Let’s talk about international marketing

First of all, we wanted to talk about what international marketing is. But why? Because we both felt that whilst there are many experts in internationalisation and global engagement, and many others in marketing, it is significantly less common to find colleagues with a combination of both skill sets, knowledge and experiences – what we would call “international marketing” experts.

Having said that, it is true that over the recent years we have seen the emergence of “international marketing” titles. What started as junior roles in an attempt to cover a gap within international offices, has now been recognised by some institutions for its strategic importance and has resulted in a few ”Head of International Marketing” roles within the sector, which is encouraging to see. An area of specialisation that is increasingly relevant as the global education market has become more complex and competitive and requires sophisticated marketing to bring tangible results across different countries and regions.

Professionals specialising in international marketing play a fundamental role in bringing together the best from marketing and international teams. Why? Because:

• They speak both ‘languages’
• They understand the pressures that each team (recruitment and marketing) operates under
• They see what expertise each team brings to the table

International marketing experts are able to translate the magic of the marketing campaign so it can be optimised across multiple regions, leveraging agents and colleagues from overseas, and providing valuable in-country knowledge that can inform further marketing initiatives and business decisions.  This in turn translates into fundamental ingredients to meet universities’ global ambitions, diversification strategies and enrolment targets, including:

• Better market knowledge
• Quick responses to global demands
• More penetration and impact of the campaign messages
• A stronger international brand and reputation
• More students and valuable partnerships

All of this, which looks like a smooth process on paper, is far more complex than what many imagine.  Why? Because:

• The world is very large and sometimes it is not easy to decide how to prioritise
• Each country and region is different, and what works in one does not necessarily work in another
• We are not always used to adapt to different cultures and ways of doing things, and it requires an effort and a desire to flex our approach
• We often set too strict rules about “what is on brand” and what is “off brand”
• It is simply impossible to be an expert in everything

I have heard many times how much institutions struggle to get their marketing (sometimes also communications) to truly work in collaboration with their international office, and vice versa, so I would urge you all to try to find those “international marketing” experts – those real gems – within your institutions, or start making a plan to develop that expertise within your teams. International officers often have a marketing background or at least a good understanding that can be developed further to engage with colleagues from the marketing team in a more profound way. What is definitely clear is that international officers are market experts within their regions of expertise, and that marketing teams need that market insight to ensure their marketing strategies have a true global reach and impact.

Maybe you can encourage your Marketing Officers to go on a student recruitment trip to Vietnam, you can ask your Digital Officer to define the social media plan in Mexico alongside a local agent and your Latin American media agency, you can train your overseas campus admissions officers in Malaysia to understand key marketing principles or you may decide setting up a secondment opportunity for your marketing and international teams to learn from each other in a more structured way (the countries mentioned here are examples and could really be any market worldwide where you operate). Those are all initiatives that many of us have encouraged – or at least tried- to promote over the years. However, in all honesty, they are helpful but not enough.

Early on in my career, when Charlene and I were working as International Officers, we were both trained in marketing – fitting in the lessons between overseas recruitment trips. It allowed us to learn the language of marketing and empowered us to have valuable conversations with our marketing colleagues. This was certainly fundamental to facilitate our collaboration years later, when I was Head of Marketing and Charlene was Director of International and we both definitely spoke the same language and understood each other’s challenges and objectives.

On reflection, I can now see how my knowledge and expertise of both marketing and international have become extremely valuable over the years, especially at times when I have had to meet tough recruitment targets that were only possible by bringing together the technical expertise of marketing, domestic and international recruitment teams and a consciously planned diversification strategy. I had initially come from a communications background, having graduated in Journalism, and to be completely honest I was quite sceptical at first about “marketing” (more on that for another post…!). Little did I know in those early days that I would progress to become Head of Marketing and, later on, CMO and a champion and true believer of the strategic value that international marketing can bring to universities.

So what does “international marketing” entail in the context of higher education? The following is a list of the most common challenges and assignments that typically require international marketing expertise:

• International growth, whether it is B2C through student recruitment or B2B through partnerships
• International brand and reputation among global stakeholders and influencers
• Campaign development and roll-out across multiple countries and regions
• Curriculum designto meet international demands
• Digital marketing activities to engage with a global audience

But these topics are all within the remit of the marketing teams, aren’t there? Some of you may also argue that they are the responsibility of your International Office. In fact, over the past few years there’s been a tendency across many universities in the sector to further specialise each function, to move some of those responsibilities from one team to another,  and to join together the marketing, student recruitment and international teams under a single umbrella, sometimes also including colleagues from advancement.

Actually, it doesn’t matter too much which team is responsible as long as there is a mutual understanding. The key is to recognise that these are all big and complex challenges that are best addressed with a combination of expertise, and that it is often easier to have someone who speaks, understands and has experience of both marketing and international. That person can then  act as a bridge between the teams and can also assume a leadership role in defining and implementing complex, transversal projects to respond to the challenges I mentioned above.

In my experience, international marketing experts do plenty of listening and explaining between marketing, international colleagues, academics and the wider university community, and often act as diplomats reaching compromises and educating colleagues on both teams on what needs to be done or changed, and why.

I have seen marketing colleagues feeling overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task at hand: which country do we start with and which cities do we prioritise? How do we distribute the campaign budget across the whole world? How can we talk and work with our agents and overseas colleagues to become champions of the campaign? Likewise, I have seen international officers struggle to use the campaign materials in country, frustrated because they could see there was a real demand for a particular programme but their institution for one reason or another took too long to respond, and unable to justify and evaluate with solid data  why a particular initiative would be a good use of the marketing budget.

International marketing experts are a fundamental piece in the jigsaw that can solve those questions, bringing in the expertise from agents, colleagues based overseas, the wider international office, marketing and communication experts, and in-country teams of media and advertising agencies. They play more than a coordinator role, as they understand the strategic relevance and complexity of the task at hand and the expertise that is needed from all involved.