Connecting with Planned Giving Donors and Prospects: Content Strategy

Our partners at HubSpot, a Cambridge-based inbound marketing firm, regularly publish remarkable content on their blog at http://blog.hubspot.com.

Recently, they published "How Your Nonprofit Should Be Using Content to Emphasize Donor Impact," which provides some insight into using content to support the non-profit/donor experience instead of the more-often covered company/customer experience. The following are some of my favorite elements mentioned, but you should absolutely read the post yourself. 

• Storytelling.  While both non-profit organizations and for-profit firms use storytelling to encourage their audiences to open their wallets, the goal of your stories should focus on impact, solutions, and results (as opposed to the more traditional exploring the nature of a problem a prospect might have and demonstrating that what you’re selling can solve that problem).
   
• Blogging. Many non-profits have started to blog and build upon this foundation of social media.  It’s a tremendous opportunity to publish timely and relevant information, as well as share stories from time to time about the impact of your organization, an individual that you served, or perhaps a donor story that describes a charitable gift annuity or other gift type in easy-to-understand, peer-to-peer terms.
   
• Message Delivery. The blog post explores how video is a top-notch delivery platform. First, this method enables a personal connection to the viewer and the content, in a way that is fresher than other media.  Second, its "share-ability" score is very high. A well thought out video will be shared in any number of ways, and not just if it’s hilarious. It will be shared if it has emotional appeal. As described in the post, don’t hesitate to appeal to your volunteers or existing staff to help spread your message in this manner.
   
• Nurturing. Firms are always trying to sell to existing clients and penetrate existing accounts even further with more products or services. One way firms do that is with nurturing/cultivation programs. This post explores a fantastic example of a non-profit adoption of that strategy by describing a nurturing program that begins as soon a donor has provided a gift to your organization. The author reminds us that: “The longer someone is engaged with your organization, the higher their contributions become and the deeper their connection is to your mission.” Sounds like something a planned gift marketer might say. : )

  Thank you to Taylor Carrado for a great blog post on non-profit inbound strategy.