towson university's strategic opportunity: proposal for a digital marketing department

Towson Proposal for a Digital Marketing Department

Jesse Trahan

Strategic Opportunity

University’s

Proposal For Towson University’s Digital Marketing Department

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Towson University’s strategic opportunity

The digital revolution has enabled Towson University’s potential undergraduate and graduate students, continuing education and career seekers, alumni and donors to become an empowered audience. They can shop around the world, find out more than ever before about organizations and share their views with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of others. Their expectations are soaring, and they can make or break brands overnight.

As a university and a brand, Towson faces the same marketing challenges as others across the globe no matter their location, their industry, their size or success. According to face-to-face interviews conducted by IBM with 1,734 CMOs, spanning 19 industries and 64 countries, there is a “staggering degree of consensus” among the respondents who feel underprepared to meet these challenges.

Four of these challenges as pervasive, universal game-changers: the data explosion, social media, proliferation of channels and devices, and shifting consumer demographics. Additionally, most CMOs are struggling in one vital respect — providing the numbers that demonstrate a return on investment (ROI) for marketing.

Towson’s strategic opportunity is the creation of a digital marketing department, which is ideally positioned at the intersection of the digital world, the vast networks that it enables, and the individuals who use them, to address these challenges and help Towson to understand individuals as well as markets. A DMD focuses on relationships, not just transactions, and is committed to developing a clear “university identity.”

56%

56%

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63%

65%

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71%

Growth market opportunities

ROI accountability

Customer collaboration and influence

Decreasing brand loyalty

Financial constraints

Shifting consumer demographics

Growth of channel and device choices

Social media

Data explosion

Percent of CMOs reporting underpreparedness

50%

Figure 1

IBM’s study indicates that CMOs are underprepared to manage the impact of key changes in the marketing arena.

Game changers

A digital marketing department is ideally positioned to help Towson understand individuals as well as markets.


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DMD role

A DMD can help Towson focus on three key areas--understanding and delivering value to our empowered audience; creating lasting relationships with them; and measuring marketing’s contribution in relevant, quantifiable terms.

Deliver value to Towson’s empowered audience

The first focus for the DMD is to deliver value to Towson’s empowered audience. That means finding out who they are, what they want and how they would like to interact with us. It’s not just a question of understanding their immediate needs and preferences. It’s imperative to understand what they value and how they behave.

Traditional sources of information such as market research and competitive benchmarking effectively show people in aggregate but offer little insight into what individuals need and desire. By contrast, a DMD exploits the full power of the digital grapevine. This means mining data not only via analytics, but also tracking blogs, third-party reviews and user reviews. These provide rich sources of information about audience sentiment, with context, that can help Towson more accurately predict demand patterns.

As Towson invests in tools and technologies including an email service provider (ESP), a customer relationship management tool (CRM), social media and mobile applications, it will generate an even greater volume, velocity and variety of data. Further, the increasing emphasis on demonstrating return on marketing investment will only increase the importance of a DMD, which can quantify the value that marketing brings to the university through the use of these tools and others.

Deliver value to empowered audience

Foster lasting connections

Capture value, measure results

A digital marketing department helps stakeholders to focus on creating value for people as individuals.

Figure 2

The methods are constantly evolving, but the objectives are clear.


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Foster lasting connections

A DMD can help to enable Towson to act on what it learns — and do so faster than its competitors. In today’s age of digital technology, it’s easy for our empowered audience to go elsewhere. A DMD enhances loyalty and encourages brand advocacy.

Social media is a key channel for engaging with our empowered audience, but engaging is not just about communicating. It’s also about helping them enjoy what they engage in and purchase, with the intention of building loyalty. To do this, A DMD helps stakeholders think beyond the immediate transaction and focus on the full relationship.

Interacting effectively with our empowered audience in the digital era has implications beyond marketing products and services. Towson has a university identity – the attributes that make it different and/or better. In other words, what Towson stands for is as important as what it offers. A DMD can help to ensure that Towson’s university identity is well understood, get faculty and staff on board, and manage Towson’s reputation within and beyond the campus.

