In her earlier book The Nonprofit Marketing Guide, Kivi Leroux Miller spoke to those of us who are just warming up to the idea that nonprofits DO marketing. She told us a lot of encouraging stories, gave us useful tips, and pioneered the idea of the “quick and dirty marketing plan.”

For many nonprofits, that’s still the best place to begin–or to return to, if your email, blog, newsletter, social media and so on need a shot in the arm.

Content Marketing for Nonprofits: A Communications Map for Engaging Your Community, Becoming a Favorite Cause, and Raising More Money is the book for you if you want a deep, comprehensive guide. Using the metaphor of a journey, she lays out how you:

• Set your organization’s feet on the marketing path and lift people’s eyes toward the goal
• Invite your supporters, round up your staff, and pick your “trail name” (your agency’s voice and style)
• Map out your plan, in detail, using tools like a timeline, topics list, and editorial calendar
• Start creating and curating content your “participants, supporters, and influencers” will want to read. (Kivi wants us to think about building relationships, not “targeting an audience.”)
• Choose the communications channels that work best for you and the community you’re building.

What’s the best way for your organization to use this book?

1. You could make Kivi your consultant. By going through each chapter and doing the exercises marked “Stop, Think, and Discuss,” you’ll steadily change the way your organization thinks about marketing. Be warned: that could be a long-term effort.

2. You could use the book as a manual. Don’t read it cover to cover, just zoom in on the topic you need to address right now and read that chapter in detail.

3. You could skim the whole book now, stopping to bookmark any story or advice that seems particularly interesting to you. Then you could go back and take approach #1 or #2, whatever fits your organization the best. (This approach is the one I’d recommend.)

Whichever way you go, you’ll have the benefit of the warm, helpful, humorous, and practical way that Kivi Leroux Miller writes. You can’t go wrong.