If you’re not actively using content marketing for your nonprofit organization, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.

Content marketing is hands down one of the most effective marketing strategies you can use, even on a shoestring budget, to increase your impact, boost your visibility, and drive support.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is simply content that attracts a specific group of people (your ideal audience). It encourages them to get on a journey of calls-to-action (think sign up for an email, go to an event, or become a donor).

The key to strategic content marketing is to create high-value and relevant content for those you want to attract. There’s the breakdown of what it takes to produce highly effective content.

Step 1: Identify your target audience. Before you do any marketing, identify who you’re marketing to, otherwise called your ‘audience persona’.

Step 2: Create content that’s useful and relevant for your audience - this could be a social media post, blog post, or even a short 2-3 minute video. Always think about usefulness and relevance before developing content. 

Step 3: Create content consistently—don’t just stop at the one piece of content. Develop a schedule for yourself based on what you can commit to. I have committed to producing two blog posts and at least one email a month. Consider outsourcing your content development.

Step 4: Distribute your content just as consistently through a few select social media platforms, places where you’re most likely to find your audience. Get that content out into the world!

Step 5: Rinse and repeat to build and grow subscribers, followers, and supporters.

All of the above steps are important for content marketing, and each feeds off the other. If you miss any of the stages, it can impact the success of your marketing campaigns. 

If you don’t have a correctly defined audience persona, you won’t be drawing in the right type of audience for your organization. If you’re creating content but not distributing it, you won’t be able to build your audience. If you’re not consistent, you simply won’t be taken seriously. 

Why should nonprofits focus on content marketing?

The truth is while any business can benefit from content marketing, nonprofits should especially look at embracing content marketing for these important reasons:

• It boosts your online visibility - Creating high-value content consistently can help you move up through search engine rankings so more and more people can find you.

• It helps generate awareness - Content marketing can help you extend your reach to larger numbers of people.

• It enables you to build a loyal tribe of supporters, donors, and fundraisers - Effective content marketing helps you build relationships and increase donor value year after year. 

• It positions your organization as an authoritative expert - Great content helps you showcase your expertise in what you do

• It helps you create a streamlined system for collecting leads -  You can use opt-in forms to collect email addresses for sending ongoing marketing communication. 

• It supports disseminating education - Content marketing can be very effective at helping you extend the impact of your educational programs and initiatives.  

Types of nonprofit content marketing 

Content marketing involves several different types of content that you can use for various reasons. Marketing experts usually position different types of content for the audience depending on which stage of the user journey they’re at. 

• You can use in-depth informational content in the form of e-books, case studies, research reports, infographics, and white papers for raising awareness.

• Use blog content, emails, email newsletters, social media content, videos, live streams, podcasts, webinars, and impact reports for ongoing engagement

• Use fundraisers, benefit recipient stories and testimonials, and direct solicitations at the last stage when you want your subscribers to take concrete action 

Steps to create a successful content marketing plan

Here’s my battle-tested formula to create a successful content marketing plan : 

Step 1: Map your goals - Think about what you want to achieve in terms of growth and what ‘growth’ as a concept means for you. Also, brainstorm how you will strategize your content creation to meet this goal. Use your audience persona as a guide to shape your strategy. 

Step 2: Create a content calendar - A content calendar will give you a practical blueprint to put your plan to action.

Step 3: Use a system of measurement - Consistent measurement is necessary to find out how well you’re doing and if there’s anything you need to change to optimize the results. Here’s a resource guide on how to measure your social media ROI.

Examples of compelling nonprofit content marketing

Up next are four different examples of compelling nonprofit content marketing to inspire your own content marketing strategy:

1. The Wells Foundation Social Enterprise Examples and Case Studies - This resource is an excellent example of content designed to create awareness. 

2. The ASPCA YouTube Channel - A great example of using YouTube video content for engagement 

3. World Wildlife Fund - They’ve created all kinds of branded free e-cards that can be sent to family and friends while showing that you care about wildlife and the planet

4. Art in Action Direct Ask - An example of how to use YouTube to solicit donations after your audience has gone through both the awareness and engagement stages.

I hope you found this guide useful to understand content marketing for nonprofits. What is your biggest struggle as a nonprofit with creating content? Connect with me here. I’d love to help.