Enrollment Marketing Manager

Job Description

Job Description

 

 

Job Title: Enrollment Marketing Manager (EMM)

Department: Enrollment Management

Reports to: Vice President of Enrollment Management (VPEM)

Location: Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Area

Employment Status: Full-Time Exempt Staff

Salary Range: $90,000 - $120,000

 

About Palo Alto University (PAU)

Palo Alto University is a private, nonprofit university dedicated to advancing human understanding through innovative education, groundbreaking research, and impactful practice in behavioral science.

Founded in 1975 and located in the heart of Silicon Valley, PAU offers graduate and undergraduate programs in psychology, counseling, social work, and behavioral science, including the PAU-Stanford PsyD Consortium with Stanford Medicine. Grounded in human dignity, PAU's scholars, clinicians, educators, and learners share a single conviction: that understanding how people think, feel, behave, relate, heal, and make meaning is among the most essential work of our time.

The university enrolls over 1,200 students, has a network of more than 4,200 alumni, and employs over 150 faculty and staff united by a mission-driven commitment to advancing human understanding. PAU enters its sixth decade at a defining moment: a new president, a new provost, a bold new vision and strategic plan, and an urgent opportunity to shape how behavioral science responds to the challenges of an increasingly changing world. You will join a mission-driven community with the ambition to make a measurable impact on the human condition.

The Role

Reporting directly to the Vice President for Enrollment Management, the Enrollment Marketing Manager (EMM) is PAU's internal enrollment marketing leader, responsible for strategy, direction, performance oversight, vendor partnership, and institutional coordination across all enrollment marketing functions. PAU partners with an external enrollment marketing firm for technical execution of campaigns, CRM management, digital advertising, and marketing automation. The EMM sets the strategic direction, directs the vendor partnership, reviews and approves all deliverables, holds the partner accountable to performance benchmarks, and ensures every campaign reflects PAU's mission, voice, and enrollment goals.

The role carries a dotted-line relationship to the Director of Brand within the Division of Strategic Partnerships and University Relations, ensuring that enrollment marketing campaigns are always grounded in PAU's institutional voice, visual identity, and strategic narrative. The EMM works in close collaboration with the Director of Admissions, Director of Financial Aid, Director of Student Experience, and the University Registrar within the Enrollment Management division, and with academic program directors across the university to ensure marketing strategies reflect the depth, nuance, and genuine appeal of PAU's programs.

This role demands someone who understands data and strategy as fluently as they understand human motivation, and who brings genuine curiosity about behavioral science, mental health, and the field PAU serves. The best enrollment marketing for PAU is mission-aligned communication that speaks directly to students who are drawn to this work and helps them see themselves in a PAU program. When done well, the right prospective students find PAU at the right moment, through the right message, in the right channel, and are guided through a thoughtful, data-informed journey from first awareness to submitted application to enrolled student. 

Responsibilities

Enrollment Marketing Strategy and Direction

• Develop and own a comprehensive, multi-year enrollment marketing strategy for all PAU academic programs, from initial brand awareness through lead generation, prospect nurturing, and application conversion.
• Build and maintain a multi-year enrollment marketing plan aligned with PAU's enrollment goals, program priorities, and institutional strategic plan, with clear campaign calendars, channel strategies, and performance benchmarks.
• Partner with the VPEM and Director of Admissions to align marketing strategy with enrollment targets, application timelines, and yield goals for each program and each recruitment cycle.
• Develop program-specific marketing approaches that reflect the distinct identity, audience, and competitive positioning of each of PAU's graduate, doctoral, and undergraduate programs.

Vendor Partnership and Performance Accountability

• Serve as PAU's primary internal point of contact for the external enrollment marketing partner, directing campaign strategy, reviewing deliverables, and holding the partner accountable to enrollment outcomes, performance benchmarks, and institutional brand standards.
• Set clear performance expectations for all vendor-executed functions, including lead generation, paid media, CRM management, digital advertising, and marketing automation, and conduct regular performance reviews against agreed benchmarks.
• Review and approve all campaign materials, digital assets, communications, and content produced by the external partner before publication or distribution, ensuring alignment with PAU's voice, visual identity, and enrollment goals.
• Escalate performance concerns, redirect strategy as needed, and manage the vendor relationship with the same accountability orientation applied to internal staff.

Lead Generation and Audience Segmentation

• Direct the development and execution of lead generation strategies across digital, social, search, and content channels that expand PAU's prospective student reach and produce qualified, mission-aligned applicants.
• Develop audience segmentation frameworks that identify, target, and engage distinct prospective student populations based on program interest, career stage, geography, demographics, and behavioral indicators, and direct the external partner to execute against those frameworks.
• Review and assess paid media campaigns, including search engine marketing, social media advertising, programmatic display, and retargeting, providing strategic direction and approval before launch and monitoring performance throughout each campaign.
• Direct organic and content-driven lead generation strategies, including SEO, blog content, social media presence, and email nurture campaigns, reviewing and approving all content produced by the external partner.

