A guest post by Sarah Fargusson of Cornershop Creative
Picture this: you’re searching online for things you can do in your daily life to be more environmentally friendly and come across a blog post with a list of daily life changes that you can make to help the environment.
You find the post super helpful, take a few of the suggestions to heart, and then begin exploring the rest of the nonprofit’s website to see what else this organization can teach you and how you can support them in return.
This scenario is common for organizations with blogs. Blog posts help your nonprofit share relevant and meaningful information with your audience, engaging your current audience with fresh content and bringing in new supporters through the process.
Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Blog
As a marketing tactic, blogging is an oldie, but a goodie. While maintaining a blog isn’t possible for every organization, if you’re able to keep up with a consistent posting schedule, blogs are an excellent tool to connect supporters to your mission through relevant topics.
There are tons of benefits, including:
- Establish your organization as a thought leader. Sharing your expertise on topics related to your mission in a public place like your site’s blog can help set you up as a thought leader in your space.
- Share important updates/information/stories. Blog posts are a great place to share timely content with your audience, including news or organizational updates and stories from your community.
- Engage with your nonprofit’s audience on a regular basis. Consistency is key when it comes to blogging, and regular, fresh content will have your audience visiting often to see what’s new.
- Boost your visibility via SEO-driven content marketing. Potential supporters interested in your area of work, but unfamiliar with your organization, can find you through optimized blog posts on relevant topics.
- Fuel your other marketing channels. Blog content can also be shared on social media, in email campaigns, and through other marketing channels you may use to stay connected and keep your organization top of mind for supporters.
With all of these great benefits, have we convinced you yet? Starting and maintaining a blog allows your organization to connect with your current supporters and attract new ones. It’s well worth the time and effort!
Blogging Tip #1: Tell Stories That Resonate With Your Readers
Who doesn’t love a good story? Sharing stories helps us connect with each other and drives home the impact of your nonprofit’s work in the lives of real people.
Like any good story, the stories that you share on your organization’s blog should have:
- Characters that your audience can relate with
- A familiar setting
- A conflict that is resolved (ideally through your organization’s work)
- Details that help readers connect to the characters and outcome
Share stories about beneficiaries who tapped into your services, volunteers who are passionate about your cause, or donors who made a big difference to your organization. Anyone who represents the impact that you’re able to make toward your mission is a good contender. The sky’s the limit!
Just be sure to get permission from the subject of your story before sharing their story on your blog.
Blogging Tip #2: Incorporate Compelling Visuals
Compelling visuals have the power to take your blog content to the next level. While text will likely be the meat and potatoes of the majority of your posts, visuals and great nonprofit website design helps keep things interesting and give readers a bit of visual relief and a different way to engage with the topic as they work through the text content.
Mix things up for your readers and incorporate a variety of different visuals into blog posts, taking into account the particular topic or post. You might include:
- Photos
- Infographics (with details from your annual report)
- Visual quotes
- Videos
Compelling visuals stick with readers and drive your topic home. And, for all of the skimmers out there, solid visuals keep visitors’ attention, keeping them on the page and reading more of your post than they otherwise would have.
Blogging Tip #3: Post New Content Regularly
When it comes to blogging, consistency is key. Determine a posting schedule and stick to it. While there’s no need to schedule down to the minute and urgent to-dos will come up, posting content regularly helps to keep people visiting the blog.
It’s what brings all of those wonderful benefits listed above and shows your community that you’re actively working to keep them updated on important information.
To keep yourself on track, consider creating a content calendar, working ahead during quieter times, or pulling in other team members (or even a marketing partner) to help create blog content in a timely manner.
3 Strategies for Promoting Your Blog
In order to bring visitors to your blog and reap all of the benefits, you’ll need to promote your blog to your audience. Plus, getting more eyes on your blog more often will encourage blog readers to explore other parts of your nonprofit’s website, too.
These tips will drive more visitors to your new blog and keep them coming back:
- Leverage on-page SEO best practices. Following SEO best practices will help your blog post rank for relevant keywords and bring the people searching for those keywords right to your site.
- Collaborate with other bloggers in the nonprofit space. By partnering up with others in the nonprofit space, you can expand your audience even more by guest blogging and building backlinks.
- Share blog posts on social media and in emails. Sharing your blog posts with your current audience through social media and email will engage your current audience and keep them coming back to your site.
While adding a blog to your nonprofit marketing toolkit does take time and effort, the benefits are well worth the work. A blog can help you continuously grow and engage with your audience, encouraging them to visit your website and take action for your cause on a regular basis. So what are you waiting for? Get blogging!
Sarah Fargusson – Director of Digital Strategy at Cornershop Creative
Self-described as a “non-profit junkie,” Sarah has dedicated her career to serving the needs of the non-profit sector. Her project management experience spans a variety of non-profit management disciplines including strategic planning, community engagement, capacity building, fundraising and research. She has worked both in and for the non-profit sector at the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, and the consulting firms The Lee Institute and The Curtis Group.
With her ever expanding non-profit tool belt, Sarah joined Cornershop Creative to tap into her techie, creative side, while developing meaningful partnerships with her clients to help them more effectively achieve their goals.
