The kind of content you put up for your nonprofit organization plays a significant role in the success of your mission. It helps you put up your story to your audience and expect a good amount of donations in return.
And since content plays a huge role in the growth of your nonprofit organization, it’s crucial to put up some time and thoughts into how to develop the best content. This is what’s referred to as content strategy. Here’s what you should learn about creating an effective nonprofit content strategy.
What is Content Strategy?
A content strategy is a plan that lays out what you’ll be telling people about your organization. It includes everything from how you’ll run your search-engine optimized blogs, what kind of images to post, your social media strategy, and so on. It’s crucial to understand that content does not only refers to written copy but also includes everything from photos, infographics, and videos. Therefore, a content strategy should consist of all these elements to be successful.
When an organization puts up an effective content strategy, it’s easier to undertake the next step of content marketing, which is the “doing” phase of all your plans. In that case, your content strategy should aim at answering the following vital questions:
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- Who is your target audience?
- What type of content will help you reach out to your target audience?
- How will your content support your mission?
- How will your audience differentiate your content?
- How will you promote or amplify your content?
- How will you define your success?
If you can answer these questions, you will be able to build content that aligns with your organization’s goals. Otherwise, you may spend much of your time writing and publishing content that won’t help you achieve your mission.
Why is Content Strategy Crucial for Nonprofit Organizations?
A nonprofit content strategy will help you improve your marketing efforts and attract more supporters. Here are four ways that this can help you achieve these goals:
Boosts Awareness
Content marketers who set up and implement a content strategy achieve their intended success through improved distribution. A good content strategy defines what kind of channel an organization will use to distribute specific content. Therefore, you can reach out to more places with the right content to meet different audiences. This results in a better awareness of your mission.
Maintains Donors Engagement
One of the main goals of having a nonprofit content strategy is building a sustainable relationship with your donors. Therefore, simple steps like sending them emails and replying to their comments on social media avenues go a long way toward building meaningful connections.
A content strategy will help you target specific audience segments with particular content they care about using their preferred platforms. Once you’ve established a good relationship, this will steer your donors into long-term giving.
Improves Fundraising Efforts
An excellent nonprofit content strategy can support your fundraising effort. If your content team can identify the type of fundraising your donors may use, they can easily create content that supports it throughout the year. Adding this with improved engagement and awareness will create a large, trusting, and primed audience ready to give.
Saves You Money
A well-thought-out content strategy ensures that your time, budget, and staff are utilized efficiently to achieve the best results for your organization. It also helps you fine tune your processes over time, considering that you have established a strategy to track and measure data.
3 Tips That Will Help You Develop the Best Nonprofit Content Strategy
The approach you establish for your content strategy defines your chances of success. Here are three major tips that will help you develop an effective content strategy:
Know How to Craft Your Message
The way you put your message across matters a lot in a nonprofit organization. You must ensure that every piece of content you produce conveys the right message to your audience. Messaging for nonprofit organizations follows three strategies inspire-activate-experience. Inspiration comes from crafting messages that would leave the supporters inspired to be active donors to your organization. It “activates” the donors’ effort into your charity cause. This includes establishing ways to help them raise awareness about your mission and attract other donors.
Once your donors are inspired and activated, giving them an experience is the final step. The best way to do this is by publishing content that shows the actual effect of their donations from photos and stories posted online. This includes using creative ways to post your content, such as posting a series of videos highlighting your cause.
Focusing on the “experience” will help build a strong relationship with the donor and inspire them to begin the process again.
Ensure That Your Organization’s Priorities are Clear
Your organization’s internal priorities and goals significantly influence your content strategy. You must establish that your organization has authority on a cause to drive people to donate. Therefore, your content strategy should revolve around explaining the needs you intend to impact and how you will impact them. Remember, donors, want to give to a cause they believe is clear with its objectives and has clear strategies to meet them. Otherwise, it won’t be easy to convince potential donors to give to your cause.
Understand Your Intended Audience
Every nonprofit organization targets specific audiences. Understanding your audience will help you determine what kind of content to create, how to share, and where to post. For instance, if you’re building content that targets young people, your content should be young and trendy. For an older generation, you should expect clear, precise, and thoughtful content highlighting your cause. You should also look for avenues that are easy to reach out to.
Understanding your audience also includes giving your target audience creative ways they can use to raise donations for your cause.
Build Your Nonprofit Content Strategy the Right Way
Establishing a content strategy is undoubtedly the first step to the success of your nonprofit organization. However, it requires knowing how to craft your message, understanding your audience, and ensuring that your audience knows your priorities. It’s easier to meet your content strategies with the help of a professional. We can help you meet your organization’s goals through our top-notch content creation and marketing strategies. Contact us to learn more.
