Many community organizations are making great strides by creating great Web content. Here are a few benefits of content marketing for nonprofits.

• It expands your donor base beyond local boundaries. You’re not limited to connecting with donors in your local community.
• It can be less expensive than other forms of marketing. It doesn’t always require extensive graphic design, and employees or volunteers can contribute.
• It can be re-purposed. Written content such as white papers and blog posts can be adapted to grants, applications and annual reports.
• It helps raise awareness. Awareness building is good for fundraising as well as public relations.

Here are three ways to use content marketing for nonprofits.

Establish Thought Leadership

B2B content marketers use this technique all the time. Companies that establish intellectual authority generally take the largest market share.

The nonprofit world is also competitive — there will always be more worthy causes then there are funds. But just like in for-profit business, people trust their funds with intellectual leaders.

Example:  See the Red Cross’s white paper The Case for Integrating Crisis Response with Social Media. Writing a white paper is a great way to stake claim in an emerging trend.

Tap Into User-Generated Content

Your most passionate advocates are those most affected by your mission. Harness this energy and empower them to help.

Example: The Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center turned to their strongest supporters to help drive fundraising: those who had lost loved ones to suicide.

They let these grieving family members create online memorial pages for their lost family members in easy-to-use, outward-facing CMS. The pages could have text, pictures and even videos. The pages can also be used for the family members to respectfully accept donations on behalf of the organization.

 

Pick the Right Mix of Content

Don’t spin your wheels trying to cultivate a huge Facebook or Twitter following just because the platforms are free to use. If your organization isn’t visual (doesn’t involve children, food, animals, etc.), you might be  better off using that time on white papers, blog posts or case studies.

Example: The nonprofit organization charity:water  brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations, and you could probably look at their pictures all day long on Facebook and never get tired of it. Now, try running a Facebook search for homelessness, drug addiction, or AIDS prevention, and see how many 100k-follower pages you get.

What are some of your favorite examples of content marketing for nonprofits?

Reputation Capital Media Services is a Baton Rouge marketing agency that helps B2B companies and their marketing agencies produce high-quality digital content, including blog posts, e-mail newsletters, white papers and multimedia. Our editors and writers are experts in their fields, which include HR technology, employee benefits, and financial services and accounting. Contact us for a free 30-minute consultation to find out how great content can help you attract and retain your customers.

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One Comment

1. The Benefits of Content Marketing for Nonprofits
   5:00 pm on February 23, 2013

   [...] John Paul Nettles at Reputation Capital recently detailed these benefits and more in a recent blog post on their site. They went on to point out the many why’s and how’s, building an excellent case for nonprofits to incorporate content marketing into their strategy. Find out more: Content Marketing for Nonprofits [...]

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