December 16, 2014
While the term is relatively new in the marketing field, content marketing has long been a part of nonprofit outreach efforts. The annual reports, newsletters, project updates and other similar materials that have been a staple of outreach for decades all describe the role of content marketing. Simply put, content marketing is the sharing and promotion of information related to an organization.
With the for-profit business world's adoption of content marketing as a tactic for reaching out to customers, there has been an increased focus on measurable statistics and best practices. Efforts specific to nonprofit content marketing have also been launched, such as the Content Marketing Institute's yearly benchmarks, budgets and trends report. The CMI provided some interesting information about the state of nonprofit content marketing in 2014, including a high rate of adoption by charitable organizations.
Specifically, 92 percent of nonprofits are using content marketing in some fashion and 65 percent are creating more valuable information than they did in 2014. These statistics demonstrate not only the widespread adoption of this form of outreach, but the increased effort that a majority of organizations are putting into their content marketing plans. The fact that 69 percent of nonprofits have a staff member specifically in charge of content marketing also underscores the importance of the field in general for nonprofits.
Gaining popularity in many forms
Nonprofit news and advice website npENGAGE said one of the major reasons why content marketing has raised its profile in recent years is the attitude of the general public. Although it may sound trite, npENGAGE pointed out that the current era is best described as the "information age," where donors have drastically increased their ability to access information as compared to a generation ago. Not only do people have the tools in place to find much of the world's accumulated knowledge through the Internet, they've also had years or even decades of experience learning how to search for that information.
For nonprofits, content marketing will only continue to grow in importance as potential contributors seek out information about organizations that pique their interest. An increased emphasis on such efforts will pay off for the majority of charitable organizations.
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