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:
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
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:
Erin’s LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn
About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook
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:
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
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:
Erin’s LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn
About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook
Hello and welcome to build momentum where we make PR easy for education organizations. This show was created to help edtech startups, research institutes and schools learn how to develop simple, replicable PR strategies and how to execute on those strategies. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson. And I've spent the past 15 years working in VR, where I've been able to understand what works and what doesn't when it comes to making an impact. I will share my tips for success and interview others who have done the same to provide you with the framework that you can use within your own organization, be sure to grab my free guide how to create a killer case study, even if you don't have data at casestudy.swpr-group.com. That's casestudy.swpr-group.com And on today's episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Erin Merz the Director of Marketing and Communications for Portland State University for the 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. Welcome, it's great to have you on the show. Erin,
Erin Merz:thanks so much for having me.
Sarah Williamson:Yeah. Okay. So we focus a lot on k-12. On the show. So I'm very excited and curious to hear about the challenges. I'm not excited about your challenges. But I'm excited to learn about what you have going on in the higher ed space, especially right now, as we're gearing up for after a very challenging year, what your plans are for this coming year. Do you have any comments just general about that?
Erin Merz:Yeah. Oh, gosh, where do I start? Yeah, I think it's a great place to start. I think there's new and unique challenges that a lot of organizations are facing, right, since the last year the onset of COVID, and the calls for racial justice. And so you know, that's just two examples. There's a lot of challenges in higher ed, I will say the optimist in me will say that those challenges are also opportunities to pivot to innovate, to adapt. And I think that's what we're trying to do. So from a marketing and communications perspective, specifically, I'm sure we'll talk more about this. But there's an enrollment decline across the country in higher education, Oregon is no exception. There are a number of factors, a number of reasons that are causing this decline cost, convenience, the perceived value of a degree, you know, there are just a lot of different career paths and educational opportunities for folks. So where it may have been a necessity or high priority, it may not be anymore. So as for marketers, we have kind of a harder challenge in front of us when we're trying to articulate the value, what is the ROI when it's not always so obvious to folks, and especially when we're competing in a city like Portland, where there are a lot of options for education, you know, and then I'll just say that with declining enrollment comes in declining budgets. So of course, that's something that we're struggling with, and how do we be creative and stay nimble and still make an impact with less money. Secondly, I'll touch on this briefly, I mentioned this about, you know, the need to dismantle systemic racism in higher education. And it's still perpetuated, and my role at PSU has evolved a little bit because of this. And I think a lot of marketers and communicators have evolved to understand systemic racism, understand how it shows up in their organizations understand how they can do better when it comes to marketing and communications to address this racism. So that's something that's a very strong focus of ours from a marketing communications lens, and also broadly at PSU, listening, learning doing better, and it's really a process and making progress.
Sarah Williamson:Erin, do you mind giving us an example of how you're taking a closer look at systemic racism in your institution? And in marketing, what you'd like more specific examples?
Erin Merz:Of course, happy to there's a couple of initiatives that I've been focusing on over the last year that I'll touch on a little bit. So the first is website communications. Our website is by far our most powerful communication tool at PSU. And there are hundreds of people that contribute to website content. It's a huge website. In each unit department. We all have our own content managers and administrators of our websites. In some ways, that's great. And in other ways that causes a lot of challenges, because the decentralized model gives people the autonomy to select their own content and do their own content creation curation. And I bring that up because what happens is imagery, video content copy, how are we talking about PSU's commitments to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, when there are hundreds of people creating that content issues arise, right? Like, we might have an image of a student on 12 different sites across PSU. And the image of that student could be representing all different types of programs and used out of context for how that image was originally taken. And what tends to happen is if we want diversity, let's say racial diversity in our imagery to represent our student population, if we have a handful of really slick, highly produced photos with racially diverse students, people will gravitate toward those photos, say they're in PSU's photo library, people will gravitate toward those photos, and then they show up all over the place, and he newsletters on the website. And I think it comes, we're digging into this a little bit and saying, like, how can we do better? How can we be more explicit for how photos can and should be used to avoid tokenizing students is really what it comes down to. So that's one project. And that's just one example. 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. And one other example is we're trying to think about ways to diversify our external partners. So whether it's we partner with a lot of different creative, so for example, graphic design, or photography, videography, a printer, a digital marketer, whatever it may be. And when we take a look at that, and I've taken a close look at our partners over the last year, 18 months, and they were largely white when it comes to race, you know, largely homogenous, and I'm not suggesting that we should select partners, you know, solely based on race, but I think we need to do a better job of considering a more diverse pool of candidates, when we're considering who our external partners are. And in that way, we'll start to diversify the types of folks we're working with throughout Portland and where are we putting our money.
