Thinking in Campaigns: Adapting a Non-Profit Strategy to Your Business

For most businesses, content marketing has historically taken a backseat to other considerations. While recent numbers demonstrate that more businesses are realizing the importance of content marketing, some are still getting used to the idea.

Non-profits, on the other hand, have always been reliant on content marketing, though it might not have always gone under that name. When your organization is built around trying to inspire people to care about causes that don’t directly affect them, you have to constantly consider how you’re going to recruit and reach your supporters next.

For the past two months, I have been working with SOS Children’s Villages – USA, a non-profit that works to create stable, loving families worldwide for orphaned and abandoned children. In that time, I have been amazed daily by the time, energy and creativity that the marketing team puts into their plans. I have also learned that one of the most important aspects of non-profit content marketing is the campaign. There are large campaigns and small campaigns, but behind every SOS Facebook post, every newsletter story, every Tweet and every article, there’s a purpose and a theme.

SOS works to build campaigns and themes around what matters to their supporters and to the people they help. Holidays like Christmas, Holi, Chinese New Year, Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day are all used to share stories, photos and content that show what the organization is working toward. Campaigns rise in response to natural disasters and regional conflict. Months have themes that focus on certain causes or countries. Every day is accounted for, from World Religions Day to National Women’s Day and the first day of spring.

Campaigns are wonderful vehicles for non-profit content. They tie your content together and lend themselves well to creativity.

They’re also wonderful tools for businesses.

Now, obviously, your business won’t be able to do every campaign that a non-profit can do. Your business can, however, begin thinking about what works for your product and client base. Think about what you can share on Facebook to mark special days, or days related to your industry. Think of what stories you can gather together and what they have in common. Think about what you want your customers to know about your company this month, and emphasize that through emails, social media and infographics. Designate different days of the week for different engagement strategies. Most importantly, once you’ve dived in, strive to always have something running and the next move planned.

There are countless ways to generate content and get it out there, regardless of your industry. Take the time to think about what sort of campaigns and themes make sense for you. With a dedicated, consistent strategy, your content marketing can be engaging and productive.

Sarah Hamilton  – SEO Writer / Editor