Creating Valuable Content Helps You Attract + Keep Your Donors

The Donor Attraction Letter

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Today I want to talk content marketing with you.
 
Yes, this buzzword is all the rage! And for good reason:
 
Attracting and keeping your donors depends largely on the content you send via various communications throughout the year.
 
When you think about donor attraction, your next annual appeal letter or major gift solicitations probably come to mind.
 
And those are certainly very important.

But, your gift solicitations are just one small part of the story.
 
Especially these days with high donor turnover, it’s vital to use an effective, year-long content marketing strategy to help attract, keep, and up-level your donors. This will help you:

• Stay top of mind.
• Provide feedback on how donors are changing lives.
• Pour on gratitude for donors’ support.
• Share valuable information and resources.
• Tug at heartstrings.
• Motivate giving.

So, what does a good content marketing strategy look like?
 
While your best strategy will depend on unique characteristics of your nonprofit, here are top categories of content widely used by successful, growing nonprofits:

• Website content including stories/articles/educational resources
• E-Newsletters
• Printed newsletters
• Social media including Facebook + Twitter
• Videos/webinars/podcasts
• Events

Now, how do you decide which content marketing tactics to use?

My best advice is to base your decisions around a deep understanding of what creates strong emotional connections with your supporters.

You can do this by developing a marketing persona. If you don’t have this handy tool underpinning your donor communication efforts, I encourage you to create one.  

You’ll want to ask questions like:

What are your supporters’ pain points and how can your content help solve their problems?

What makes them frustrated, angry, and fired up to take action?

What inspires them?

What makes them cry?

What motivates them to give?

Knowing your supporters more intimately will help you be more effective in delivering content and other communications that resonate and touch and help them, while inspiring response to your call-to-action messages.

Dedicated to helping you attract and keep your donors,

Jen Viano
Nonprofit Writer/Consultant
Editor, The Donor Attraction Letter

PS: If you’d like help developing your content marketing strategy or writing content for your website, newsletters or other communications, please let me know. Email Jen@JenViano.com or call me at 248.957.8918 to begin a conversation!