Sarah Williamson:Yeah, that's good advice. That's good insight. Thank you. So when you shared in the beginning, you shared how enrollment is definitely a challenge right now. And I actually found some statistics from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, where they found that undergraduate enrollment has dropped 4.5%, while two year grad colleges dropped 9.5%. Are you seeing similar numbers at PSU? And how? Well that's the first question. And then secondly, how are you supporting recruitment and retention through your marketing efforts, particularly this year? I'm sure.
Erin Merz:Yeah, we are experiencing similar declines at PSU and Oregon broadly, last year, enrollment decline in Oregon Community Colleges was significant, somewhere around 25% University decline was less, it was somewhere around 4%. But when we look at Portland State, half of our students, our transfer students, largely from community colleges. So when we see that decline at community college, there is a strong impact on our student enrollment. And so that's been a really big challenge for us this year. And I would say PSU might be feeling it a little more than Oregon State or you have, though, that may have smaller transfer populations are freshmen numbers, I will say are trending about flat at the moment when we're looking at fall 2021. But our transfer number is really where we're taking a bit of a hit. I'll note that graduate enrollment is good, but graduate student enrollment tends to have an inverse relationship with the economy. So that's not too surprising. But our increase in graduate enrollment certainly does not kind of overtake our decline or balance out our decline in undergraduate enrollment. So what are we doing? I guess I'll speak to me personally first, address a little bit of it, and then I'll talk a little bit more broadly about PSU. So I work specifically for the School of Business. And typically, our recruiting efforts when it comes to marketing are centered on graduate students, because that's the competitive landscape for us, right? When we look at the Oregon universities in the regional players, when it comes to graduate programs, it's really competitive. There are a lot of MBA programs, for example. So we tend to put our labor our advertising budget and that type of thing. Marketing graduate students, well, graduate students, we're doing okay, there right now, we're continuing to market to those prospective students. And typically, I didn't do a whole lot with undergraduate student recruitment, because that's a centralized resource at PSU and we have a team working on that University Communications, our enrollment management team, they're very focused on undergraduate recruitment already. So as we the flip in the business school we tend to do very well with undergraduate business students, if not increasing enrollment year over year. So this has been new for us to see this decline. It's certainly concerning. And so I kind of pivoted what I've been doing a little bit. And I've been collaborating with University Communications enrollment management to say, How can we do more targeted specific messaging marketing tactics to prospective business students? And so we've done a couple of different things. We've done some customized email campaigns, we did a direct mailer, because plenty how direct mailers are coming back and quite popular. Why do you think that is, it's all cyclical, because I think the digital space is very crowded, it's very, very crowded, and we're overwhelmed by emails, we're overwhelmed by digital advertising, we're less overwhelmed by mail, we get fewer pieces of hard mail than we used to. And so we're trying to, you know, get people from a couple of different directions. And so direct mail is something that we really started investing more in a couple of years ago. And yeah, you know, I think it's worth it. So we have been trying to focus more on business specific undergraduate marketing, and talking more with our community college partners, kind of faculty to faculty conversations, having our faculty reach out to their peers, at community colleges to raise awareness about our programs. So we've been doing a lot to kind of react to the decline, we'll see what happens can fall, we have a very long sales cycle in higher education, which can make it tricky, right, the fruits of our labor, we may not realize them, yeah, 6 12 18 months later, and so we'll see what happens come September, and then PSU at large launched a campaign called open for fall open for all, and that was when we announced that we're going to be back in person this fall, we waived our application fee, we lowered our GPA requirements to take into account the really challenging situations that high school students have been faced with, you know, during COVID, and the remote learning environment. And so we're an access institution. And we wanted to welcome high school students in who may have struggled for the last year and to complement that we're offering a bridge program for students under a certain GPA over the summer to help prepare them for the transition into college. So there's a lot of different things that are going on to help kind of combat that to climb we're seeing
Sarah Williamson:That is a brilliant idea. I love that you're helping bridge that gap. Because obviously that's a massive problem this year for every student, particularly the K 12 students.