Prospect Conversion and Enrollment Funnel Management

• Own the prospect-to-applicant conversion strategy, directing communication frameworks, drip campaign logic, and personalized outreach sequences that move prospective students from inquiry through application submission.
• Review and approve automated email communication sequences, SMS campaigns, and personalized digital touchpoints, ensuring every piece of communication reflects PAU's mission, voice, and enrollment strategy.
• Analyze funnel performance at each stage, from inquiry to application to admission to enrollment, identifying conversion gaps and directing the external partner to design targeted interventions that improve movement through the pipeline.
• Partner with the Director of Admissions to integrate marketing-driven prospects into admissions workflows, ensuring a seamless handoff from marketing engagement to admissions counseling.

CRM Oversight and Marketing Technology

• Maintain strategic oversight of CRM management and marketing technology platforms managed by the external partner, ensuring accurate lead capture, attribution, tracking, and reporting across all marketing channels.
• Review enrollment marketing dashboards and reporting produced by the external partner, translating performance data into institutional insights and strategic recommendations for the VPEM, Director of Admissions, and Cabinet.
• Ensure data integrity across all marketing systems and alignment with institutional data definitions, enabling reliable attribution and forecasting that informs enrollment planning.
• Coordinate with Institutional Research and the VPEM to align data definitions, reporting standards, and enrollment forecasting frameworks.

Digital Communication and Content Strategy

• Direct PAU's digital enrollment communication strategy across email, social media, search, video, and emerging digital channels, setting strategic priorities and reviewing all content produced by the external partner.
• Review and approve program-specific landing pages, digital prospectus materials, virtual tour experiences, and other digital assets before publication, ensuring brand consistency and conversion optimization.
• Collaborate with the Director of Brand and the Content and Creative Manager within SPUR to ensure all enrollment marketing content reflects PAU's institutional voice, visual identity, and brand standards.
• Direct the development of content that authentically represents PAU's behavioral science mission, the career impact of its programs, and the student and alumni experiences that distinguish the institution in a competitive market.

Event Marketing and Virtual Engagement

• Direct marketing strategies for enrollment events, including open houses, information sessions, virtual programs, admitted student days, and program-specific recruitment events, working with the external partner on execution.
• Review pre-event awareness campaigns, during-event engagement strategies, and post-event conversion follow-up sequences, ensuring every event generates sustained enrollment momentum.
• Partner with academic program directors to develop discipline-specific events and outreach that speak directly to prospective students in each field.

Admissions Marketing Audit and Continuous Improvement

• Conduct regular audits of PAU's enrollment marketing practices, materials, channels, and competitive positioning, identifying gaps, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
• Benchmark PAU's enrollment marketing performance against comparable institutions and industry best practices, bringing forward data-driven recommendations for strategy refinement.
• Review A/B testing and campaign optimization work produced by the external partner, assessing results and directing strategic adjustments that improve efficiency and effectiveness over time.
• Maintain a comprehensive library of enrollment marketing materials, templates, and brand-compliant assets for use across programs, channels, and recruitment cycles.

Collaboration with Academic Programs and Enrollment Management

• Build strong working relationships with academic program directors, faculty, and department chairs to develop program-specific marketing narratives grounded in the genuine academic and career value of each program.
• Partner with the Director of Financial Aid to integrate financial aid messaging, scholarship opportunities, and affordability communications into enrollment marketing campaigns.
• Collaborate with the Director of Student Experience to incorporate student life, community, and outcome stories into recruitment marketing.
• Work with the University Registrar to ensure marketing materials accurately reflect program requirements, application processes, enrollment timelines, and degree information.
• Develop a deep, genuine understanding of PAU's culture, programs, faculty, students, and alumni, and of the broader field of behavioral science, mental health, and psychology, so that every marketing strategy is grounded in institutional truth and speaks to the students who are drawn to this work.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, digital media, or a related field; master's degree preferred.
• Three or more years of progressive experience in digital marketing, enrollment marketing, higher education marketing, or a related role, with demonstrated success generating leads and driving application conversion.
• Experience directing or managing external marketing vendors, agencies, or partners, with demonstrated ability to hold partners accountable to performance outcomes.
• Strong command of digital marketing strategy, including paid media, SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and marketing automation.
• Demonstrated experience with CRM platforms and marketing technology, including campaign tracking, attribution modeling, and performance reporting.
• Proficiency with data analytics tools and the ability to translate marketing performance data into actionable strategy and clear executive reporting.
• Excellent written, verbal, and visual communication skills, with the ability to review and direct compelling, audience-specific content across multiple channels and formats.
• Genuine curiosity about and respect for behavioral science, mental health, psychology, and the communities PAU serves.

Preferred

• Experience in higher education enrollment marketing, student recruitment, or admissions communications.
• Familiarity with HubSpot, Salesforce, or comparable CRM and marketing automation platforms used in higher education.
• Experience with graduate and professional program marketing, especially within psychology, counseling, social work, or behavioral science.
• Background in paid media oversight inc