Universities are finding it increasingly challenging to attract and engage the right students. With an ever-growing list of options, students are more selective, and higher education institutions must stand out through targeted, data-driven marketing. To achieve a substantial boost in enrolment, traditional marketing alone isn’t enough. This is where Revenue Operations (RevOps) comes into play. RevOps align marketing, admissions, and student services, using data and technology to streamline and enhance the entire enrolment funnel, making it easier to reach, engage, and convert prospective students.
What is RevOps, and Why Is It Vital in Higher Education Marketing?
How RevOps Aligns Teams for Better Enrolment Outcomes
Three Core Strategies to Boost Enrolment by 30% with RevOps
Key Metrics to Track in RevOps for Higher Education Marketing
Conclusion: Transform Your University’s Marketing with RevOps
FAQs
Revenue Operations, or RevOps, is an end-to-end operational model that unifies teams and technology across marketing, sales, and customer success to create a seamless experience from the initial prospecting stages to enrolment. By integrating these functions, RevOps eliminates silos, which are common in traditional setups and often lead to fragmented messaging and missed enrolment opportunities. For higher education, RevOps provides a strategic framework that enhances visibility across the entire enrolment journey, enabling marketing and admissions teams to collaborate more effectively and make data-driven decisions that improve lead nurturing and boost enrolment rates.
Institutions that adopt RevOps can achieve higher enrolment numbers, improve campaign return on investment (ROI), and maintain consistent messaging that resonates with prospective students.
One of RevOps’ core strengths is its ability to foster cross-functional collaboration. By bringing together marketing, admissions, and student services under a unified strategy, RevOps enables teams to share real-time data and insights, creating a more cohesive enrolment funnel. With shared goals, each team is aligned to work towards attracting and engaging students in a streamlined, efficient way.
Benefits of RevOps Alignment:
Leveraging Data and Technology for Higher Conversion Rates
Data integration is another powerful component of RevOps. Centralising data within a CRM system allows higher education institutions to build complete profiles of each prospective student, which helps to personalise engagement strategies effectively. RevOps encourages universities to build a technology stack that includes CRM, marketing automation, and analytics tools for seamless data sharing across teams.
Data Centralisation: RevOps requires a unified data system where admissions, marketing, and student services all have access to real-time student information. By sharing insights, these teams can work more cohesively to guide students through the enrolment journey.
Technology Stack: A well-designed tech stack, including CRM systems and marketing automation tools, is key to RevOps success. These tools allow teams to track student engagement, segment leads, and make data-driven adjustments to campaigns that increase their relevance and effectiveness.
Here's the funnel visualisation comparing the RevOps approach to a traditional marketing model. It highlights how the RevOps model maintains higher conversion rates at each stage—from awareness through to enrolment—demonstrating its effectiveness in reducing drop-off rates and optimising student acquisition.
An effective RevOps strategy begins with targeted demand generation. By aligning marketing and admissions efforts, universities can identify and focus on high-intent leads. RevOps enables higher education institutions to develop multi-touchpoint campaigns that guide students from interest to enrolment. For example, personalised email campaigns, webinars, and online open days can be strategically planned to nurture leads at every stage of the funnel, creating an engaging journey tailored to each prospect’s needs.
In higher education, students want to feel understood and valued. RevOps facilitates this by integrating CRM systems that track each prospective student’s engagement history, enabling universities to deliver personalised content at the right time. By automating repetitive tasks like follow-up emails, admissions teams can focus on meaningful interactions, enhancing engagement and, ultimately, conversion rates.
Examples of personalised engagement:
RevOps empowers higher education institutions to continually optimise their marketing and admissions strategies through real-time tracking of campaign performance. By using CRM and analytics tools, universities can monitor KPIs, such as lead conversion rates and marketing ROI, to understand what is working and what isn’t. This capability enables institutions to pivot quickly and make data-driven adjustments to maximise enrolment outcomes(
Metrics to monitor in a RevOps framework include:
For universities looking to optimise their marketing and enrolment strategies through RevOps, tracking the right metrics is essential. Here are some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor:
| Metric | Definition | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per Acquisition (CPA) | Total cost of acquiring each new student, including marketing and operational expenses. | A lower CPA reflects cost efficiency and effective budget allocation across high-performing channels. |
| Lead-to-Enrolment Conversion Rate | Percentage of leads that convert to enrolled students. | Indicates the effectiveness of lead nurturing, helping to identify points of drop-off in the funnel. |
| Pipeline Velocity | Speed at which leads progress through each enrolment stage. | Higher velocity suggests an efficient process, reducing the risk of leads being lost to competitors. |
| Student Lifetime Value (SLTV) | Projected financial impact of each student, considering their potential as alumni. | High SLTV supports strategies that create valuable, long-term relationships with students and alumni. |
| Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) | ROI of marketing efforts by comparing revenue from enrolments to marketing costs. | Helps identify high-impact marketing activities, ensuring funds are directed to the most effective channels. |
Conclusion: Transform Your University’s Marketing with RevOps
Adopting a RevOps approach in higher education marketing enables institutions to streamline their operations, enhance engagement, and increase enrolment rates. By uniting marketing, admissions, and student services under a shared, data-driven strategy, RevOps ensures that universities make the most of their marketing efforts, providing a smoother and more engaging journey for prospective students.
Ready to explore the transformative power of RevOps for your institution? Connect with Velocity today to learn how we can help you optimise your enrolment strategy and achieve sustainable growth in student acquisition.
Revenue Operations (RevOps) is an operational model that aligns marketing, admissions, and student services. By unifying these functions and centralising data, universities can improve lead nurturing, reduce costs, and increase enrolment rates through streamlined, data-driven strategies.
RevOps enhances cross-functional collaboration, enabling marketing and admissions teams to work together with real-time data insights. This alignment supports better lead targeting, faster response times, and optimised marketing spend, all of which contribute to higher enrolment rates.
Key technologies for RevOps include CRM systems, marketing automation tools, and analytics platforms. These technologies facilitate data centralisation and automation, enabling universities to deliver personalised engagement at each enrolment stage.
RevOps breaks down silos, allowing marketing, admissions, and student services to collaborate seamlessly. This results in reduced redundancies, enhanced student engagement, and a cohesive enrolment process that meets each prospective student’s needs.
While implementing RevOps requires some initial investment in technology and process alignment, its benefits—such as increased enrolment and improved operational efficiency—typically outweigh the costs. Many institutions start by integrating RevOps within marketing and admissions for quicker, more measurable impact.