Digital Activism & Ronald McDonald House

A Cause I Care About

An organization that I care for is the Ronald McDonald House in Pasadena, Ca. This organization has housing programs across the U.S. for families in need of a home away from home.

Ronald McDonald House Programs states, “When the best treatment for a sick child is far from home, thankfully, families don’t have worry about where to stay. At a Ronald McDonald House, families can stay together, rest, and recharge to remain strong for their child, interact with families going through similar experiences, enjoy home-cooked meals and receive compassionate hospitality from staff and volunteers — all just minutes from the hospital where their child is receiving care.”

What is Social Marketing?

“Social marketing is an approach used to develop activities aimed at changing or maintaining people’s behavior for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole.” Non-profit groups use this to get their missions out there to better our world.

Digital Marketing Examples:

While investigating Ronald McDonald’s marketing efforts I have found that they have focused their marketing on website design, organic social on social channels, and email marketing.

When it comes to looking at their website design, there are a few aspects that stand out to me when you are directed to the main landing page.

They have information letting a person know what their mission is and what they do as an organization. They have three calls to action when you look in the right-hand corner. One being “Donate” and the other being “Get Involved”. These are also placed lower on the page when you scroll down. The last call to action is placed at the bottom of the page which is subscribing to their newsletter. From taking the HubSpot Inbound marketing course I have learned that “CTAs will help you convert a visitor into a new contact and allow you to nurture those contacts through their buyer’s journey.”

?Another aspect that is important for the organization to gain trust from people who visit their page is their testimonials who are families in which the Pasadena house has helped. Here they give three families who have been impacted and their stories.

Next up, they have used organic social media on their channels to create an effective campaign. I will focus on their Instagram and YouTube. They use their Instagram to highlight what the organization is up to, stories of families who used the organization and have a series of #WishList Wednesday posts. These posts focus to ask their followers to send the organization certain supplies of what the families need during that time, and they can click on the link tree to contribute. On YouTube, the organization does a series of short videos that spotlight their volunteers and all they have done to help.

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Lastly, they send out a monthly newsletter, which is a staple used in email marketing. “creating an email newsletter is one of the most effective ways to provide value to your customers… and encourage them to keep engaging with your brand.” This newsletter allows people to stay up to date on ways to get involved, and how to support the families staying at the house.

?Overall, these three examples of their digital efforts work for the organization because they are creating awareness, trust, engagement to make their goals realistic, achievable, and provide engaging content for people.

Skills I would use to help promote Ronald McDonald House Pasadena

Using the digital marketing skills, I have learned in this class, I would strive for the Ronald McDonald House of Pasadena to invest in PPC to do Paid Search. When I looked up “housing for families and children Pasadena” the organization shows up as second as it seems they do not invest in Paid search at all. They could invest in this and SEO to help them to be at the top of the search engine results page, gaining more attraction to their organization and see the people who directly need a room at the house, want to help volunteer, donate, or people who are interested in general. They could also focus on improving keywords in their SEO so if people look for “housing near hospitals for families, Pasadena”, their organization will come up first! Overall, this will improve their digital marketing as a whole.

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