Recruitment and Marketing Specialist

Description

The School of Visual and Performing Arts (SVPA) seeks a creative, tech-savvy, and strategic Recruitment & Marketing Specialist to serve as the School’s primary digital storyteller and enrollment champion. This hybrid role requires an individual who can operate comfortably in two worlds: acting as a digital content creator, capturing the high-energy reality of our studios, stages, and concert halls, and as a recruitment strategist, building and managing the pipeline of students who will define the future of our programs.

By leveraging specialized arts recruitment tools like MusicWindow alongside institutional systems, you will ensure our digital outreach is highly personalized and that prospective students are seamlessly guided from their initial point of interest through their audition, portfolio review, and eventual enrollment.

Examples of Duties

1 . Strategic Recruitment & CRM Management (45%)

• Pipeline & Lead Management: Oversee the SVPA prospect funnel. Actively capture prospective student data at high school clinics, workshops, and off-campus events using the MusicWindow platform, ensuring a seamless two-way data sync with the university’s central CRM, Slate.
• Audition & Portfolio Coordination: Streamline and manage the audition and portfolio review process. Utilize MusicWindow to coordinate video submissions, automate audition scheduling, and route student portfolios directly to appropriate faculty for evaluation.
• High-Touch Lead Nurturing: Implement automated, targeted follow-up campaigns to drive prospective students toward campus tours, audition sign-ups, and matriculation.
• Recruitment Outreach & Travel: Represent SVPA at regional high schools, college fairs, and state-wide arts festivals and conferences. Cultivate strong working relationships with high school band, choir, theatre, and art teachers.
• Supervisory and Budget Responsibilities: Develop a budget, may review for discrepancies or delegate duties, request or delegate preparation of any required paperwork; authority to sign off and commit funds up to $1,000. Supervise 50+ student employees, including graduate assistants.

2. Digital Content & Video Storytelling (40%)

• Student-Led Content Creation: Leverage MusicWindow’s "Video Stories" and other mobile tools to capture authentic, raw, and high-converting video content from current students directly in rehearsal spaces, studios, and backstage areas.
• Targeted Digital Marketing: Design and deploy "Intelligent Content" pathways that dynamically match a prospect’s specific interests (e.g., Graphic Design vs. Musical Theatre) with relevant student stories, faculty profiles, and event details, per the branding standards identified by the UCM Office of Integrated Marketing and Communications.
• Social Media & Web Management: Curate and maintain the SVPA editorial calendar across Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Ensure the SVPA website is maintained, visually engaging, and SEO-optimized. Training from and collaboration with the UCM Office of Integrated Marketing and Communication will be required.
• Event Promotion: Create digital graphics, promo materials, and email newsletters to drive community attendance and recruit talent during major SVPA production seasons.

3. Faculty & Student Collaboration and Alumni Engagement (15%)

• Faculty Engagement: Act as the administrator for the MusicWindow "Conversation Center," equipping and prompting busy arts faculty and two Events staff members to engage in direct, meaningful recruitment conversations with high-priority prospects.
• Student Ambassadors: Recruit, train, and supervise a team of SVPA Student Ambassadors, guiding them on how to effectively document student life and represent the brand during campus visit days and outreach events.
• Alumni Engagement: Identify and catalog successful graduates to feature as "proof of concept" success stories in MusicWindow and social media recruitment campaigns, while strategically integrating prominent alumni into important campus events and visits.
• Analytics & Reporting: Regularly analyze engagement and recruitment yield metrics from both Slate and MusicWindow to report on campaign ROI to the School Chair.

Typical Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Fine Arts, Graphic Design, or a related field.
• Education may be substituted for experience or experience may be substituted for education based on the following equivalencies: AA = 2 years; BA/BS = 4 years; MA/MS = 6 years; PhD = 8 years.

Professional Experience: Three (3) years of experience in higher education admissions, student recruitment, digital marketing, or arts administration.

Supervisory Experience: Two (2) years of supervisor experience required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience managing niche recruitment platforms (e.g., MusicWindow, Acceptd) and institutional CRM platforms (e.g., Slate).
• Strong visual storytelling skills, including experience capturing and editing short-form video content (Reels/TikTok) and basic graphic design (Adobe Creative Cloud or Canva).
• A background or deep personal interest in the visual arts, music, theatre, or dance.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to build immediate rapport with high school students, parents, and educators.

Supplemental Information

Licenses and Certifications

• Must possess a valid driver’s license and have the ability to travel regionally (including occasional evenings and weekends during peak recruitment and performance seasons).

Supervisory and Budget Responsibilities

Recruit, train, and supervise a team of SVPA Student Ambassadors, guiding them on how to effectively document student life and represent the brand during campus visit days and outreach events. Documents to be provided: 1) A Professional Resume & Cover Letter detailing your experience in student recruitment or digital marketing;

2) A Creative Portfolio: Links to social media campaigns, short-form videos you have produced/edited, or graphic design work.