50%

50%

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50%

54%

61%

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Blogs

Professional journals

Online communications

Third-party reviews and rankings

Consumer-generated reviews

Test panels/focus groups

Sales/sell-through numbers

Brand performance analysis

Customer service feedback

Campaign analysis

Marketing team analysis

Customer analytics

Competitive benchmarking

Corporate strategy

Market research

Sources used to influence strategy decisions

50%

Figure 3

IBM’s study indicates that most CMOs pay more attention to markets than individuals.

Key sources to understand individuals

A digital marketing department capitalizes on new digital channels to stimulate conversations and new relationships.


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Capture value, measure results

A DMD can provide quantifiable evidence of how marketing expenditures are helping Towson achieve its goals. Financial accountability calls for transparency, and marketing return on investment is the most important measure of success.

A DMD can help stakeholders manage the increasing importance of ROI and offer valuable input on promotion, products, place and price. It can measure and analyze the results of initiatives and communicate them to advance credibility and accountability. And it can provide marketing-centric technical, financial and digital acumen.

Figure 4

Make marketing ROI and audience experience the top methods for determining marketing success.

A digital marketing department uses advanced analytics and compelling metrics to improve decision making and to demonstrate accountability.

38%

42%

42%

45%

48%

58%

63%

Conversion rate/new customers

Revenue per customer

Social media metrics

Marketing-influenced sales

Overall sales

Customer experience

Marketing ROI

Seven most important measures to gauge marketing success


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Digital marketing department

Responsibilities

1. Data mining & knowledge extraction—work with

stakeholders to reveal patterns in large data sets to

extract information and transform it into an

understandable structure to guide marketing decisions.

2. Marketing—collaborate to maximize marketing ROI

through planning, execution and analysis of strategic

digital marketing campaigns including SEM, display,

email, mobile, value-based, behavioral, attitudinal, etc.

3. Media—select most appropriate channels, media,

devices; create schedules and negotiate best rates and

placements with vendors.

4. Creative—work with internal stakeholders and external

vendors to concept, traffic, produce and deliver creative

in a timely manner.

5. Social—provide guidance, consultation and collaboration

to stakeholders on leveraging mainstream and niche

social media.

6. Market research—selectively monitor analytics, reviews, rankings, communications, blogs, etc. to provide insight and build loyalty.

Roles

The structure proposed below calls for the addition of one PIN and one GA. This structure has been reviewed with Janet Delany.

1. Director of digital marketing—new position reporting to the senior director of marketing

2. Digital marketing coordinator—50% of current director of graduate marketing, reports to the DDM

3. Graduate marketing coordinator—50% of current director of graduate marketing, reports dually to the DDM and Dean of Office of Graduate Studies

4. Graduate assistant 1—20 hours per week (current graduate marketing GA)

5. Graduate assistant 2—20 hours per week


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Director of digital marketing

Responsibilities

1. Direct and manage the university's digital communication and marketing strategies

2. Plan, develop, launch and track digital communication campaigns

3. Provide leadership to staff and faculty in marketing and communication

4. Collaborate with marketing and communication staff in other divisions to ensure digital marketing is enhanced and coordinated

5. Further developing web and digital communication standards and policies that support the university's brand and graphic identities

Qualifications

1. Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or a related field; MBA preferred

2. 8+ years in marketing, with digital marketing/web design and 12 years professional experience in marketing and communications, specifically in digital communication as a marketing tool, preferably in a higher education setting

3. Excellent writing, problem-solving and verbal communication skills

4. Knowledge of higher education enrollment strategies 5. Thorough understanding of SEM, SEO, including planning,

executing and tracking results 6. Experience implementing email and social media

campaigns to grow and engage an audience 7. Thorough understanding of online media, affiliate

networks, email and social media 8. Proficiency with Google tools including Analytics, Adwords,

and Webmaster 9. Experience managing and negotiating with online

advertising networks and agencies 10. Experience interpreting online analytics and metrics and

converting findings into actionable business improvements

11. Experience driving the definition and management of the creative, operational, and technical aspects of a digital presence, including conceptual web design and ongoing design maintenance

