Content strategy. It's everywhere and it seems to be the answer to so much of what ails nonprofits. Yet both the term and the implementation leave many scratching their heads. So what exactly is a content strategy and how can you develop one for your nonprofit?
What Is Content Strategy?
Content strategy is just another way of describing the process of planning, developing, and managing useful and usable written or other forms of consumable
interactive content.
Why Is Content Strategy Important?
Do you need to create a website; redesign an old one; or decide the who, what, where, when, how, and why of your overall content creation plan? In all cases, having a clear and well-defined content strategy is important. Furthermore, understanding what makes content useful and usable for your nonprofit is even more vital. That's because content creation requires a tremendous amount of time and financial resources, both of which are usually scarce for nonprofits.
Here are five steps you can take to develop a practical and powerful content strategy for your nonprofit.
1. Align Your Content: Know How It Helps People Solve Problems
Understand and be able to articulate what you are trying to achieve overall and then map that to your users' specific questions and problems. Your end goal is always to help users through their customer journey. You want to meet their needs in very tailored ways that show you understand the challenges and pain points they face every day.
Knowing how to align your content to the needs of your users requires a deep understanding of how your users navigate your site and social media. You also need to understand their overall behavior and engagement with your email marketing campaigns. You can gather this type of data through a variety of tools such as Hubspot, Hootsuite, and
a host of content marketing tools like Contently.
2. Conduct a Content Audit
The word "audit" may remind you of the IRS, and while it certainly can feel as ominous, it's not as bad as you might think. A thorough assessment of your content in all of its varying types, across all of your platforms, is a great way to determine where you are succeeding. It will also show you where you might consider improving the content type and delivery method.
For example, perhaps your email marketing is really getting you the response you've been seeking and you're reaching your fundraising goals. However, your website isn't performing as well on your fundraising pages. An audit can help you identify how you can optimize your content and where in the user journey you might engage your audiences more. It can also help you in your gap analysis phase, in which you identify where you might update, sunset, or create new content.
3. Create Your Content Production Plan
Every content strategy must also include a production plan (also known as an editorial calendar). Whatever name you choose, this part of the process includes determining which type of content to produce (a blog versus a webinar versus a video). You'll also figure out who the owner of the content will be, the subject matter experts you will tap as resources, how content will be syndicated and pushed out and in which forms, and production dates.
Download a free content production plan template here.
4. Define Your Key Performance Measures
Once you've developed your content topics and overall production calendar, it's important to determine what you would like each content asset to accomplish; then you can track and measure success. If you are writing a blog, make sure you define what the blog will help your nonprofit achieve. For example, maybe you'd like your blog to "help drive donations by 25 percent" or "help increase signups for our newsletter by 50 percent."
5. Identify Your Content Distribution Channels
The last step to an effective content strategy is knowing exactly which channels to choose to optimize time, resources, and overall engagement with your content. Use your channel metrics to identify your short- and long-term strategies. Each strategy should include more than one channel (you want what the marketing world calls an omni-channel strategy). A strategy can incorporate online channels (including social media) as well as offline channels such as conferences and direct mail.
Additional Content Resources
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