Content marketing is not just a buzzword; it’s a powerful tool for associations and nonprofits looking to engage existing members and attract new ones.
As an association, your organization already understands the importance of connecting with your audience on a deeper level, but how do you ensure your content strategy is not only effective in helping you achieve your goals, but is also sustainable?
Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to refine your existing strategy, content marketing offers a way to showcase your organization’s value, build lasting relationships with members, and drive meaningful engagement.
Let’s dive into what content marketing is and how you can leverage it to achieve your association’s goals.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience.
Unlike traditional advertising, which often focuses on direct selling, content marketing aims to provide value by addressing the needs and interests of your potential and existing members, thereby building trust and loyalty over time.
For nonprofits and associations, content marketing is about using various forms of content - such as blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, and social media updates - to communicate your mission, showcase the impact of your work, and engage with both current and potential members.
An effective content marketing strategy can help your association:
- Increase organic traffic
- Drive conversion
- Engage potential and existing members
- Showcase your solutions
- Create a sense of community
- Build longer-lasting relationships and loyalty
10 Key Things to Keep in Mind for Nonprofit/Association Content Marketing
1. Define the Purpose and Goals of Your Content Strategy
Before diving into content creation, it’s crucial to define the purpose and goals of your strategy. What do you want to achieve? Are you looking to increase traffic, generate leads, build brand awareness, or boost member engagement? Clearly outlining your objectives will guide your content planning and ensure that your efforts are aligned with your organization’s overall mission.
2. Always Create Content Based on Your Buyer Personas
Understanding your audience is the foundation of any successful content strategy. It’s important to develop detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal members. These personas should include demographic information, interests, pain points, and content preferences.
Tailoring your content to these personas ensures that you’re addressing the specific needs and concerns of your audience, making your content more relevant and valuable to your membership base.
3. Conduct Keyword Research to Bring in the Right Traffic
Next up is keyword research, which is essential for driving the right kind of traffic to your website. Focus on your core topic clusters and keywords that not only resonate with your audience but also help you build topical authority with search engines.
4. Build an Editorial Calendar
With your keywords and topic areas in mind, it’s time to build an editorial calendar that will act as a roadmap for all of your association’s content marketing efforts. Having a clear plan will help organize your content- whether it be blogs, social media posts, pillar pages, gated assets or landing pages - across different platforms and formats, ensuring alignment with your association goals.
5. Quality Over Quantity
In content marketing, more is not always better. Focus on producing high-quality content that provides real value to your audience, rather than churning out a high volume of mediocre content. Quality content is more likely to be shared, engaged with, and remembered, leading to better long-term results.
6. Think About the Buyer’s Journey When Creating Content
Consider where your audience is in their journey when creating content.
- Awareness: At this stage, your audience is just becoming aware of a problem or need. Content should be educational and informative, helping them understand the issue at hand.
- Consideration: Here, your audience is exploring solutions. Content should highlight how your association can address their needs and provide comparisons or in-depth insights.
- Decision: Finally, your audience is ready to take action. Content should be persuasive, providing clear calls to action and demonstrating why your association is the best choice.
7. Conversions are the Ultimate Goal
While content marketing is about providing value, the ultimate goal is to drive conversions, whether that’s signing up for a newsletter, downloading an asset, or becoming a member. Your content should include clear calls to action that guide your audience towards these desired outcomes.
8. Repurpose Valuable Content Across Your Channels
Maximize the impact of your content by repurposing it across multiple channels. A single piece of content - such as a blog post - can be transformed into a social media update, an infographic, a video, or a podcast episode, saving you time and helping your association reach a wider audience.
9. Ensure Your Site is SEO Optimized
SEO optimization is key to ensuring your content reaches the right audience and increases your visibility in search engines. This involves optimizing your website’s technical aspects, such as page speed and mobile-friendliness, as well as on-page elements like meta tags, headers, and keyword usage.
10. Use Data to Continually Improve Performance
Content marketing is an ongoing process, and continual improvement is essential for long-term success. Use analytics tools to track the performance of your content, such as traffic, engagement, and conversion rates. Analyzing this data will help you identify what’s working and where there’s room for improvement, so that you can see even better results in the future.
Not sure where to start with your association’s content marketing strategy? Get in touch with the Halmyre team today. Our association marketing and change management experts would love to help you build a content strategy that sparks growth for your organization.