12. Experience evolving web assets to create brand awareness and audience engagement

13. Experience managing the web-to-lead process 14. Experience integrating emerging social/web trends 15. Ability to stay current on emerging technology


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Digital Marketing Coordinator

Responsibilities

1. Coordinate the development, implementation and analysis

of online communication strategies and tactics, including

social media, video/photo placement and sharing,

SEO/SEM, online advertising and email marketing

2. Manage paid search, display, mobile, and CPC campaigns

on a regular basis, working with different vendors as

needed

3. Manage a significant portfolio of Google SEM campaigns

including text and display ad creation, keyword list

management, geo targeting and budget

4. Initiate A/B testing of display ads, emails, landing pages;

analyze performance and translate quantitative and

qualitative data into recommendations and plans for

improving the campaigns

5. Create thorough, actionable reports based on data from

multiple sources including Google Analytics, Microsoft

Access, PeopleSoft; extrapolate data patterns to make

recommendations

Qualifications

1. Bachelor's degree and 2-3 years related experience 2. Passion for the Internet, online marketing and advertising 3. Experience with social media programs and campaigns, including

development and implementation of strategy and day-to-day tactics

4. Strong research and analytical skills, including experience with Google Analytics, Facebook or other reporting sources; ability to identify trends and provide insights for development of online strategy

5. Experience in writing website content and tagging the content appropriately for optimum SEO

6. Ability to provide guidance, coordination and collaboration with internal marketing and production teams as well as outside vendors and freelancers

7. Proficient working with the Microsoft Office Suite with particular proficiency in Excel

8. Excellent oral, written, presentation and interpersonal communications skills

9. Ability to work in a fast paced environment with attention to details and deadlines

10. Organizational skills and the ability to prioritize projects; Strong working knowledge of higher education a plus


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Graduate marketing coordinator

Responsibilities

1. Oversee interest and awareness marketing for Towson University’s graduate programs including radio, print, direct, display

2. Manage marketing communications flow to individuals in various stages of the enrollment funnel

3. Work closely with graduate program directors and digital marketing coordinator to develop marketing strategies for individual graduate programs including online, print, video, direct, collateral and display

4. Negotiate media schedules, placement, and prices with third party vendors

5. Provide service-oriented consulting on and stewardship of graduate admissions web pages to ensure that content is compelling, current and complete

6. Manage the annual production of the graduate course catalog via Microsoft SharePoint

Qualifications

1. Bachelor's degree and 2-3 years related experience in

traditional advertising, marketing, media; agency or

higher education setting preferred

2. Experience creating, executing and analyzing marketing

strategies and

3. Experience building, negotiating and managing the

successful execution of multiple media schedules

4. Experience concepting and writing effective web content

and copy for email, collateral, print, radio

5. Attentive, responsive and effective collaborator who is

able to build consensus and confidence

6. Excellent oral, written, presentation and interpersonal communications skills

7. Proficient working with the Microsoft Office Suite with particular proficiency in Excel

8. Ability to work in a fast paced environment with attention to details and deadlines

9. Organizational skills and the ability to prioritize projects


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Graduate assistant 1

Responsibilities

1. Act as point for promotional video production 2. Coordinate online graduate marketing survey 3. Traffic media and creative production 4. Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

1. Detail-oriented 2. Outgoing; extroverted 3. Experience managing multiple projects, budgets and

vendors 4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills 5. Organizational skills, including maintaining a detailed

log of projects

Graduate assistant 2

Responsibilities

1. Coordination of online graduate marketing survey 2. Maintenance of Graduate Dashboard web pages,

including use of online charting tool 3. Search engine marketing (SEM) for graduate programs 4. Search engine optimization (SEO) for graduate web

pages 5. Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

1. Detail-oriented 2. Outgoing; extroverted 3. Familiarity with social media and interactive marketing 4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills 5. Natural curiosity and enthusiasm for learning new skills

This proposal makes liberal use of the IBM Global CMO Study “From Stretched to Strengthened: Insights from the Global Chief Marketing Officer Study. ibm.com/cmostudy2011

towson university's strategic opportunity: proposal for a digital marketing department

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