Friday Five 002: Making Time for Content & Creating Authentic Connections

Each Friday, we will be answering your most pressing questions from our Digital Marketing for Nonprofits Facebook group. If we don’t cover a challenge that you or your nonprofit colleagues are facing, drop us a comment below or tweet us @CommunityBoost and we’ll add it to the queue. 

Let’s dive in! 

Nonprofit Marketing Challenges

Your biggest marketing challenge: “One word. Consistency.” – Annisia, Pride Troupe

Our Solution: Staying consistent with the creative process is surely a challenge across all nonprofits and any type of organization in general. There is a three-step process that can be the best thing to do when you feel like it’s hard to be consistent with staying active on social media.

First, take one full day to create as much original content as you can. For Pride Troupe, think about what is your pillar content and go with it, which in this case, can be student stories or even student highlights. It’s important to make sure you are telling an original story and/or giving your supporters and followers more insight on how you are actively trying to achieve your mission.

Second, spend some time fully repurposing the original content you’ve just come up with. With one piece you can cut it up and create smaller segments, tweets, Instagram posts, pictures, etc. This will help get the most out of each piece of content and will give you more to work with over a longer period of time.

Third and finally, schedule it out! Sometimes the hardest thing about staying consistent with social media posts is having to do something each day. Use a tool like HootSuite or CoSchedule to help you plan a few weeks ahead so you can go into each day knowing that your organization will have something posting consistently.

While dedicating a full day to plan out content may seem like a time suck in the short term, it will absolutely help you in the long run with consistent content and not wasting time trying to create something day-of.

Your biggest marketing challenge: “We have so much going on all year long. I want to create an authentic connection with our customers but I feel like a used car salesman.” – Hannah, Danceworks

Our Solution: It’s important to build a relationship and focusing on providing value to your supporters and key target audiences. Think about how you can best inspire and provide value in the beginning of your relationship with them, and continue to document your organization’s journey in order to show why you are doing what you are doing. Once your audience feels like you have been giving without asking for anything in return, you are then able to make asks that are valued. The best way to stop feeling like a used car salesman is to start with value.

Your biggest marketing challenge: “Finding time to create content.” – Aspen, International Hearing Dog, Inc.

Our Solution: Focus less on having to “create” content and hone in on documenting your organization’s journey in a raw way. Don’t let the fear of creative not being PERFECT before hitting your social media or website stop you from creating at all. The thing about giving your audience insight into what your day-to-day is like, is that it doesn’t have to be produced or thought out too intensely. Utilize platforms like Instagram Stories, IGTV, or Facebook Live to give raw insight into what you all are doing to manifest your nonprofit’s mission.

Changing your mindset from having to create perfect marketing materials will clear up time on your plate, as well as, allowing you to do what you do daily and still create content.

Your biggest marketing challenge: “Getting our name out to the community and drawing people to our location. We want to bring awareness to the impact of trauma and teach people about resilience. Draw them into our location so they connect with resources and find skills to heal.” – Heather, Robin’s Hope

Our Solution: One thing that can really help launch the awareness of your organization is to update the website. In order to really get people’s attention on Robin’s Hope, you will want its website to help visually tell a story and captivate visitors. There are so many free commoditized tools like WordPress, Strikingly, and Squarespace can help you really amplify the website to be as compelling as the story of your organization is.

In regards to drawing people to your location, this is where you utilize platforms like Facebook, Google and Instagram ads. Not only can you target people by location, but you can create very customized marketing and advertising creative that will not only tell, but really show your key audience what your organization is all about. So, create custom creative and really geo-target ads so that it feels as relevant as possible to the people on the other side of the ad.

So, first, go about making some improvements on site then run ads through Instagram, Facebook, or even Google, to better target to exactly who you are trying to reach.

Cameron Ripley