Content Strategy for Nonprofits
Content marketing is often associated with for-profit businesses, but non-profit and non-governmental organizations rely heavily on content marketing too. Although not selling anything, they have a mission for raising funds and need to be discoverable to support their organization’s goals.
What is a content strategy?
Content strategy is the process of planning, creating, and managing useful and consumable interactive content. The goal isn’t to create the content itself, but to educate, drive, and inspire action. A good content strategy is influential, powerful, and answers your audience’s questions and problems. It should also show that your non-profit understands the challenges that your audience may face.
Now that we know what content strategy is, how can you develop one for your nonprofit?
Make sure the content aligns with your audience.
Aligning content with your audience requires a deeper understanding of your audience members’ behavior; how they use social media, how they navigate your website, and how they engage with marketing campaigns.You can easily gather this data with marketing tools such as Hubspot for Nonprofits, Hootsuite, and Contently.
Audit your content.
Auditing your content may sound overwhelming, but it will be extremely helpful. Make a thorough assessment of the content across all your platforms to learn what is, and isn’t, working. This is the first step in figuring out where and what platforms you need to improve your content and how you deliver it to your audience. For example, you may find that your email marketing is driving the kind of engagement you had hoped for, but your website isn’t performing well with turning those leads into donations. An audit will optimize your content and narrow your focus to the areas where you need to engage your audience more. Don’t be afraid to retire content that isn’t aligned with your new content strategy.
Create a content production plan.
A good content strategy includes a content production plan, also known as a content calendar or editorial calendar. Your calendar should outline a process and determine which type of content should be created and who will own that content. Each type of content should have a plan for how it will be pushed out to your audience, a deadline for content completion, and a release date. You can create your own content production plan from scratch, or use templates such as these that Airtable offers.
Define your key performance measurements.
Once your content production calendar is looking good, it is important to figure out what each type of content will accomplish. For example, if you are creating a blog post, make sure you know what you want the post to achieve. Your goal may be to increase website traffic by 10%, hit a donation target goal, or boost newsletter subscriptions. The most important takeaway from this should be a way to track and measure the progress of each content.
Understand the right channels
The final step in creating a content strategy for your nonprofit is knowing exactly which channels are most effective. These channels are the ones that receive the most overall engagement and drive the key performance measurements. Utilize each channel’s analytics to identify any shortcomings and see how other channels stack up. There is no one channel that fits all; some find more success with email marketing, while others will focus heavily on social media content. Don’t forget that content strategies aren’t just for online channels, be sure to include in-person channels such as conferences and fundraising events in your plans too.
An effective content strategy can yield amazing results, especially when it comes to organization and improving upon your SEO strategies. Your content will actualize your SEO goals, target the right audience, and further define your nonprofit's mission.
Still intimidated and need assistance with creating your content strategy? Schedule a call with us to discuss how we can help you with your nonprofit content marketing strategy.