Looking for simple but effective content creation tips for your nonprofit? Here are three tips that will help you with your nonprofit marketing strategy.
Every penny counts, and that is especially true for nonprofit organizations. In recent years, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been turning to content marketing as a cost-effective yet powerful way of boosting their internet presence. Nonprofit marketing has the potential to help them reach their target audience, bring awareness to their cause, and attract and more importantly retain donors. In this article, we will share three simple but effective tips to help NGOs create effective content as part of their nonprofit marketing strategy.
Why Create Content?
Let’s first define content marketing. Content marketing is a marketing technique that involves creating and distributing relevant, valuable, and consistent content that is designed to attract and retain an audience, such as online material videos, blogs, infographics, and social media posts. Nonprofit organizations are increasingly making use of content marketing. According to a report from the Content Marketing Institute and Blackbaud, over 92% of nonprofit professionals were using content marketing, and 65% were creating more content than they were before.
Furthermore, according to Demand Metric, 90% of all organizations are using content marketing practices, with the primary reason being that it costs 62% less than traditional marketing. It has been even more successful as a means of improving brand loyalty, keeping readers’ attention, and generating sales – or in the case of NGOs, donations.
Nonprofit Marketing Tips
Now that we’ve seen how important content marketing is, how exactly can NGOs create effective content? Here are some suggestions you can use to generate quality content for your nonprofit marketing strategy.
1. Create Focused Content
To create focused content, you need to have a clear understanding of what your target audience is interested in. As you create each piece of content, think about what your readers define as valuable and draw inspiration from their perspectives. Remember that good quality content should always:
- be easy to read
- be well-structured
- stay on topic
- be written for a specific audience
- be written with a specific intention
2. Create Emotional Content
Nonprofit organizations often aim at raising awareness of causes in geographical areas that are far away from the target audience. Physical distance creates emotional distance and this diminishes the two most important aims of a nonprofit marketing strategy, raising awareness of a cause and gathering resources to help this cause (through donations, for instance). When creating your content, whether it be a video or an article, keep in mind that it is a good idea to appeal to your audience’s emotions. Try to evoke strong emotions such as sympathy, sadness, and joy to bridge the emotional gap and galvanize the audience. For an example of highly emotional content that closes the emotional gap, watch this video
3. Be Story-Centric
Great content includes storytelling. As its name implies, storytelling is about relating a series of events enriched with emotions and details. In the case of nonprofit marketing, the goal of telling stories with an emotional impact is to give rise to empathy. Empathy is feeling with (as opposed to feeling for, which is sympathy). Nonprofits can elicit empathy by telling stories that their target audience can relate to through their own experiences.
No matter what that point of relatability is, it makes the story memorable. In the context of nonprofit marketing, telling stories that resonate with people on a deeper level is therefore a great way to get your points across, raise awareness, convince potential donors and, overall, attain your goals.
Here are some examples of nonprofit storytelling, as well as an introduction to storytelling for nonprofits.
Conclusion
Remember, successful nonprofit content marketing isn’t just about growing your audience. It’s just as important to maintain a close connection with the donors and supporters you already have. An effective nonprofit marketing strategy will help nurture these relationships, fostering rewarding connections that become even more valuable over time.
Did you find these tips helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
