Nord Anglia Education, China Region
Regional Director of Admissions and Marketing, China International Schools
Working Location: Huacao Town, Minhang District, Shanghai
Job Responsibilities:
PLANNING – ‘for now and the future’
You’ll understand the importance of having a great Marketing, Admissions and Communications (MAC) team and plan for your region and its schools so we achieve our growth targets. You’ll always see the value in being flexible, to adapt and pivot to meet the organisation’s needs and lead by example.
You will:
- Build and lead a high performing group of MAC colleagues – in your Regional team and in our schools – where you’re an exemplar for our culture in MAC, working to the behaviours and expectations that create a great place to work.
- Ensure accurate forecasting for the months and years ahead, using all the data available to you and keeping in regular contact with school DAMs, training them as needed in accurate forecasting
- Ensure schools’ MAC teams have strong planning and forecasting capabilities.
- Maintain up-to-date knowledge of your markets, key competitors, and audiences, to ensure NAE’s commercial advantage.
- Stay informed and share best practice in new trends and developments in sales, marketing and communications
- Partner with school MAC teams to set the strategic MAC direction for the school—covering admissions, brand, communications, digital, marketing and research requirements—in order to achieve regional business objectives
- Advise the schools on the interpretation of their market research (brand equity, parent satisfaction, mystery shop, and market share) and guide action plans for whole school improvement
- Oversee and help administer the schools’ MAC budgets to deliver maximum value
- Lead all relevant analytics and provide metrics and analysis around student enrolments for key stakeholders at Regional and Central level.
- Oversee data integrity through CRM and compliance with group data rules, so school and group forecasting is built on a rock-solid foundation
DRIVING PERFORMANCE – ‘Continuous improvement’
You’ll use data and insights to ensure that MAC teams drive enrolment performance across their schools
You will:
- Analyse the wide array of data at your disposal to test and learn from schools’ brand, communications, enrolment, and marketing activities, and use insights to inform decision-making
- Develop schools’ MAC teams’ analytical capabilities to support our commercial performance.
- Focus activity on driving enquiries, and moving those enquiries through the pipeline to enrolment and starting
- Support the schools to develop a culture in which new admissions and student retention are a whole school responsibility, forging key relationships with school SLT teams to improve the processes through which the school can improve
- Support schools in maximising re-enrolment rates, by sharing and training in best-practice MAC experience for families
- Use Salesforce (CRM) efficiently to manage your enrolment pipeline, and ensure user adoption across your team
- Track team performance through CRM and other KPI metrics to identify opportunities to improve the Family Experience Journey
- Instil a performance-orientated culture across your region
- Use digital marketing data to identify trends and opportunities for growth across your region
- Serve as visionary leader within the organization to build and motivate high-performing MAC teams in order to achieve Regional and company admissions targets.
- Recruit, mentor and develop the Regional MAC team, coaching them to aim for execution to the highest standards of every aspect of the school’s admissions, brand, communications, digital, marketing and research tactics.
- Support the onboarding of new team members and identify training needs/gaps at each of the schools in the Region and prepare succession plans.
- Contribute to the creation of global learning curricula related to admissions, marketing and communications
EXECUTION – ‘First Class, Every Time’
Reflecting a ‘first class, every time’ focus on delivery and leadership of often complex projects
You will:
- Ensure that each school adhere to NAE’s Brand, Visual Identity and Tone of Voice guidelines – and that their own school Brand Framework is the touchstone of all messaging touchpoints
- Champion a learning culture for MAC teams to develop new skills.
- Oversee the implementation of best practice Family Experience Journey within each school, and work collaboratively with DAMs and school SLTs to ensure the whole school embraces the need for a world-class experience, every single day
- Ensure every family receives a highly personalised visit experience – physically and/or virtually
- Ensure a seamless digital experience for families, working closely with Regional and central digital colleagues
- Ensure key Nord Anglia brand messages and our value proposition are understood by all members of the MAC team at the schools and presented consistently in all marketing materials, parent communications and media materials.
- Prepare for regional growth and the addition of new schools / acquisitions by developing an introduction to NAE and a transition plan for admissions, marketing and communications roles
- Take the regional lead responsibility for the identification, development and implementation of relevant projects and business ventures across the Region and drive the strategy to grow our brand and market share.
