From glossy Instagram posts to hook-heavy email campaigns, content marketing is essential for any company looking to survive in the digital age. It’s no secret that for-profit businesses pour thousands of hours and funding into their content marketing, but what about the not-for-profit enterprises? It takes a herculean effort to capture an audience’s attention and convince them to care about your cause. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to do it.
Another expense may be a difficult decision to justify for non-profit organisations. Marketing is often a costly endeavour, after all. Well, you’ll be happy to hear that content marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to spread the reach of a charity. Not only is it cheaper than traditional means of marketing (like television advertising or direct mail), it’s also far easier to reach your target audience and get those donations in.
1. Work Out Your Why (and How)
If your content marketing strategy is going to have any kind of impact, there are two things you have to get straight: Your mission and your purpose. Your ‘why’ and your ‘how.’ Your charity’s mission defines ‘why’ it exists and outlines what it sets out to achieve. Once you figure that out, it becomes infinitely easier to define your purpose and ‘how’ you’ll implement your mission.
Take the British Heart Foundation for example. Its mission is to research heart and circulatory diseases. Its purpose is to raise awareness and gather donations from the public to fund their research. By differentiating between your ‘how’ and ‘why,’ you can view your organisation more clearly and create a more effective content marketing strategy.
When developing your content marketing strategy, it’s important to keep three things in mind: The desired outcome, your target audience, and the target audience’s needs. These vital components are all necessary things to get right. When a charity pushes its efforts to provide engaging, informative, and valuable content, they’re able to attract those larger audiences across different channels to achieve their goals.
2. Engaging Emails
Email marketing is perhaps one of the most overlooked forms of content marketing – As if it isn’t a direct line to your audience! We’re checking our emails now more than ever. It’s time to take advantage of it. Something you can implement onto your website right away is a pop-up email subscription form. You’ll want to put it on the page that gets the most traffic, which is probably the front page of your site.
Building up an email list of potential donors is a super effective way to build brand awareness and keep in touch with your audience. Make sure to create content that has engaging copy, a great subject line, and a template that falls in line with your organisation’s branding. Keep your email list active by continually and regularly communicating with your audience through newsletters. Want the specifics? Take a look at our Ultimate Guide to email marketing and become an expert in no time.
3. Visual Storytelling
You may have heard this buzzword (buzz-phrase?) banded about the internet a lot, but what does it really mean? Visual storytelling is a story told primarily through visual means. It could be photography, videos, illustrations – You name it. If it’s a visual medium, it’s visual storytelling. Consider this statistic: 80% of website visitors will watch a video, compared to only 20% who will read the full text. That’s a massive difference, which is why it’s so important to get your visual storytelling right. Consider your audience and your branding when approaching visual storytelling. Something totally off-kilter won’t connect with your established audience and might even hurt brand awareness, so keep your tone-of-voice and brand symbols in check.
For charities specifically, visual storytelling is such a powerful tool because it allows your audience to connect more emotionally with your content. Which, in turn, drives donations and other actions. By making your content more visually appealing, it will instantly become more engaging, more shareable, and more effective for your brand. Your audience will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the work the charity is doing and feel the impact of those it helps. Content marketing is a wildly effective way for charities to communicate with their established audience and attract new target audiences too. With increased growth, engagement, reach, and brand awareness, your donations will be increasing and your organisation will be flourishing in no time! For more information on marketing for charities, check out our Ultimate Guide or get a killer content strategy and grow your organisation with some help from Boss Digital.
