Charlotte Blend’s job is to ensure that the public knows exactly what services the Lund organization offers to the community.
As the communications and foundations coordinator at Lund—a nonprofit organization that provides treatment, education, adoption, and family support services to approximately 4,400 Vermonters each year—understanding the digital marketing landscape is a must.
In December, Blend completed UVM’s Digital Marketing Fundamentals Professional Certificate Program. The online program, taught be seasoned experts in digital marketing, gives students the necessary tools to build an effective strategy as well as coordinate and leverage a multitude of social and digital channels.
Blend’s job at Lund includes educating the community—including collaborative partners, donors, and potential clients—to know the scope and range of the organization’s services. She accomplishes this by managing Lund’s online, local, and national media presence, and by also writing grants and participating in other fundraising activities that raise over $900,000 each year.
Still, Blend wanted to fine-tune her digital marketing skills and decided to enroll in UVM’s Digital Marketing Fundamentals Program last year.
“Before the program, I could create an email campaign, boost a Facebook post, and use Google Analytics to measure the impact of my work,” says Blend, who earned her master’s degree from UVM in English literature in 2004. “I had very limited experience in SEO and display advertising, but knew that I wanted to learn more.”
Learning to Build a Digital Marketing Strategy
The 12-week program is dedicated to a different digital marketing topic each week, from mobile and email to search-engine optimization and search-engine marketing.
Blend heard about the digital marketing program from a friend, and the timing was right to take the next step and enroll in the program. Blend was working with a web design company to relaunch Lund’s website, and she wanted to have sufficient background knowledge that would help her make informed decisions during the redesign process.
Now that she’s completed the digital marketing program, Blend says she has a much wider understanding of the different options available in digital marketing and the techniques she can use to make an integrated campaign.
“I came away (from the program) excited to put some things I had learned into action,” she says. “Traditional, direct-mail fundraising and even email fundraising is becoming less and less effective. We have to adapt with the times and make it as easy as possible for people to know who we are, what we do, and why we need their support.”
