Summary of 2015 Nonprofit Content Marketing Report

The 2015 Nonprofit Content Marketing Report was recently published by Blackbaud and The Content Marketing Institute.

Here are some of the findings:

• 35% of the respondents said their content marketing is effective in their organization.
• The top two goals for nonprofit content marketing are brand awareness (87%) and engagement (84%)
• The top three metrics used to measure content marketing success are increased event attendance/participation (55%) , website traffic (54%) and increased fundraising (44%). Website traffic and increased fundraising were also the top three metrics last year.
• 50% of the respondents created more content over the past year compared to last year.
• The average number of marketing audiences is 4.
• The top six ways nonprofits market their content are social media content-other than blogs (93%), in person events (89%), e-newsletters (88%), articles on website (86%), illustrations/photos (86%), and videos (82%). 
• The social media site used the most is Facebook at 94%. Facebook was also the most used last year.  Last year's data showed Twitter as the second most used site at 69% and this year it is also the second most used at 84%.  It is interesting to note that each social media site used has increased over the past year. 
• Facebook is also the most effective social media site used.
• 48% of nonprofits publish new content daily or multiple times a week.
• The top three challenges nonprofit marketers face are lack of budget (56%), measuring content effectiveness (52%), and producing engaging content (49%).
• Nonprofit marketers are currently working on becoming better storytellers (66%), creating visual content (63%), creating more engaging/higher quality content (62%), better understanding of audience (59%), and organizing content on website (59%). 

The Impact of Tigers for Tigers

The National Tigers for Tigers Coalition (T4T) is a student conservation organization for colleges with the tiger mascot.  The purpose of this organization to help save tigers and increase awareness of the issues tigers face.

This is such a great idea for schools to increase awareness of their mascots.

T4T recently held their first National Tiger Awareness week. They posted an infographic on their blog about their impact during the week. This is a great example of the type of content nonprofits can share to show their impact.

Here is the infographic they posted-

2015 B2B Content Marketing Research Report

The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs recently released their 2015 B2B Content Marketing Research Report.

Here are some of the findings that I thought were interesting:

• The key theme from the research is to have a documented content marketing strategy. 35% have a documented content marketing strategy, 48% have one not documented, and 14% do not have a strategy.
• 84% said brand awareness was their most important goal of content marketing.
• Website traffic (at 63%) was the metric used the most to assess content marketing success.  The lowest metric was subscriber growth at 30%.
• Content marketing tactics used the most was social media at 92%, e-newsletters at 83%, website articles as 81%, and blogs at 80%.
• The top four challenges marketers face are producing engaging content (54%), producing content consistently (50%), measuring content effectiveness (49%), and producing a variety of content (42%).  
• Creating more engaging content is the top content marketing initiative. 69% are currently doing this and 19% are planning to do this within the next 12 months.
• 55% are currently trying to have a better understanding of what content is effective and what isn't. 31% plan do this within the next 12 months.
• 63% are currently trying to find more and better ways to repurpose content. 23% plan to do within the next 12 months.
• 63% are currently trying to better understand their audience. 21% plan to do this within the next 12 months.
• 62% are organizing content on website. 21% plan to do this within the next 12 months and 12% said it is not a priority.
• 55% of the respondents that have a documented content strategy publish new content daily or multiple times a week. 

How Digital Content Helps Museums

Last week was #askacurator day on Twitter. I followed along to see what tweets were about digital content. I also tweeted a question about this topic and got some great responses. Listed below is a summary of what I learned from my question and other related information.


How do websites, social media, and blogs help museums?

• Increased engagement with existing and new audiences

• Increased accessibility to collections otherwise just kept in storage and seen by no one

• Great way to connect with people around the world whether or not they visit museums in person

• Great way to share expanded content beyond the content in museum

• Great way to tell stories

• Helps publicize events

• It helps present artifacts museums would not have room to show

• Blogs & social media help make collections more visible and accessible

• Social media helps people learn about museums.

• Online presence helps share material with the world

• Online exhibitions are a way to bring a museum to the people and can live beyond the life of the physical exhibition

• Social media is becoming a much bigger part of museum marketing strategies

Mini Case Studies

• The Smithsonian National Postal Museum uses Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Flickr. They plan to experiment with Instagram and Tumblr next. They also have a blog where they write about postal history stories, objects, famous/rare stamps, and behind the scenes at the museum. People learn about the museum through social media and it helps when others spread the word about the museum.

• The Everhart Museum uses Twitter every day and Facebook a few times a week. They are trying to do more on Pinterest and Instagram. They post content about current exhibits (facts & objects), collections, and programs & partners. Social media is a great way to spread the word about the museum and interact with people.

• The Children's Museum of Indianapolis uses social media because that is where their visitors "live". Social media is a great way for visitors to share their memories immediately after their visit.

