From Reactive to Strategic: Growing a School Marketing Team That Drives Enrollment
Empowered Enrollment Team
When we ask school leaders to name what’s standing in the way of stronger enrollment, we usually hear, “We need more (fill in the blank).”
More hands for social media. More time to follow up with families. More support for admissions events. And often, all of that is true. But here’s what’s also true, and harder to name: More help doesn’t solve the problem if your team is misaligned.
At Tassel, we’ve worked with schools where the people are hardworking, mission-driven, and doing their best with limited capacity. But even with all that heart, things can feel scattered. Marketing and enrollment operate in silos. Job descriptions are vague or overloaded. Leaders are unsure who’s owning what, or whether the team is working toward the right goals.
That’s not always a bandwidth issue, but the symptoms of a team structure issue.
Where schools get stuck: the misalignment gap
Misalignment doesn’t always show up in obvious ways. Often, it reveals itself through everyday friction: a team stretched thin, decisions made on the fly, or a lingering sense that no one’s quite sure what the plan is.
Here’s what that can look like in practice:
- The job description doesn’t match the work. You hired someone to handle marketing, but they’re also managing tours, designing flyers, running the yearbook, and filling in at the front desk. It’s not that they’re not capable — it’s that no one can do five jobs well at once.
- Marketing and enrollment aren’t rowing in the same direction. Your enrollment director is focused on hosting events and converting inquiries, while your marketer is busy scheduling Instagram posts with no insight into family needs or journey stages. Both are doing important work, but without shared goals or feedback loops, the efforts cancel each other out.
- There’s no plan guiding the work. The team is jumping from open house to re-enrollment season to website updates, all while fielding “can you just…” requests. But underneath the busy-ness, there’s no clear strategy to prioritize, sequence, or measure progress.
These gaps are common and costly, causing even the most dedicated teams to burn out. They struggle to gain momentum, miss opportunities to tell their school’s story, and end up stuck in a reactive cycle that’s hard to break.
The shift: from reactive support to strategic function
In many schools, marketing and enrollment are still treated like utility players, jumping in wherever needed to fill gaps. Photos for social? Sure. Event flyers for the school-wide picnic? Sure. Updated staff newsletter template? Why not?
But if your team is stuck in a cycle of “just helping out,” it’s nearly impossible to build an enrollment strategy that lasts.
Instead of reacting to deadlines and to-dos, strong teams function as a strategic arm of the school — trusted partners in advancing your mission and reaching the right families. That shift starts by redefining what marketing and enrollment teams are for.
- Marketing isn’t just visibility. It’s the voice of your school’s story — stewarding the brand, clarifying the message, and creating meaningful connections in the marketplace. Read more about The Role of a School Marketing Director →
- Admissions isn’t just logistics. It’s the experience families remember — shaping how they explore, engage, and ultimately enroll in your community. Read more about the Role of an Admissions Director →
When these functions align, they grow from support roles to drivers of healthy enrollment. To get there, you need:
- Clear roles (so people know what’s theirs to own, and what’s not)
- Shared goals (so everyone’s moving in the same direction)
- Mutual trust (so communication flows and decisions stick)
And it takes leadership that sees enrollment as a strategic priority that is worthy of time investment, and collaboration.
What strong marketing and enrollment teams have in common
It’s easy to assume that great teams are lucky teams who’ve placed the right people in the right roles at the right time. But in Tassel’s work with schools across the country, we’ve found that strong teams aren’t found so much as built.
Here’s what those teams tend to have in common:
- They start with strategy, not just staffing. Hiring someone to “take marketing off your plate” feels like progress. But without a strategy guiding that hire, you might be taking two steps backward. The strongest teams start with a plan: What’s the school’s enrollment goal? What kind of families are you trying to reach? What messages and channels matter most? Once that strategy is in place, the staffing decisions get clearer. You’re not guessing what kind of support you need, but building around known priorities.
- Roles are defined, realistic, and respected. Too many schools write job descriptions that read like a wish list. One person to manage the website, run ads, host tours, plan events, send parent emails, and post to Instagram — and maybe help with fundraising while they’re at it. This isn’t sustainable or strategic. Strong teams have roles that are focused and aligned to what the school actually needs. That clarity protects both the person in the role and the outcomes you’re trying to achieve. Hire the right person, but hire them to do the right work.
- Enrollment and marketing work together. One of the most common signs of misalignment is marketing and enrollment working in parallel but not in partnership. No shared calendars, no join planning, and no feedback loop between outreach and follow-up to know what’s working and what needs to be tweaked. Here’s the hard truth: if your teams don’t share goals, they’re not on the same team. The schools that grow enrollment consistently have shared strategies, shared data, and shared accountability. Their messaging is consistent from first click to final tour. Their efforts reinforce each other, not compete for attention.
- Leadership is engaged, not just informed. Strong teams don’t operate in a vacuum; they’re supported by leaders who are engaged in the work. That doesn’t mean micromanaging campaigns or sitting in on every event. It means the Head of School and Board understand the stakes, support the strategy, and help resource the team accordingly. When leadership is aligned, enrollment extends beyond a department goal to become a schoolwide commitment tied to mission, culture, and long-term sustainability.
What to do if you’re not there yet
If you’re reading this and thinking, Yikes, we’re not even close! — don’t worry. Most schools aren’t starting with a perfectly structured team. They’re starting with overlapping responsibilities, part-time help, and a lot of well-meaning effort. In many cases, leaders are building the plane mid-flight, trying to keep enrollment steady while figuring out how to support it better.
The goal isn’t perfection, but progress. The first step is recognizing where your team is misaligned and what would need to shift to gain clarity and momentum.
Here are a few practical ways to start:
- Audit your team structure. Who owns what? Are there gaps or overlaps? What roles feel overextended or under-resourced?
- Revisit job descriptions. Are they realistic? Are they rooted in strategic needs, or just a collection of tasks?
- Clarify your shared goals. Do marketing and enrollment have aligned priorities and metrics? If not, where’s the disconnect?
- Consider how you’re resourcing strategy vs. execution. Do you have the internal capacity to build a plan and carry it out? If not, where might outside support make sense?
Healthy teams aren’t built in one budget cycle. But small, intentional steps can help your team move from scattered effort to sustainable enrollment strategy.
Healthy teams for healthy enrollment
At Tassel, we help independent and faith-based K-12 schools pursue healthy enrollment. Talk with a solutions advisor to explore how a partnership with Tassel can fill in gaps with experienced support.
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