“Our marketing budget is extremely limited, but we run a lean team”
A senior leader told me during a call last week.
And you know, I can live with that.
Because just like with your personal income, it’s not about how much you earn, but how much you keep. In marketing terms: what % of your marketing $ and effort actually advances your marketing objectives.
Some 10 years ago, when I was still very much a digital marketer and ran a small team, we developed a set of customer intake questions. The answers to these questions would guide our recommendations and our approach.
They’re not complex questions, but young me was surprised, at the time, how few of our clients could articulate clear answers to them.
And it matters more than you might think. If you don’t know, in very practical terms, what your objectives are, most of the work you do ends up wasted.
These are the key strategic questions:
1. Who are our ideal students?
This determines marketing channels, targeting (which keywords) and messaging.
If you can’t define your ideal students in a few well-defined groups that share the same characteristics, your messaging will simply fly past students.
2. Who are our “competitors”?
Most institutions will have an idea about that – although a common pitfall is to look only to a very similar institution nearby. But international students (say, from China) will not just consider your lookalike. They may be thinking of studying in a different country or taking a local or online degree. If your messaging doesn’t address those considerations (implicitly or explicitly) it will fly past your ideal students.
3. Unique selling points (USPs)
When you have a good understanding of your ideal students, competition and of yourself, you can articulate a maximum of 3 unique selling points. The reality is that you can write all you want, make as many videos as you want, but the ideal student you want to reach may only see a fraction. What do you want them to remember? If you can align on this internally and brief agencies about your USPs, you greatly increase your chances of hitting the mark.
(4-6) Goals, budget and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Without explicit goals (how many students next year, in 3 years, in 5 years) and a defined budget as well as some KPIs to keep an eye on along the way, you don’t know whether you’re on track or not.
Of course, super ambitious goals should come with a matching budget, or they are not really goals. But on the other hand, if given the choice, I’d rather have good and internally agreed-upon answers to the above questions than a huge budget.
When you’re clear about what you want to communicate, to whom and what your path to success is, you’ll do better than a competitor with a generous budget that doesn’t have a clue.
If you put out the right messages to the right audiences, it’s a matter of time until the message starts to spread.
Is your team clear about the key strategic questions?
If so, you’re well on track for a successful 2026.
If not, you’ve got work to do …
Ok, it sounds easy for an outsider like me. I know that agreeing on the answers – across colleagues in the same and adjacent teams, takes time and the effort to understand very different points of view.
Many teams have found my Fundamentals course “Effective Online Marketing for Education” a helpful framework to bring clarity and focus.
That’s all for this Field Note
Check out the course: “Effective Online Marketing for Education
This article first appeared as a Field Note
In the Field Notes, I share one practical idea you can try on your site or in your campaigns. Every two weeks. Get it in your inbox by signing up here.