Ice Bucket Challenge Roundup

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been a trending topic on the Internet. Many people in the nonprofit sector and social media have shared their thoughts about why this challenge has been successful.

Here is a roundup of these articles-

Why the #IceBucketChallenge works (from the Nonprofit Marketing Blog)

What the Social Media Success of the ALS #IceBucketChallenge Can Teach Nonprofits (from J Campbell Social Marketing)

Creating Your Nonprofit’s Version of the #IceBucketChallenge (from Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog)

How to Knock Off the Ice Bucket Challenge and Make Social Media Work for Your Cause (from Fired Up Fundraising)

Is A Downer News Cycle A Factor in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Success? (from Beth Kanter)

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: 3 Lessons In Social Media Strategy (from Business 2 Community)

Four Lessons Brands Can Learn From the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (from Forbes)

Haters Gonna Hate: Ice Bucket Challenge Edition (from Marissa Garza)

Changing the World One Bucket of Ice at a Time  (LinkedIn post by Nicholas L.)

The Ice Bucket Challenge and the Art of Storytelling (LinkedIn post by Amanda S.)

7 Reasons behind the Fundraising Success of the Ice Bucket Challenge (LinkedIn post by David W.)

What the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Teaches Us About Social Media (LinkedIn post by Frank G.)



Know of any other articles that explain why this challenge is a success and what nonprofits can learn from it?

Nonprofit Editorial Calendar Resources

Editorial calendars is a topic people are interested in talking about in the Nonprofit Digital Communications CoP that I organize for NTEN.

I shared a bunch of resources related to editorial calendars and asked for other resources to be added to the list.  I created a document with all the resources at editorial calendar resources. This includes resources related to nonprofits and general editorial calendar resources.



Here is a list of resources that are about nonprofit editorial calendars:

LightBox Collaborative's 2014 Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendars - Resources for You (from Kivi's Nonprofit Marking Guide)

How to Create a Nonprofit Editorial Calendar (from Network for Good)

5 Questions to Ask When Planning Your Nonprofit's 2014 Editorial Calendar (from Douglas Gould and Company)

How to Create an Editorial Calendar (from Ann Green's Nonprofit Blog)

Developing an Editorial Calendar for Your Nonprofit Marketing Team (from Salsa)



What editorial calendar resources can be added to the list?

Notes from 2014 Nonprofit 2.0 Unconference

Last week I attended the Nonprofit 2.0 Unconference in DC. Here are my notes-

Session #1  - Making Tech Less Scary (which was really how to make tech less scary for others)
http://bit.ly/VqYFVd

• Tool vs. Strategy
• There are many tech tools - how to decide which one to use
• How to get people to know about tech tools
• End goal = who are you trying to reach
• Don't use a technology just to use it
• Ask about tech tools on discussions like progressive exchange or techsoup
• Technology in Organizations
• You need staff in orgs to grow social media by retweeting and sharing
• People like to learn about people that work at orgs 
• It's not about e-mail, it's about content
• It's not about social media, it's about engagement
• Have a social media policy and include examples of good posts for Twitter & Facebook
• Have messages ready in advance for Twitter & Facebook
• Tech Tools
• Campaign Monitor
• MailChimp
• Eventbrite
• Cyfe
• HootSuite
• Issuu
• Scribd
• Dedupe
• ManageFlitter

Session #2 - Analytics

• What data to tell higher up people in org
• Types of data
• Program specific
• Websites/E-mail/Blogs/Social Media 
• Shared posts = success
• Fundraising posts are successful in a different way
• Tracking e-mails
• how many people are getting e-mails
• losing people because of content not because of number of e-mail
• have a picture in e-mails 
• have a reason to engage in an e-mail
• type of of e-mail sent - track open rate
• Number of website visitors vs. competitors
• Educate people about why we care about data
• Types of posts
• Posts you have to post -  stuff about partners or sponsors
• Fun posts - like pictures
• This is like serving veggies and desserts
• Get data to tell stories, which is what the audience & leaders care about
• People need to feel engaged and part of the conversation
• Data takes time
• Look at bigger picture
• 3 questions to ask - Who is the audience? What do you want them to do? What does success look like?
• Have one ask in e-mails

Session #3 - Breaking through the noise

• Put a happy picture on donation page
• What works on one social media site might not work on another site
• Websites and blogs are your hub - use social media to bring people there
• Find out who your followers are without being creepy
• Ask for Twitter and Facebook profile links on forms
• Repurpose content

2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report

The Social Media Examiner recently released the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Here are some of the findings:

The top 5 social media questions marketers want answered are

1. What social tactics are most effective? 
2. What are the best ways to engage my audience with social media?
3. How do I measure the return on my social media marketing? 
4. What are the best social management tools? 
5. How do I find my target audience with social media?

92% of marketers said that social media was important to their businesses.

68% of marketers analyze their social media activities.

43% of marketers feel like their Facebook efforts are working. Most marketers either don't know or indicated that their Facebook marketing is not working.