Erin Merz:Yeah, absolutely.
Sarah Williamson:And that would be challenging for them if they're adjusting to high school. So that's great. That's great to hear. Okay, so another question for you. I know in the beginning, we talked about how storytelling is a big part of what you do and who you are, as a marketer. Do you have an example of how you weave storytelling into your efforts and what you're doing now?
Erin Merz:Yeah, we do a lot of storytelling. So we do a blend of owned, earned and paid media, and storytelling definitely finds its place. In all three of those mediums. We do a lot of storytelling around our students, faculty, staff, alumni, I mean, those folks who are closest in our community, and it really helps showcase our values, the classroom experience our faculty research. So when prospective students are considering us, we can share data all day long about career outcomes, like employers and salary increases and that type of thing. And that's important. sharing data is really important. But we need to pair that with our storytelling. So when a prospective student looks at us, are they saying, I see myself at PSU. Oh, wow, that person has a similar background as me a similar career path as me similar career objectives as me, they succeeded at PSU. That means that I can probably succeed there too. And so we definitely do a lot of storytelling. And we're starting to lean more into having our community members tell their own stories rather than us always is telling their stories on their behalf. Some ways that we do that is through Instagram takeovers on social media, and guest blog posts, for example. So it's kind of that first person authentic storytelling from folks in our community. So we're leaning into that a little bit more. And like I said, 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.
Sarah Williamson:Yep. I couldn't agree more. I think it's so important to get those authentic voices from their perspective, instead of you telling it from your perspective, I think that's fantastic. As student isn't going to go to the website and say, Oh, this college or university has the best data. This is why I want to go to these University. No, it's not about the data to them. It's about how do I feel when I see the website? Do I like it? I mean, it's about emotion, right? Yeah.
Erin Merz:Oh, yeah. How do I feel I was just in a meeting this morning and we were talking about website content. And how does that make you feel when you look at it? And it's marketing one on one, right, connecting to the hearts and the minds through whatever content you're putting out there. And so yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite while I don't do my team does a lot of the storytelling. No w I want to give them credit. But it's definitely one of my favorite parts of this job. Kind of seeing those stories unfold and sharing them with folks. It's a lot of fun.
Sarah Williamson:Yes, yeah. On that note, I'm curious. So I know you're also a teacher, and you teach the essentials of marketing. Are there any key takeaways from that course that you think our listeners might benefit from hearing? Erin.
Erin Merz:Yeah, so I'm new, I'm new to teaching, I taught my first course over the winter. So during COVID in the zoom environment, I am going to teach it again in the fall, and I hope to continue annually, it is I'll share a little bit about the course it is in our business minor program. So it's actually for non business majors. So engineering, computer science, architecture, or graphic design film, it's a really special place, because every student comes from a different major, they have different career goals. And so you know, they don't necessarily have that business mindset coming in, or kind of the business concept knowledge coming in. And so the course is very, it's a mile wide inch deep, we cover probably over 20 different marketing concepts over the course of the term advertising PR retail supply chain, it's pretty content heavy, I would say. But we don't get super deep into any one topic. It's very kind of broad. So these students who are pursuing different careers have an understanding and some sort of like marketing acumen, when they land in their architecture company, and they're working with PR person or the marketing person, they can kind of speak the same language and have an understanding, which I think is really special. Because I didn't get a business degree, I have a degree in broadcasting, I have a degree in communications. So I can really relate to these students. It's a lot of fun teaching it, you know, in terms of takeaways, because it covers so much, I think it emphasizes that integration and cross functional communication piece, like how important that is, in any business, whether it's a small business, or a big organization. And I brought in a lot of guest speakers that represented nonprofits, public sector, private sector, I mean, from all over the place, and they could all there were themes that emerged, integration and communication with leadership, if you're in retail, like supply chain, what does that look like? And from product creation, to marketing, like, it all has to be integrated and really seamless. And so that's definitely a theme of the class and how communication is really important internal communication with your colleagues and your stakeholders. And ultimately, it's making sure that your customers are receiving the product or service that you're promising. And so we definitely hope with that, you know, as I'm looking forward to, I'm just starting to think about my fall course, two things I'm going to emphasize a little bit more are, while the text doesn't necessarily cover is digital accessibility, and marketing is just increasingly important. And I think it's the different type of skill set. And the kind of subject matter that folks aren't always aware of or have like intuition about and making content accessible to everybody in a digital space takes some understanding and some effort and some intention. And I didn't really touch on that very much last time I taught and I want to weave that in this fall, and then emphasize a little more with ethics and marketing, we touched on it, but again, things that are just becoming increasingly more important. So I'm excited to kind of dig in to that with students as well.
