Why This Matters for Recit Clients
This experience forms the foundation of Recit’s approach, combining strategy, digital infrastructure, and growth to deliver measurable commercial impact.
It reflects hands-on leadership across complex, multi-market environments, aligning brand, technology, and revenue.
Overview
Educate was a UK-based student recruitment advertising agency, having helped universities and education providers attract students both domestically and internationally.
Working with over 85% of UK institutions, they delivered multi-channel campaigns across digital, print, and global media platforms, focused on measurable recruitment performance.
Educate was a defining leadership role where Michael led marketing, digital transformation, and revenue growth across both UK and international markets.
Operating across the UK and Malaysia, Michael led strategy, team management, product launches, thought leadership, events, and commercial enablement, working closely with sales, ad operations, and senior leadership to drive measurable growth.
Key Outcomes
- Generated £70,000–£100,000 additional annual revenue through Educapture
- Created new commercial upsell opportunities across multiple sales teams
- Successfully led digital transformation from legacy print workflows
- Strengthened Educate’s market positioning and product offering
- Delivered rebrand, website, and collateral improvements
- Reduced operational costs through ad-serving migration
- Increased lead generation and sales enablement performance
- Achieved Facebook Certified Marketing Professional status
- Achieved Google Partner status
The Challenge
Educate was operating in a highly competitive education and recruitment landscape, with multiple audience segments, international teams, and evolving digital expectations.
The challenge was to modernise the business’s marketing infrastructure, strengthen brand positioning, unlock new revenue streams, and support sales teams with scalable digital and commercial solutions.
Key objectives included:
- strengthening brand visibility and differentiation
- improving lead generation and sales support
- identifying new digital revenue opportunities
- modernising legacy marketing processes
- expanding strategic partnerships
- improving cross-market performance across UK and Malaysia
Strategic Approach
Michael’s approach focused on commercial growth through digital transformation, product innovation, and brand leadership.
This involved aligning marketing, sales, and operations around a measurable annual marketing strategy while introducing new platforms, services, and revenue-driving products.
The work spanned:
- strategic planning and board reporting
- team leadership
- market intelligence and competitor analysis
- product and service development
- brand-building
- events and thought leadership
- digital platform transformation
- revenue optimisation
My Role & Process
Marketing Leadership & Strategy
Held full responsibility for national and international B2B/B2C marketing and communications
Led annual marketing strategy and execution
Reported on KPIs, OKRs, ROI, and revenue performance to board members and stakeholders
Managed a team of 6 marketing professionals
Supported 12 sales teams across the UK and Malaysia
Commercial Growth & Revenue Enablement
Worked directly with sales teams to support client meetings and upsell opportunities
Helped create commercial opportunities valued between £10k–£30k
Developed new digital service offerings that generated recurring revenue
Product Innovation
Launched the UK’s first SaaS programmatic RTB platform for education — Edunamic
Supported the development of Edumaps, a UCAS application mapping tool
Pioneered Educapture, an add-on digital services suite generating £70k–£100k annual revenue
Led the launch of Edustudio, a new in-house digital service offer
Digital Transformation
Led the business’s transition from print-led to digitally-led marketing and advertising commercial solutions
Onboarded and optimised platforms including:
Salesforce
Pardot
Dotdigital / Dotmailer
Google Analytics
Google Ads
Google AdSense
Newsweaver (now Poppulo)
LinkedIn Advertising
Facebook Advertising
JotForm
Brand & Content
Led brand-building and USP exercises
Developed thought leadership and business blog content
Created a centralised portal for branded sales and marketing collateral
Supported rebrand initiatives across website and collateral
Events & Partnerships
Built relationships with strategic partners including ACCA, Meta Platforms, BBC
Identified and sponsored national and international events
Hosted a month-long programme of events at Institute of Directors
Pillars Demonstrated
CLARITY
Brand Strategy
Positioning
Market Insight
Revenue Strategy
STRUCTURE
Website Optimisation
Digital Platforms
CRM & Automation
Analytics
SCALE
Growth Strategy
Campaigns
Events
Reporting