The top two benefits of social media marketing are increasing exposure and increasing traffic.

Facebook (94%), Twitter (83%),  LinkedIn (71%), YouTube (57%), blogging (55%), Google+ (54%) and Pinterest (47%) were the top seven platforms used by marketers

The most important platforms marketers use are Facebook (54%),  LinkedIn (17%), Twitter (12%) and blogging (8%).

The most important content for marketers is original written content (58%).

Content forms marketers want to learn more about is creating original visual assets (68%).

2014 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

NTEN and M+R Strategic Services recently released their annual eNonprofit Benchmarks Study. Here are some of the findings:

E-mail List Growth 

• Environmental organizations went up from 15% in 2012 to 19% in 2013, which is still less than 25% in 2011

• International organizations have gone up year - from 5% in 2011, to 8% in 2012, to 10% in 2013

• Wildlife and Animal Welfare organizations went down from 31% in 2012 to 20% in 2013

• Small organizations went up each year - from 2% in 2011, to 7% in 2012, to 26% in 2013

E-mails

• Newsletters had a 2% open rate increase

• Environmental organizations sent out the most e-mail messages to subscribers

• International organizations sent out the most fundraising e-mails

• Environmental organizations sent out the most advocacy and newsletter e-mail

My 2014 Nonprofit Technology Conference Experience

I attended the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) two weeks ago. I enjoyed seeing my nptech friends and meeting new people.

I started my NTC experience a day earlier when I volunteered for the conference. It was so much fun being with the staff and other volunteers while we stuffed bags.

This year I gained more out of the science fair. I went to most of the booths and talked more to the exhibitors.

The first session I went to was the NTCJews session. Three presenters from three different organizations shared technology projects. Two of them talked about a problem the organization had internally, how technology was used to help them solve the problem, the challenges they faced, and how this new technology helped them do their job better. After each presentation, session participants got a chance to ask the presenters questions about their project.  I thought this was a great example of a type of session that could happen at a future NTC in the IT track.

The next session I went to was the blogging session I led. Here are a few things that came up that were interesting:

• One organization measures success of their blog if it gets picked up by blogs and journalists. 
• One organization shared that their most successful blog post was a a guest post.
• It was interesting to me that no one was using Pinterest for their blog and very few were using LinkedIn for blog promotion. 
• I had shared information about Blog Action Day (which is held in October) and I was surprised that nobody was familiar with it.
• Organizations are not looking at their web content for blog ideas.

I attended uX secrets and community organizers connect on the second day of the conference. The uX Secrets session was about donation forms, which is a topic many nonprofit bloggers have written about in the past year.  The community organizers session was a place for organizers to share their successes with others. I liked the idea that was shared about making a screenshot of a good conversation in an online community.

On the last day of the conference, I attended the session on holiday digital campaigns in the morning. I really enjoyed this session since I like seeing the examples of these types of campaigns and content. One thing I learned is that if an organization has a successful campaign one year, they should do the same campaign the next year.

The last session I attended was digital marketing that gets results, which was my favorite session.  Here are a few things I learned:

• Organizations need to start tracking engagement
• Donations can be compared to e-commerce
• Organizations need to get visual on social media
• Organizations need to participate more in conversations 
• Not many organizations have a presence on LinkedIn

I ended NTC by going to geek games where I played bingo and won one of the rounds.

I came back from NTC with topics to write about in this blog and ideas to improve NTEN's Nonprofit Blogging Group.

Blogging Session at 2014 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Last week I led a session at the Nonprofit Technology Conference about blogs.  My presentation is below. You can also read my guest post on NTEN's Blog where I wrote a preview of my session.

2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report

The 2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report was released last month. It was interesting to see that some of the findings were the same from last year.

Here are some of the findings:

• Once again the three most important goals for nonprofit communications strategies are acquiring new donors (53%), engaging our community (49%) and general brand awareness (39%). The percentages are lower, but the order of the three are still the same.
• Once again the three most important tools are websites, social media other than blogging, and email marketing. 
• The three most important social media sites are still Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Nonprofits are most likely to add or experiment with Instagram (30%), Pinterest (29%), YouTube (28%), and LinkedIn (27%) this year.  
• The biggest challenge nonprofits expect to have is still lack of time to produce quality content.
• Nonprofits still expect to spend the most time producing content for Email newsletter articles, Facebook updates, and event marketing.

Articles About Nonprofit Websites

Here are links to articles about nonprofit websites-

5 Things You Should Think About for Your Nonprofit Website  (re: charity)

3 "Hidden" Jobs Your Nonprofit Website Has to Perform (SW Creatives)

Your Nonprofit Website Must Have These 5 Things (about.com)

4 Ways to Improve Volunteer Satisfaction Using Your Website (Wired Impact)

Nonprofit Websites that Work: Showcase Your Personality, Passion & Impact (Getting Attention)