Sarah Williamson:I love that. So two things you've hit on, I think it's so important to really think about one. Okay, so I'm an expert on PR, and education, PR, that's our firm. But we also work with a broader marketing team. And we have to be aware of how we get questions all the time about email marketing, and everything, we have to be aware of all the processes and how we integrate with those processes. So important. And if we're not, we're a dinosaur. So we need to make sure that we're really staying in touch with the broader marketing community and as well as PR, because it's not just about us. There's all different elements of marketing that are so important that PR is just one small slice of it.
Erin Merz:Yeah. And it's such a great point. And I'm glad you brought that up because you look at PR so I started my career more in traditional PR Media Relations capacity, and it has evolved over the last 15 years to be much more integrated a blend of marketing and PR and I think our profession has just evolved so much with the digital landscape. PR and marketing aren't quite separated like they once were right. They are much more intertwined. It's more fluid and kind of what we do and how we do it. It just changes it really changes which is why I love working in this field because it's Yeah, it's challenging to keep up with it all, but at the same time, it makes it so fun and so different.
Sarah Williamson:Yeah, so fun. an influencer marketing has become so important in PR, which is different because you know, you're not always trying to get that coverage. You're also sometimes figuring out the right people to pay for that coverage. That's really kind of where PR is headed. I think
Erin Merz:Oh, yes, influencer? Yeah, that's kind of funny. Yeah, it is funny. And it's the paid influencer. And then the unpaid influencer, right, like those stakeholders who are so close to you, who just love you so much. And they do it on their own without being asked to do it. Or they're happy to do it when you ask because they love you so much. You know, we're certainly not doing paid influencer marketing. in higher education. However, we are trying to empower more of our stakeholders to kind of share their personal experience, get those students and alumni to kind of share that first hand experience of what it's like to be a student at PSU. And that's more valuable than anything I can say, as a marketer.
Sarah Williamson:Totally agree. I mean, you have great things to say, but it's better when your customers are doing it for you. It always is,
Erin Merz:indeed, indeed. Absolutely.
Sarah Williamson:Well, Erin, I think that's a great way to wrap up today. And I would love for our listeners to be able to reach out to you. Where would you like to send them?
Erin Merz:Yes, LinkedIn is probably the best place to find me. I'm pretty active there. Erin Merz is kind of part of my URL there. And maybe they should be able to see my spelling of my name on your website. So that's a great place to connect with me.
Sarah Williamson:Yeah, perfect. Well, I so appreciate you swinging by and having a chat. This is fun. And I think it's so important that we incorporate higher ed in our conversations about education, because it's a big part of it. And we spend so much time on k 12. We can't forget higher ed. So thank you.
Erin Merz:That's the next step. Right K through 12. And then hopefully, and it's not for everyone and I realized that most to do go on to higher ed and so thank you so much for including me, it was a pleasure speaking with you.
Sarah Williamson:Absolutely. Well have a wonderful day Erin.
Erin Merz:You too.
Sarah Williamson:Yes and build momentum listeners. Don't forget to grab my free guide to creating a killer case study even if you don't have data. Again, that's available at ccasestudy.swpr-group.com casestudy.swpr-group.com thanks so much for tuning in today. And if you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to our podcast and write us a review on iTunes, Spotify, or whatever platform you choose to listen. We will be back with another episode of build momentum next week. Thanks so much and have a fantastic day.