences
• Serve as bridge between central and unit priorities

Failure point: In an ideal setting, this person provides support for work at the college level that central MarComm usually wouldn’t support, helping the college or unit meet its daily needs quickly, while still executing institutional goals. However, without a strong leader, this role runs the risk of getting pulled too far into unit priorities, which results in broken alignment and a departure from strategy.

3. Director of Creative

• Owns brand standards and major campaigns
• Produces high-level creative assets used across campus
• Supports units with scalable resources

Failure point: This role sits on the central side in a hybrid model, but it helps support all units by providing creative, branded assets that are available for use. However, the challenge is that the leader has to manage meeting the requests of multiple colleges for assets. This makes it difficult to focus on the strategic items without moving too far into reacting to needs requested.

Don’t Chase Perfection

There is no perfect organizational model. Every model breaks down in ways that can be predicted. Centralized can be a bottleneck, embedded can create silos, and a hybrid approach causes confusion. Knowing which model works best for your institution and managing the risks and failure points can help MarComm leaders succeed in any of the models.