6 Things to Consider When Hiring a Fractional CMO for Your College or University

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of serving as a Chief Marketing Officer at three colleges and universities and as a strategic fractional CMO for several others. From art and design schools to HBCUs to a community college, and small and mid-sized liberal arts institutions. The work stretched across a wide range of geographies from California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Hong Kong. These experiences—touching eight institutions—have taught me valuable and sometimes humbling lessons about what it takes to align marketing with institutional strategy.

One thing I’ve learned: Peter Drucker’s famous quote couldn’t be more relevant to higher education.?“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation.”?

For colleges and universities, marketing is not just about awareness—it’s a strategic function that drives enrollment, engagement, fundraising, and transformation.

If you’re a college president or on a leadership team considering hiring a fractional CMO, here are six things worth thinking about that I have learned along the way.

Does your marketing structure support your strategy? Marketing isn’t a back-office function; it’s a front-facing one that touches nearly every stakeholder: prospective students, parents, faculty, staff, donors, accreditors, and even the community. Too often, marketing gets tucked under enrollment or advancement, which limits its strategic impact. Your CMO needs to report directly to the president and have a seat on a board of trustees committee to align marketing with institutional priorities.

Putting marketing under Advancement is like a corporation sticking brand under the foundation as opposed to the CEO.

Are you resourcing marketing like a revenue-generating function? Marketing can be measured and tied to outcomes. But to do that effectively, it needs to be funded appropriately. Do you have the right operational dollars and staffing to support key objectives like targeting new geographic markets or launching digital campaigns? Without the budget for paid media, travel, professional development, partnerships, and experiential marketing, your goals may remain aspirational.

Is your brand working for you? Many colleges rely on outdated brand guidelines or think of their brand as just a logo and color palette. Your brand archetype and position should be informed by ongoing primary and secondary research of your targeted customers. It’s not just about looking good—it’s about clearly communicating what sets your institution apart and leaning into that differentiation.

Do you have a balanced inbound and outbound marketing strategy? Inbound marketing—like content and SEO—is powerful for nurturing long-term engagement, but it works best when paired with outbound strategies like paid media, event marketing, email marketing, and PR. Together, these approaches create leverage. Is your institution striking the right balance or are you spending all of your internal resources on internal communications thinking that’s marketing?

How are you tracking and learning from your efforts? Without a robust reporting structure, it’s hard to know what’s working and what isn’t. Your CMO should establish dashboards that pull data from all relevant sources—Google Analytics, social media engagement, enrollment funnel metrics, press coverage, and email campaigns—into actionable judgment calls. A well-informed leadership team can make better decisions, faster.

Are you ready to elevate marketing’s role in your institution? A fractional CMO brings a fresh perspective and strategic expertise, but success depends on whether marketing is positioned as a driver of institutional transformation, not just a “job shop” for other departments. It’s about embedding marketing into your overall strategy, not keeping it in a silo tucked under a narrower function like enrollment or advancement. Putting marketing under advancement is like a corporation sticking brand under the foundation as opposed to the CEO.

Every institution I’ve worked with has been unique, but these principles have consistently proven true.?

A final point--don't sign multi-year contracts with technology vendors. Technology evolves at warp speed so don't encumber your college with what feels like a good deal today that becomes an albatross tomorrow. Pursue short term contracts with performance measures in place because this time next year there will be a new new thing you need to have the financial and contractual flexibility to consider. Their CFO's need to have predictable revenue is their problem not yours.

#HigherEd #FractionalCMO #MarketingLeadership #HigherEducationTransformation