UGA Red Cross, New and Improved

For the past couple of weeks, I've worked on a project for my Integrated Marketing Communications class. Our assignment was to come up with a digital marketing campaign for a company or organization in need of a new marketing strategy. While searching for a company, a friend of one of my group members expressed the need of marketing help on behalf of UGA Red Cross, so that's who we went with! We interviewed a few executive board members and immediately got to work. They expressed that their main objectives were increasing member and volunteer participation. They feel that this lack of participation stems from their struggling digital presence and current marketing strategies. We were eager to help!  I would like to share what we came up with, since I used a lot of what I learned about content marketing to assist in developing the marketing campaign.

1. We decided to propose a website as the starting point of our campaign. Currently UGA Red Cross has a presence on various social media platforms, however they do not have a website, problem number one. They have completely skipped the first step of establishing an effective presence in the digital marketing world. I know and can now share with them that without a website, social media posts will basically just serve as noise. After all, one of the main uses of social media when it comes to marketing is driving traffic back to the brand's site. So, without a site where is the traffic going? In and right out of people's minds! A website tells what you do and why. It's a place for consumers to become familiar and to get acquainted with the brand. It is absolutely necessary if we want to increase participation amongst the student body.

2. As a main component of the website, we proposed including a blog. The blog will serve as a platform for local families who benefit from the Red Cross to share their unique stories and express their gratitude and for participants to express what drives them to give and volunteer. The blog will also serve as a space for members and volunteers to come, socialize and comment. We hope that as a result of the blog, students will become motivated and gain an understanding of where exactly they may fit into the process of saving lives.

3. After the website is implemented, we will begin to focus more on social media content, which needs a lot of work. We haven't gotten that far yet, but I'm sure we will come up with something amazing. I'll keep you posted!

I'm super excited about the opportunity we were given to completely restructure this organization's marketing strategy. I'm even more excited that I actually know what I'm talking about. Hopefully with the execution of our proposal, results follow. The UGA Red Cross is such a wonderful organization filled with people who just want to serve others. They deserve to be promoted as such.