Director of Marketing

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary:  

Hallmark University is seeking a forward-thinking Director of Marketing to lead an integrated marketing function focused on enrollment growth, brand strength, and institutional visibility. This leader owns the strategy that generates qualified student interest, strengthens the University's reputation, and connects prospective students, families, employers, and the community with Hallmark's mission of developing superior skills, knowledge, and character. 

Essential Responsibilities:  

• Develop and execute a multiyear marketing and communications strategy aligned with university growth, enrollment priorities, program capacity, and brand objectives. 

• Translate enrollment goals into annual and term-based campaign plans, channel strategies, budgets, forecasts, and measurable performance targets. 

• Own enrollment demand generation and the inquiry portfolio, balancing lead volume, quality, cost, conversion, and program-specific demand. 

• Use Salesforce to govern campaign attribution, lead sources, segmentation, funnel reporting, dashboards, integrations, and data quality.

• Direct SEM and paid-search strategy across Google and Microsoft/Bing, including keywords, bidding, landing pages, creative testing, and optimization. 

• Lead paid social and video across Facebook/Meta, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, streaming/CTV, display, and retargeting. 

• Evaluate emerging platforms, changing audience behavior, automation, personalization, and responsible AI tools that can increase brand awareness and student interest. 

• Own marketing oversight of the University website, including content strategy, user experience, SEO, landing pages, conversion paths, accessibility, analytics, and ongoing optimization. 

• Oversee organic social media, content planning, public storytelling, reputation management, and coordinated public-relations activity. 

• Lead the in-house creative function across design, video, photography, copywriting, campaign concepts, advertising, collateral, and institutional communications. 

• Serve as the University's brand steward, maintaining visual identity, messaging, voice, positioning, and internal brand governance across colleges and departments. 

• Own media placement strategy, procurement, vendor and agency performance, project management, and allocation of marketing resources. 

• Establish a performance cadence using cost per inquiry, cost per application and start, conversion, channel efficiency, website performance, attribution completeness, and return on marketing investment. 

• Lead and develop the marketing team while partnering with Admissions, Academic Affairs, Advancement, Student Affairs, Career Services, IT, and senior leadership. 

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:  

• Strategic leadership across integrated campaigns, enrollment marketing, brand management, and measurable growth. 

• Hands-on fluency with SEM/PPC, paid social, streaming media, SEO, web analytics, conversion optimization, and media planning. 

• Ability to translate Salesforce and marketing data into clear priorities, budget decisions, and corrective action. 

• Strong creative judgment and experience directing advertising, video, design, content, and brand communications. 

• Working knowledge of website concepts, HTML/CSS, tagging, digital accessibility, and quality assurance. 

• Sound vendor, budget, project, account-security, privacy, and advertising-compliance management. 

• Curiosity about emerging platforms and disciplined experimentation with AI-assisted creative, analytics, and automation. 

Professional/Public Activities:  

• Mandatory participation in the Hallmark Character Program and active support of the University's mission, values, and professional standards. 

• Continued education, certifications, and ongoing development of current marketing knowledge and leadership skills. 

Required Qualifications:  

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, business, digital media, or a related field. 

• Eight or more years of progressive marketing experience leading integrated campaigns, digital acquisition, brand management, and measurable growth. 

• Four or more years of leadership experience managing teams, agencies, major portfolios, or cross-functional programs. 

• Demonstrated expertise in SEM/PPC, paid social, SEO, web analytics, conversion optimization, media placement, and campaign measurement. 

• Experience using Salesforce or a comparable CRM for campaign attribution, lead-source management, reporting, and funnel analysis. 

• Demonstrated ability to manage significant budgets, prioritize competing investments, and turn data into decisive action. 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Master's degree in marketing, communications, business, or a related discipline. 

• Experience marketing higher education, workforce education, or another complex lead-generation portfolio. 

• Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud, marketing automation, tag management, business intelligence, and AI-assisted workflows. 

Benefits:  

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance 

• 401(k) retirement plan.

• Paid time off.

• Professional development and opportunities for growth and advancement.