Marketing and Admissions Are Out of Sync, Here's the Fix

Misalignment between marketing and admissions teams is a silent killer in higher education. It causes lead leakage, duplicated efforts, and delays in the student enrollment process — all of which damage the prospective student experience and reduce conversion rates. And with most institutions relying on multiple systems (SIS, CRM, and third-party platforms), achieving seamless integration is no small feat.

So how do you fix it? Let’s break it down.

Covered in this article

The Disconnect: Where Things Go Wrong
Why It Matters to Student Experience
Common Pain Points
How to Align Marketing and Admissions
Overcoming Internal Resistance
What Success Looks Like
Final Thoughts
FAQs

The Disconnect: Where Things Go Wrong

It starts with a fragmented tech stack. Marketing automation tools feed thousands of leads into the system, but without real-time integration with your student information system (SIS) or CRM for higher education, those leads can go stale before admissions even sees them.

Here’s what typically happens:

• Marketing captures leads via forms, webinars, or paid media

• The data is manually exported and handed to admissions

• Response times stretch, follow-ups are inconsistent

• Leads fall through the cracks

Without connected workflows, both teams operate in silos, relying on manual workarounds. This weakens the overall student enrollment process and creates confusion about lead ownership and lifecycle stages.

Why It Matters to Student Experience

prospective students expect fast, relevant, and personalised communication from the moment they show interest. A misaligned marketing and admissions process leads to confusion, inconsistent messaging, and slow response times — all of which negatively impact the student experience and, ultimately, enrolment rates.

Students aren't comparing your institution only with others in the sector. They’re comparing their experience with how brands like Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify engage them — with instant service and seamless personalisation. Falling short of this expectation can damage credibility and push students toward institutions that appear more organised and responsive.

When CRM for higher education and marketing automation tools are integrated correctly, institutions can build a consistent and compelling student journey that supports engagement from first click to enrolment.

Here’s how alignment enhances the student experience:

• Faster response times
  Real-time lead routing ensures admissions follows up within hours, not days — keeping students warm and engaged.

• Consistent messaging
  Integrated systems ensure students receive messaging that matches their interests, behaviours, and stage in the enrolment process.

• Personalised engagement
  With a unified CRM for higher education, both teams can tailor communication using student data such as programme interest, past interactions, and intent signals.

• Reduced friction
  Students don’t need to repeat themselves or re-submit information across departments. Everything is centralised.

• Increased trust and confidence
  A professional, well-coordinated communication flow reflects positively on the institution, helping students feel supported and confident in their decision.

Ultimately, aligning marketing and admissions improves not only operational efficiency — it positions your institution as student-centric, digitally mature, and ready to deliver a modern educational experience.

Common Pain Points

Let’s examine the most common frustrations faced by marketing and admissions teams:

• No unified view of leads
  Marketing automation tools aren’t integrated with SIS or CRM platforms, leading to inconsistent data and reporting.

• Duplicated or lost leads
  Without automation, manual processes create duplication or cause leads to disappear altogether.

• Inconsistent follow-up
  Leads receive generic or delayed responses that don’t reflect their level of intent.

• Inability to track ROI
  Institutions can’t attribute successful enrollments to specific marketing efforts.

How to Align Marketing and Admissions

To create a seamless handover and improve the student enrollment process, institutions should invest in integrated solutions that unify marketing automation tools, CRM for higher education, and SIS platforms.

Here’s how:

1. Choose the right CRM for higher education
   Platforms like HubSpot offer end-to-end visibility across teams, making it easier to track and manage every prospect’s journey.

2. Set up automated lead scoring
   Define criteria that prioritise leads based on behaviour and demographics, so admissions teams focus on the highest-quality prospects first.

3. Sync your systems
   Connect your marketing automation tools with your CRM and SIS via native integrations or middleware (like Zapier or Make). This ensures real-time data flow.

4. Create a shared lead management strategy
   Agree on lifecycle stages, responsibilities, and response timelines to eliminate confusion.

To bridge the gap between marketing and admissions, institutions should follow these key steps to create a unified, efficient enrolment workflow:

Overcoming Internal Resistance

The biggest hurdle often isn’t the technology — it’s internal buy-in. Here’s how to address it:

• Collaborate from the start
  Include both marketing and admissions teams in the CRM for higher education implementation process.

• Set shared KPIs
  Align both teams around common goals like lead-to-application conversion rate, not just MQL volume.

• Train together
  Conduct joint sessions to understand the full student enrollment process and how each system supports it.

What Success Looks Like

At a South African university, the marketing team was generating thousands of leads each semester, but only a fraction converted. The culprit? Disconnected systems and no lead scoring.

Problem:
Leads from social ads and landing pages were stored in spreadsheets and emailed to admissions.

Solution:
Velocity helped implement HubSpot CRM for higher education, integrating it with the existing SIS and marketing automation tools.

Outcome:
The admissions team received enriched leads in real time, prioritised by score, with automated email sequences keeping students engaged. Enrolments increased by 27% in one semester, and response time dropped from days to under 2 hours.

Final Thoughts

When marketing and admissions align — supported by the right CRM for higher education and connected systems — institutions can eliminate inefficiencies, plug lead leaks, and drive real enrolment growth.

FAQs

1. What’s the best CRM for higher education institutions?

HubSpot, Slate, and Salesforce Education Cloud are top choices. HubSpot offers strong marketing automation and integration capabilities.

2. How do I integrate my marketing automation tools with my SIS?

Use native connectors or integration platforms like Zapier or Make to sync data between tools. HubSpot, for example, integrates with most major SIS platforms.

3. How does lead scoring improve the student enrollment process?

It helps admissions focus on high-intent leads, reducing wasted effort and increasing conversion rates.

4. Why is CRM for higher education important?

It creates a centralised system for tracking and managing student leads, ensuring that marketing and admissions teams work in sync.

5. What’s the first step to fix lead leakage?

Audit your current tech stack. Identify gaps between systems and map out where data is lost or delayed.

6. How do disconnected systems cause lead leakage?

When platforms like marketing automation tools, CRM, and SIS aren’t integrated, leads often go untracked, duplicated, or delayed — resulting in lost opportunities.

7. What role does data hygiene play in enrolment success?

Clean, de-duplicated data ensures that leads are accurately tracked across systems, making follow-ups timely and relevant. Poor data leads to miscommunication and inefficiencies.

8. Can small institutions benefit from CRM for higher education?

Absolutely. Scalable platforms like HubSpot can be tailored for institutions of any size, helping smaller teams streamline their student enrollment process without complexity.

9. What’s the impact of automation on student engagement?

Automation enables instant, personalised responses to prospective students, increasing engagement and trust — especially during peak application periods.

10. How long does CRM implementation typically take?

Depending on complexity and integration needs, CRM for higher education can be implemented in 4 to 12 weeks. With the right partner, onboarding is smooth and strategic.