In last week’s blog post, I highlighted 3 proven-to-succeed content marketing strategies for nonprofits. Finishing the second half of this two-part series, I’ll introduce 3 more techniques dipping into some unique alternatives for producing and marketing content for your nonprofit website.
But first, let’s recap what was discussed in last week’s post:
1. The Fundamentals
Establish a marketing strategy for all modes of communication including your nonprofit website, your social media profiles, newsletter, etc. For each outlet, you’ll need a different content strategy.
2. Target Audience
As a nonprofit, it may seem redundant to stress understanding your target audience since you probably interact with supporters on a regular basis. However, getting to know them is only half the process; you also have to create content that they, and other potential supporters, want to read. Grabbing their attention is only half the battle. You also have to sustain it.
3. Action-Compelling
Every component of your nonprofit’s online presence is an opportunity to compel people to do something. Actionable language should naturally fit into the content you write.
New Strategies for Part II
These next 3 strategies employ a variety of techniques ranging from big businesses to SEO ideas. They’re simple, free and most importantly, proven to drive results. We’ll talk about the various strengths of each idea and give you an idea of how you can spin it to make it work for your nonprofit.
If you have any ideas of your own or would like to contribute your thoughts to the discusses, leave a comment.
1. Express Value
As a nonprofit, there are a myriad of ways to show value on your website. Testimonials from a beneficiary, donations landing pages that connect a donor’s given amount to the cause, stimulating infographics, stats-heavy reports, and personal communication methods such as emails and newsletters, amongst others. Within each of these ways of expressing value, you’re telling your audience why they should donate to the cause, and more specifically, why they should donate to your nonprofit. Like most nonprofits, you’ve probably written something along the lines of this;
- Give to the Detroit mathematics and science initiative because every child deserves a quality education.
Because is one of the most powerful words for nonprofits to use. It connects donations to a cause showing immediate value.
Now, let’s take it a step further and make it about the donor.
- Give to the Detroit mathematics and science initiative so you can help every child get the quality education he/she deserves.
The so you can technique is a personal favorite marketing strategy. It provides a direct correlation between the donor and the cause, sparking empathy and a more personalized approach to expressing value to an audience.
2. Map It Out
The internet has created an incredible two-way street of communication. Modern communication methods have transformed the ways users interact with online content. Today’s web users are now reading the news on their phones, at home, during lunch breaks, commuting to work, and plenty more. Through a few simple clicks and highly-efficient touch screens, virtual readers can access information from any location, day or night, if there’s a reliable internet connection.
It’s crucial now more than ever to produce content for your website that reads well on a screen size as small as a smartphone, and as big as a 27 inch monitor, and here’s how.
Similar to printing a detailed annual report or composition on your nonprofit, logical organization through headings and subheadings will help your reader break down the content. Applying this concept to your nonprofit’s website may be more challenging. No longer are viewers reading content in essay format, but instead, they are interacting with content. Headings and subheadings still play a vital role in organization a web page, but now you have to consider how content looks aesthetically.
Many nonprofits have also began using internal links (discussed in part 1), or have created landing pages to other parts of their site so viewers can clearly organize the various facets of a nonprofit’s website.
3. Keyword Research
Your audience controls everything about your content. The style, language, tone, aesthetics, and most importantly, what you are writing about. Whether you’re writing for your nonprofit’s website, producing a blog post, or sharing short sound bites on social media platforms, you should be publishing content that reflects and captures your audience.
That’s where keyword research comes into effect. While it’s easy to assume that keyword research is associated with SEO (a monster of a topic), keywords can also help in organizing and developing valuable content for your website.
Keywords show you not only what your website is “ranking” for on search engines, but most importantly, it shows what words and phrases web users are using to look for information related to your organization.
A great way to kick-off your keyword research is looking into your nonprofit’s Google Analytics results. This free, online tool will give you a comprehensive list of keywords and phrases your nonprofit website currently ranks for on search engines. From there, pick 5-10 of these keywords and develop content strictly related to those phrases for words. For instance, if you’re nonprofit focuses on improving environmental initiatives in the greater Washington D.C. area, you may rank for keywords such as;
- environmental issues Washington D.C.
- environmental policy change
- nonprofit environmental agency Washington D.C
Depending on what keywords and phrases your nonprofit has the best rankings for, create content focused on those phrases and ideas, because those are the topics people want to know.
What’s Next?
The good news is you now have 6 proven strategies to help in creating or improving your nonprofit website content strategy. The bad news is that’s only half the battle. Now, you have to put your team to work to create valuable, viral-worthy content so your nonprofit can establish itself as a thought leader in its niche and drive more quality traffic to the site. Editing and testing for effectiveness should be an integral part of your strategy to ensure that you are producing and publishing the best possible information on your website.
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If you haven’t yet already, it will be well worth your while to invest in a copywriting strategy for your nonprofit, and there are plenty of ways to do so. You can assign a staff member(s), or there are reliable companies that offer valuable copywriters able to produce compelling content for your nonprofit.
