Content Marketing Tips for Nonprofit Organizations

Content marketing is a modern advertising approach that works to generate interest through online publications that provide value to the reader. Instead of simply broadcasting “Look at our organization - we’re awesome!” as many old school promotional techniques do, content marketing recognizes the need to connect through quality content that relates to the audience. 

According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), content marketing can be defined as “… a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Two key concepts from CMI’s content marketing definition:

• “valuable, relevant and consistent content”

• “a clearly-defined audience”

Both of these characteristics help distinguish content marketing from other types of advertising, like newspaper ads, radio commercials, and outdoor promotions. While these traditional approaches focus on broadcasting information about the organization, content marketing is designed to provide value to the organization’s target market - not just add spam-like promos to our commercially-saturated modern world.  

Content Marketing and Nonprofit Organizations

Content marketing isn’t just for B2B agencies and retail companies looking to grow their email list; content marketing can be a great way to enhance digital strategy efficiency for nonprofit organizations. This value-focused communications approach can help organizations build a loyal base of supporters with relatively low promotional investments. Think about the costs associated with the last batch of direct mailers your organization sent out. What was the response, as measured in monetary results? Content marketing lets nonprofit organizations reduce costs while cultivating an engaged community around their mission. It’s a win-win situation that modern nonprofit organizations can’t afford to ignore. 

Here are three content marketing tips for nonprofit organizations: 

Content marketing starts with goals. 

A successful content marketing strategy for nonprofit organizations starts with team awareness of the organization’s current goals. While content marketing is more than broadcasting organizational initiatives, it should align with organizational goals and not just be created willy nilly. 

When considering your organization's objectives, ask your team:

• What organizational initiatives do you need to raise awareness of over the next year?

• Do you need to grow your organization's email list, social media following, donor base, etc.?

• At what point in the support journey are donors assessing the content - pre-donation, one-time donors, regular supporters?

• Do you need to convert organizational supporters to brand evangelists that can help spread the word about organizational needs across their networks?

Brainstorm content ideas that align with goals. 

Once you’ve identified organizational goals, and considered how content marketing can assist with achieving these objectives, it’s time to brainstorm content ideas. While there’s no one size fits all approach for content marketing, nonprofit organizations can look to other brands to spark ideas on what type of content would best communicate their campaign objectives. 

Examples of content marketing options include:

• Blogs

• E-books

• E-newsletters 

• Infographics 

• Social media posts 

• Videos

• White papers

These possibly-promotional mediums can generate interest among a highly-targeted audience and establish brand relationships with online users. When brainstorming content ideas, be sure to consider the cost of production that may accompany each content option. For organizations with an in-house videographer, videos may be a cost-effective option; however, if the organization lacks sufficient equipment, staff, or outsource budgets, videos may require a costly investment. 

Organize your content marketing strategy. 

Successful content marketing isn’t something that can be spun off the cuff. Organizational marketing leads must work to create a consistent, campaign-focused content strategy, and execute it efficiently to achieve optimal effectiveness. 

Here are a few key elements of content marketing organization:

• Develop donor personas for your nonprofit organization. Segment your target audience into three or more distinct groups of potential supporters. Detail each segment’s shared demographics and consider what type of content would be perceived as the best value by each segment. 

• Write out your organization’s story, paying special attention to how the founding principle(s) influence the organization’s continued mission. As you develop a more formal telling of your organization's backstory, you may identify multiple other inspirational stories that shaped the entity’s establishment. Each mission-driving message has the potential to enhance future content investments, by adding brand authenticity and organizational history. 

• Identify the best channels to share your developed content across. For some organizations, popular social media apps, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, may be the best platforms to connect with their target audiences, while others may find their organizational website to be a more productive host for their content marketing strategy. 

• Organize delivered content into time-sensitive campaigns, accounting for holidays, seasons, and current events that may influence reception. Most marketing professionals find an editorial calendar to be particularly helpful in outlining organizational content. A well-organized editorial calendar can be shared across departments and agencies to ensure consistency and relevance. 

Is your nonprofit organization ready to develop a content marketing strategy?

Developing a customized content marketing strategy for nonprofit organizations requires research, strategy, and concerted effort. A well-executed content marketing plan can result in long-term relationships with organizational supporters and evergreen brand awareness within the community. While successful content marketing involves much more than simply publishing a blog post here and there, it can be a worthwhile investment for mission-driven organizations interested in positioning their entity for the future. 

If your organization is looking for a creative partner to assist in its digital outreach efforts, contact Becker Digital to schedule a discovery call to discuss your organizational objectives and opportunities.