- Support global projects in the region e.g. annual pricing reviews, market and customer satisfaction research.
- Be a key influencer in our strategic development – working with the Regional leaders, Principals and central teams to identify new growth opportunities and also help manage our risk profile in the region.
- Develop strategies for and train schools to engage external networks (feeder schools, embassies, agents, etc.) to build school awareness and target new enrolment opportunities.
- Ensure that each school has an outreach program that widens the school’s network and positive relationships add reputation in and within the community through local media, influencers etc.
- Put creativity at the heart of your MAC strategy, to develop successful commercial approaches within your region
BUILDING REPUTATION – ‘Always outstanding’
Providing an outstanding mix of judgement and delivery skills to strengthen our reputation
You will:
- Guide the schools in defining a distinctive and consistent brand positioning for themselves, aligned with the NAE Brand strategy – one which will resonate across their market and with target audiences to drive greatest enrolment
- Champion the development and execution of each school’s brand framework, visual identity and tone of voice and implementation across all media – owned and earned (i.e. editorial media).
- Partner with Central Brand and Education teams on global opportunities such as Juilliard, MIT, UNICEF and Global Campus and collaborate with DAMs at the school level to execute.
- Contribute to the development of MAC procedures (e.g. admissions guidelines, marketing consents, re-enrolment, GDPR, etc.) and implement across the region in compliance with local regulations
- Create and oversee improvements in parent, colleague and media communication and become involved in crisis and issues communications, helping our schools and Principals make the right decisions on stakeholder communications
- Support the schools to develop a content calendar, leveraging global, regional and local materials to ensure thought-leadership with current and prospective parents through owned and earned channels.
- Identify risks and develop mitigation plans to threats to our commercial, operational and reputational wellbeing, while ensuring MAC teams follow our policies and guidance.
OWNING YOUR OWN DEVELOPMENT
- You’ll own your career at Nord Anglia, starting with being a lifelong learner for your own professional development.
- You’ll find new ways to develop further the key skills for your job, and learn more about our other functions too
- You’ll make sure you’re always working across the MAC and wider teams to share insights, offer advice and support, and ultimately drive a collaborative way of working
- You’ll proactively seek and share learnings and best practices with your team, while also encouraging and facilitating a friendly support network between your schools
- You’ll represent the China International Schools Region on all global admissions, marketing and communications projects and initiatives.
PERSONAL SPECIFICATIONS – Skills, Knowledge and Experience
As an expert, here’s what we expect:
- Demonstrate effectiveness in relationship building and people management skills with the ability to motivate and inspire others within our matrix organisation
- Demonstrate success in managing a line of business, and driving sales and marketing along with communications and media – ideally in a service delivery sector and with a global perspective
- Display a strong understanding of key business issues in the premium schools marketplace.
- Exceptional stakeholder management and experience of working first-hand with senior leaders and in cross-functional environments, providing expert advice on sales, marketing and communications issues.
- You’ll be a natural communicator, adept at building relationships and influencing outcomes at all levels, both inside and outside our organisation
- Proven leadership, project management and organizational skills, and the capability to deliver a service that takes full advantage of an integrated sales, marketing and communications team.
- Ability to think creatively and generate new ideas to solve problems.
- Familiar with current trends in international mass media, corporate communications, digital innovation, social media, events and public affairs. Superior verbal, communication, writing and editing skills.
- You love data, with experience of capturing and analysing it, and using it to construct testable hypotheses and come up with actionable insights
- You’ll be digitally savvy, able to make a positive contribution to NAE’s digital’s footprint of owned, earned and paid media.
How to apply:
At Nord Anglia Education we are committed to providing a world class, safe, happy environment in which children and young people can thrive and learn. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our pupils irrespective of race, ability, religion, gender, or culture.
All post holders in regulated activity (having regular unsupervised contact with children) are subject to appropriate national and international vetting procedures including satisfactory criminal record checks from both your country of residence/birth and any country of residence within the last 10 years.
We are an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons.
If you’re interested in this role, please send the application with your CV to isabell.li@nordanglia.com