Impact Project Spotlight: iFred Marketing Sprint with Google Ads
Impact allows Forge students to work with local nonprofits and sometimes launch Forge’s own initiatives in order to put their modern technology skills to use in our community. Wherever possible, Forge prioritizes work that makes a positive impact on our community, and that is the primary goal of the Impact program. These projects are sometimes for local nonprofits, sometimes for UVA student organizations, and sometimes initiatives of our own.
One of the most exciting recent Impact projects was a marketing sprint for a non-profit called the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression (iFred) where a team of 4 marketers worked with Google Ads to bring more visibility to iFred’s website in order to spread further awareness and resources about mental health challenges. Read below to hear from team lead Carolyn Louie about this project and why it was important to her.
Could you give a brief bio/intro of yourself and what experience you have with Forge?
“Hello! I’m Carolyn Louie. I graduated from UVA in 2019 with a double-major in Kinesiology and East Asian Studies. Fun fact: I’ve learned how to compost in the past 3 months. I have been involved in Forge since Fall 2020 through Convert, Launch, and, finally, Impact!”
What made you want to work on Impact projects in general?
“I wanted to work on Impact projects in general because I wanted to continue to learn and build on my marketing skills through cool meaningful projects for nonprofits. I had learned a lot about marketing (i.e. graphic designing and content creation) through my extracurricular activities with the Chinese Student Association, Apex Dance Crew, and Asian Student Union. I wanted to continue to use my skills even after graduating college, so Impact was a good choice!”
What about this project specifically stuck out to you?
“I am in an interesting situation. I work in a Trauma II Emergency Department as a medical scribe, and I saw how much the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting many patients’ lives physically and mentally. Often, I see these people in their crisis moment. I’ve been wanting to reach a wider audience to spread greater awareness for mental health, so I applied to Impact’s sprint for iFred!”
Tell me about this project and what you did for it.
“iFred received a Google Ads grant worth $10,000 per month, and they wanted our help to determine the best way to spend that grant to reach a greater portion of their target audience. In addition, they requested the team implement the proposal with their Google Ads account. As marketing lead, I worked with three talented and awesome marketers (Nicole Shuford, Kendall Saville, and Eliza Blackstone) to carry out this project. The team thoroughly reviewed the company’s website to understand its mission statement, active campaigns, and current curriculum. We discussed what an individual would search for regarding hope, general mental health, and in crisis. iFred’s curriculum is centered around hope, so the team heavily emphasized that. We selected 50 keywords (i.e “I’m not okay, how can I get help?” and “I feel lost”) that best reflect these thoughts through keyword analysis. Then, we created headlines and descriptions to redirect these keyword searches to iFred’s webpage.”
In summary: “Using our Google Ads grant, our Impact team carefully selected keywords and created encouraging headlines/descriptions to drive greater website traffic to iFred.”
What was the most challenging part of this project and what part did you find to be the most enjoyable?
“I’ve never wrote an official marketing ad proposal before, so that was the biggest learning curve for me. Luckily, I had the help of Mallory Lewis (Impact’s Director) to give me constructive feedback! The most enjoyable part of this project was working with my teammates; we had a lot of insightful dialogues with our diverse backgrounds!”
What’s the number one reason you would suggest that students try out an Impact sprint?
“I would recommend Sprint because you will apply the skills you learn from Forge’s classes (semester courses, workshops, etc.) to help your community! It’s definitely a feel-good activity since you get to see that positive impact in your community. Also, it’s a great project to discuss in interviews!”
If you’re interested in participating in a project like this, check out Forge’s Impact program here.
