Head of Marketing

REPORTS TO: Executive Director of Enrolment Management

LOCATION: London (hybrid working)

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is a rare opportunity to shape and scale the marketing strategy of a high-growth international higher education brand in London.

The Head of Marketing is a hands-on, strategic leadership role responsible for developing and executing ASU London’s brand and demand generation strategy, driving growth in global student enrolment, market share, and brand awareness.

This role combines strategic leadership with data-driven execution and ensures that all marketing activity delivers measurable commercial impact across multiple international and domestic market segments, with direct accountability for marketing contribution to enrolment and revenue targets.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Brand, Positioning & Compliance

• Lead the development and evolution of the ASU London brand strategy, ensuring clear differentiation, strong positioning, and compliance across domestic and global markets
• Define and continuously refine messaging frameworks aligned to key audience segments and student personas
• Monitor and optimise brand performance, awareness, and market perception, across the full range of stakeholders
• Provide strategic oversight of all marketing outputs, ensuring strong brand governance, consistent quality, and alignment with brand and messaging frameworks, while effectively managing and influencing approval processes with internal teams and external partners
• Ensure all marketing complies with UK regulatory frameworks, including Office for Students (OfS) requirements, GDPR, and consumer protection legislation

Marketing & Communications

• Accountable for the annual marketing strategy, plan, and campaign calendar aligned to enrolment targets
• Lead the end-to-end marketing journey, across all marketing channels, and audiences, including individual marketing campaigns such as product launches
• Provide strategic leadership across all digital channels, including website, SEO, SEM, paid media, emails, and marketing automation
• Champion a digital-first, performance-driven approach, continuously improving cost efficiency and effectiveness
• Stay ahead of emerging trends, technologies, and best practices, embedding innovation into marketing activity
• Define and lead the strategy for inbound engagement activity (including open days, campus tours, webinars, and conversion events), ensuring alignment to student recruitment and enrolment objectives
• Oversee the integration of events with CRM, digital campaigns, and recruitment activity to deliver a seamless, conversion-focused customer journey

Content Strategy, Governance & Performance

• Define and own the overarching content strategy and editorial framework, aligned to brand positioning, audience segments, and student recruitment objectives
• Ensure content effectiveness across the full student journey, from awareness through to enrolment, optimising for engagement, enquiry generation, and conversion
• Leed the translation of academic content into engaging, persuasive and accurate content, liaising with senior stakeholders for approvals and to ensure compliance
• Establish performance frameworks to measure and optimise content impact, including SEO, engagement, and conversion metrics
• Set and enforce editorial standards, tone of voice, and governance to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance across all channels
• Define the approach to thought leadership, storytelling, and earned media, leveraging academic and student voices to strengthen brand authority and reach

Data, Insight & Optimisation

• Accountable for lead generation targets and marketing contribution to enrolment and revenue outcomes
• Establish robust reporting frameworks, dashboards, and attribution models to track performance and ROI
• Use data and insight across all channels and activities to continuously optimise campaigns, channels, and customer journeys
• Ensure all marketing is designed to drive progression through the student journey, with clear conversion goals and measurable outcomes
• Support the development of new programmes and products with market research and market demand assessment and insights

Marketing Operations & Integration

• Ensure seamless integration of marketing activity across all channels and touchpoints, supporting an exceptional end-to-end customer journey from lead, through application, to enrolment
• Drive continuous improvement in marketing processes, systems, and technology
• Oversee the effective, ongoing development, maintenance, and use of CRM and marketing automation platforms

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, develop, and inspire a high-performing marketing team (proposed to include a Digital Marketing Lead, a Digital Content Specialist, and a Marketing & Events Officer) with scope to scale the team
• Set clear objectives and performance expectations aligned to strategic priorities and enrolment goals
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous development
• Manage external agencies and partners across paid media, creative, web development, and PR, ensuring regulatory and brand compliance
• Act as a role model for ASU London’s values, promoting professionalism, inclusivity, and excellence
• Act as a strategic advisor on market trends, audience behaviour, and growth opportunities
• Champion a customer-first approach across all marketing and recruitment activity

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Work closely with senior leadership and key strategic partners, including ASU, Cintana, and Kaplan, to align marketing with institutional priorities and market dynamics, and ensure brand compliance and oversight of messaging and creative execution across markets
• Partner with the Head of International Recruitment, Head of Domestic Enrolment & WP, and Head of Admissions and Immigration Compliance to deliver a seamless end-to-end student journey
• Manage relationships with marketing agencies and freelancers to supply paid media, creative, website, print, and other marketing support, including running selection and appointment processes from time to time

SUCCESS IN THIS ROLE WILL INCLUDE

• Achievement of agreed lead generation and enrolment targets
• Measurable improvement in campaign performance and marketing ROI
• Growth in brand awareness and market share in priority regions
• Demonstrable marketing contribution to increased lead-to-enrolment conversion rates
• Establishment of a high-performing, data-driven marketing function, supporting institutional strategy and planning
• Enhanced positioning of ASU London as a distinctive international HE provider

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Demonstrated track record in senior marketing leadership roles with proven delivery of measurable commercial results
• Proven expertise in developing and executing marketing strategies across multiple international markets
• Experience building or scaling a brand in a growth or start-up environment
• Deep experience across brand, digital, events, and performance marketing in complex, multi-channel environments
• Strong commercial acumen, with experience managing budgets and delivering and measuring ROI
• Strong track record of managing creative, web development, advertising and PR agencies to achieve commercial success
• Experience leading and developing high-performing teams in higher education marketing and complex matrix organisational contexts
• Extensive experience managing agencies and external partners
• Deep understanding and experience of delivering marketing campaigns in compliance with the UK higher education regulatory framework
• Strong understanding of CRM systems, marketing automation, and data-driven marketing

Desirable

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in marketing or a related discipline

LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES

• Strategic thinker with a strong commercial mindset
• Data-driven and results-oriented
• Collaborative and effective at stakeholder management
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and building in a scale-up environment
• Customer-focused, with a deep understanding of audience needs and behaviours
• Highly organised, with the ability to manage marketing within complex regulatory and stakeholder frameworks
• Clear and confident communicator, able to translate complex concepts into digestible and engaging staff- and student-facing communications
• Committed to continuous improvement in operational and creative execution
• Confident decision-maker with sound judgement

Please apply via the ‘Apply’ button above.