Presented on 9/17/2014 at Association for Donor Relations Professionals 2014 International Conference
In a world where your supporters may see hundreds of messages a day, how can your cause stand out? Presenting your knowledge and stories with a goal in mind will help you attract supporters, inspire giving, and retain donors. In this session, you'll learn:
-- What is content marketing/content strategy and how can nonprofits leverage these ideas for social impact
-- How to determine the right kind of content to help you spread your message
-- The right and wrong way to create and distribute your content
Content marketing is all the rage in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors, but how do you effectively leverage your information, expertise, and communication channels to attract and keep supporters? Learn how to imagine, plan, create, and distribute your content to help you take your mission further.
2. 2
Let’s do this!
• What is content strategy?
• Why does it matter for your organization?
• How to plan for your audience and goals
• The right and wrong way to create and
distribute your content
• Some examples and ideas
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So, what the heck is content
strategy?
Source: Kelly Kingman
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10. • Who is our audience?
• What are our goals?
• What content do we already have? What
do we need to create?
• How will we store and distribute our
content?
• When and how frequently?
• Who is responsible?
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First, think about these questions
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Target
Audience
• Research and
data
• News
• Unmet need
stories
• Advocacy
alerts
Prospects
• Testimonials/
endorsements
• Unmet need
stories
• Research and
data
• Event spotlight
First-Time
Donors
• Testimonials
• Case studies
• Welcome
series
• Success
stories
Recurring
Donors
• Impact
updates
• Case studies
• Success
stories
• Support/FAQs
• Donor
spotlight
And so on…
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Target
Audience
• Research and
data
• News
• Unmet need
stories
• Advocacy
alerts
Prospects
• Testimonials/
endorsements
• Unmet need
stories
• Research and
data
• Event spotlight
First-Time
Donors
• Testimonials
• Case studies
• Welcome
series
• Success
stories
Recurring
Donors
• Impact
updates
• Case studies
• Success
stories
• Support/FAQs
• Donor
spotlight
Goal
Drive email signups
Increase traffic to site
Goals
Increase event
registrations
Acquire new donors
Goals
Retain donors
Improve donor
sentiment
Increase repeat gifts
Goal
Retain donors
Increase average gift
size
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Use What You’ve Got
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Special Report
Blog Post
Newslette
r Feature
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Newslette
r Feature
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Socia
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Blog Post
Donor
Thank
SociYaou
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Medi
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Socia
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Medi
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Impact
Report
Socia
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More Pro Tips
• Tap the news cycle
• Be ready to adapt
• Create seasonal hooks/create your
own events
• Measure and track to find out what
works
• Have a process for soliciting and
receiving content
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31. Remember…
• Set clear, well-defined communication goals,
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then map your content efforts to them
• Have a process – and a schedule
• Understand what goes where
• Measure, track, and learn
• It’s ok to start small
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Free Guides
Storytelling for Nonprofits:
http://bit.ly/NFGStorytelling
How to Make the Case for Giving:
http://bit.ly/Case4Giving
101 Social Media Posts for Nonprofits:
http://bit.ly/101SocialPosts
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Editor's Notes
Classic definition: Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.
How you communicate your value, case for giving, and impact to target audience, supporters, and donors.
The good news is: you already have one and you just may not know it.
We’re all publishers, and we’re all consumers of media. The web and the proliferation of channels have created a different communication dynamic.
So, to really capture attention and inspire action you need to distill and refine your organization’s:
Stories
Impact
Relevance
People give to people and things they understand. You content will help you:
Capture attention
Remain relevant
Form Relationships
Start conversations
Create credibility, trust, value
Showcase expertise and knowledge
Support tactical elements, like conversion, SEO, and earned media
Some challenges. Are these challenges you face?
Are they really challenges? Let’s break it down.
How you might think about your content through your donor lifecycleTip: the content you create, curate, and communicate should tie back to the stories that got them in the door.
Your goals will differ based on your audience segment. Think of your overall organizational goals, and then how each segment plays a different part in helping you reach them. Your goals will help you create and send the right content that is focused on meeting those goals. Connect your content’s calls to action with the goals for each segment.
Audit
Take stock of the content you already have. (Whether written or stored in a different way.) What is it? Where is it? How does it look?
Identify ROT (Redundant, Outdated, Trivial)
Map your existing content to your key segments and goals. This will allow you to focus on filling the gaps for key areas.
A content audit can also help you when it comes to redesigning/ building your website, SEO, and assessing your message inventory.
Can be part of your marketing and communications calendar.
Your calendar will be a key part of your internal communication, and helps keep your content and messages coordinated.
You can use simple tools, such as excel, Google calendar, or all-in-one services to keep track of what you’re doing. You can see at a glance which topics you’ve covered, when.
What to include:
Date and time
Themes and Events
Status
Channel
Topic
Audience
Excel can be more flexible and extensible, but may not allow for easy collaboration and sharing. The good news: there are many free downloadable templates, so you can try them out and decide what works best for your shop.
However, remember: just because you can create tons of content and publish on many channels doesn’t mean you should.
Curate
Curating relevant, high-quality content can help you showcase your issue area and underscore your expertise. It can also trigger reciprocity and build relationships with like-minded experts, advocates, and organizations.
Who does all this? You don’t need a separate dedicated staff person, but you do need an owner.
News reporting, opinion, and curation helps to educate supporters, keep donors informed, and make the case for giving to an organization who is well-versed in the issue.
Donor/fundraiser spotlight.
A volunteer spotlight can also help supporters feel like part of a connected community and help reinforce social trust.
Feature your beneficiaries and let them tell their stories. Authentic content helps you serve your donors and tell your beneficiaries’ stories (and how it all ties together).
Illustrate the work you do and the impact your donors have.
Solicit stories from your donors and supporters to help keep the cycle of sharing and connecting going.
Don’t forget social… Think of how you can adapt your content for further distribution and sharing. Social can also help you easily assess content, get new ideas, and build on existing ones.
Ronald McDonald House Charities does an excellent job of using social media to foster the conversation but also for content. In this way the content builds the community, which begets more content, which in turn…
Final thoughts.
Free Fundraising Guides that can help you think about great content.