In this episode of Build Momentum, We are joined by Erin Merz. She is the Director of Marketing and Communications for Portland State University School of Business. She focuses on supporting the institution's recruitment and retention goals.

Erin has a passion for storytelling, a results-driven mindset, and a commitment to building and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders that we look forward to digging into today. Erin is also an instructor for the essentials of marketing course at PSU

Some Questions I Ask:

• What are the challenges and future plans in the higher education space? (1:21)
• Do you mind giving us an example of how you're taking a closer look at systemic racism in your institution? (3:57)
• Are you experiencing a drop in college enrollments in PSU and how are you supporting recruitment and retention through marketing particularly this year.  (7:15)
• How do you weave storytelling into your efforts and what you're doing now?  (12:54)
• As a marketing teacher, Are there any key takeaways from that course that you think our listeners might benefit from hearing? (15:26)
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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Unique challenges in Higher Ed. (1:45)
• Systemic racism in Marketing in the Higher Ed space (4:07)
• Significant enrollment declines and some  marketing strategies for recruitment and retention at PSU (7:49)
• Storytelling as a marketing tool (12:56)
• Understanding marketing concepts (15:39)
• How communication is really important (17:47)

Quotes:

“Imagery, I think, is just a very easy way to kind of describe it. But that's one project I've been working on. Yeah, I work for the School of Business, but it's a university wide initiative to be more thoughtful and think a little bit more critically about our imagery and how we're representing our students, and are we giving them ownership of their likeness. And that plays into systemic racism, because we don't want to take advantage of students of color, for example, and use them, you know, in a way that tokenizes them. ”

“Storytelling really helps showcase our values, the classroom experience, our faculty research.”

“ I just think it's so important to blend the data, the kind of value of the degree, the ROI of the degree with the people who are actually experiencing it.”

"It's marketing one on one, right, connecting to the hearts and the minds through whatever content you're putting out there."

Connect with Erin Merz:

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