NPA 055: Practical Content Marketing for Nonprofits

In this episode I talk with Robert McGuire about how to use content marketing for your nonprofit. Robert is the owner of McGuire Editorial where he provides content marketing strategies for nonprofits and businesses.

So, here is the cool thing. Prior to recording the podcast I talked with Robert about my desire to make the information we present as practical as possible. And boy did Robert deliver! Not only is the follow post completely written by Robert (with a great example of how nonprofits can use content marketing) there is also a FREE download.

Here is a very hands-on email Robert sent to me about Nonprofit Content Marketing:

I just now Googled the term “services for disabled children” and the name of my state. After links to state government agencies. national organizations with directories, and for-profit providers, the first actual nonprofit service provider — on page two of the Google search results — is the page for the local chapter of a national organization we would all recognize the name of.

Going down the navigation menu of their site, we see versions of “What we do, what we need, how hard we work, why our work matters, the people who support us, how you can support us, success stories about our clients and news about us.”

All necessary. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. But here are some of the questions not answered anywhere on this site:

• I’m a department manager of a small team, and one of my direct reports just told me her child was diagnosed with a severe disability. How can we support her? What are my obligations for her schedule? What are the family leave regulations I should be aware of?
• My disabled child is being teased at school. How do I open a productive dialogue with the principal?
• My oldest child is struggling with the attention our family has to give to her disabled brother. Where can we get family counseling?
• My brother and his wife need a break. How can I organize some respite time for them?
• I’m a new policy director at city hall, and I keep hearing how services for disabled students are a growing share of education budgets. What’s the best source of data on that?
• I own a fast food franchise, and the director of the group home down the street asked for a meeting about employing some of his residents. I want to be supportive, but how would I have to manage my business differently?

In other words, this direct service provider does have a wealth of insight and expertise that is valuable to somebody in their community. And all of those people mentioned — the manager, the parent, the extended family member, the government employee, the small business owner — are people that a nonprofit agency would want to reach for one reason or another. Content that answers questions like those above is a way to start engaging them so that they are more receptive later to the “How you can help” conversation.

As I discuss in this definition of content marketing, it is a “plan to grow and engage your customer base that is built around discovering what you can do for someone else, developing and delivering related content, and then measuring the results”.

Hope that illustrates the idea.

Thank you Robert for the great example of how to use content marketing.

RESOURCES

Robert’s Website: mcguireeditorial.com

Robert’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robertwmcguire

Robert’s Twitter: twitter.com/robertwmcguire

Nonprofit Marketing Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Nonprofits

And of course the FREE download: