How to get the most from nonprofit blogs: Advice from the Storytelling Nonprofit

With most nonprofit teams strapped for time, it can be challenging to prioritize blogging and content creation. But when organizations start a blog and write consistently, it makes a big difference in site traffic and email list growth, not to mention awareness around the nonprofit's work and goals.

We sat down with Vanessa Chase Lockshin, President of The Storytelling Nonprofit, for a conversation on getting started with nonprofit blogs and how to make sure time is spent wisely to get the best results. Lockshin has been a consultant to nonprofits for the last six years and works with organizations from the US and Canada in healthcare, education, and other areas, helping them tell their story in meaningful ways.

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What are some of the benefits of blogging for nonprofits?

I think more generally, content creation is a good idea for organizations. Blogging is a type of content that organizations can produce. I think in this day and age where organizations are trying to more smartly market themselves, connect with donors, connect with other types of audience members, content is one of the things that help them do that more effectively.

Going back to blogging more specifically, one of the things I tell my clients and students is that you don't want to build your online strategy on the back of someone else's platform. For example, various social media platforms — you never know how they're going to change algorithms, change your ability to reach people. Having your own platform instead can be so beneficial because you maintain some level of control over how that happens. Specifically, I think it helps organizations build trust, expertise, have an opinion and help share that opinion, and more technically can also help organizations with search engine optimization and things like that.

What suggestions do you have for a nonprofit that's just starting to blog and create content?

First and foremost, I always encourage organizations to have a really clear goal about what it is they're doing and why they're doing it. Don't just start creating content for the sake of creating content. Think about what is that goal that you have for doing this particular activity and just be really clear about that. Think about what audiences you're trying to reach through that goal. Is it a donor audience, is it building up an awareness network audience, is it reaching new clients or program participants? Being clear on those things will help you be clear on the third thing, which is to think about what kind of content you want to share on your blog. I tell people to think about adding value — making content that's useful, interesting for that target audience that you want to reach. And being able to write things or share things that they really want to read, that will bring them to your website, that will get them to click through and read the full article that you may have written. To do that is something that's a really great focus.

Another point when you're getting started on blogging is to focus on content distribution as much as you focus on content creation. I think it's really common for organizations to get into writing writing writing, creating graphics, all these things that go with content creation. Part of the magic that makes it work well is distributing that content in a really strategic way so you get more people coming back to your website. So spend as much time thinking about how you're going to promote that blog post as you do creating it.

What are some goals that nonprofits can reach through blogging and content creation?

One that immediately comes to mind is just building a general audience. If your organization has a goal of increasing your thought leadership, increasing your expertise and being recognized as a subject matter expert, this is one of the things that help you move toward that goal. I think it also has the ability to help organizations build an email list. If you're interested in building and growing your email list, having a blog is one way to get users to sign up for your email list.

How can nonprofit bloggers think of new ideas when they're stuck?

I find a lot of people will be really good writing for a while, when they start out, and have lots of ideas, especially if it's a new project. And at some point everyone, myself included, will hit a wall where you say, what do I write about next? What else do I tell people? It can be hard to come up with ideas when you're in this work. You might say, how many more ways can I talk about this thing that we do? But there are a lot of ways to talk about what you do. Sometimes it's just about getting creative, doing a little research and thinking about what is it that your audience wants to hear from your organization.

There are a couple of tools that I would recommend for idea generation that I use to get unstuck from writer's block. One tool that I rely on quite a bit is doing an audience survey. This can be through your blog, your website, your newsletter, or social media channels. What is that people are interested in with regards to your organization? What do they want to read, what do they care about? Asking them questions about what they care about can help you figure out what kind of content to create that they'll want to read and engage with. I think that's often a good way to start. Even if you don't want to run a survey, just thinking about other ways that you can practically talk to and listen to your audiences offline and online is a great starting place.

You can check out your Google Analytics page or if there are other analytics platforms that you use. This can tell you what kind of things are bringing people to your website. What search terms are they looking at, what content are they reading, what is most read on your website? What else is under this umbrella that we can write about? How can we expand on this one post that people seem to really enjoy?

One more resource I'll share is a website called AnswerThePublic.com. It aggregates search terms and things that people search for. I like it better than Google keyword planner because if your organization works on something like Alzheimer's, you can type in the word Alzheimer's and it'll give you common sentences and questions that people search for when they search that word. It will give you the common questions people are asking, and you can think about ways that your organization and maybe your expertise can be of service to others.

You touched earlier on the importance of sharing your blog posts after writing them. What suggestions do you have for blog distribution?

Number one is to think about going where your audience is. It's a basic piece of advice but one that's often overlooked by organizations. Where does your audience spend time? Where do you have the biggest reach, the most engagement? Focus your time and energy on that. Often I see organizations doing strategy where they do too much on platforms where they don't already have an audience and they aren't getting the kind of engagement that they're getting on other platforms. And while there's something to be said for spending the time building an audience, I encourage people to think about, where are you getting 80% of your success from 20% of the effort that you're putting in? And focusing on those things can be really helpful.

The other thing I would suggest is building your email list as a content distribution channel. I still maintain that email is one of the best direct response mechanisms that we have in the online communication space. It's a great way to connect directly with someone. You get in their inbox, they click on something, and you can communicate with them directly. It's a really great tool for driving traffic to your website in a group of people that's already demonstrated some amount of interest in what you have to say.

What are some of the most common mistakes nonprofits make in this process of content creation and blogging?

I think the biggest one is not having a clear goal and measuring progress towards that goal. I think it's really easy to get stuck in this trap where we need to keep creating content. Not enough people pause and say what's working in this situation for us? What's really going well and how can we make sure we're continuing to focus on the things that are successful in this scenario? Having clear goals, and measuring your progress toward these goals, is so important. I recommend my clients and students to do a monthly review process for content, where they can take a look at metrics and analytics they have and think about what goals do they have for this month and what goals do they have for the year.

The other thing I see people run into is not being consistent. And this is a really hard thing I think for a lot of organizations. Especially if you don't have a designated communications person and there are a lot of people supporting this role, it can be really hard to get some consistency. And I think one of the keys I think to really being able to do thought leadership well is having some amount of consistency. Figuring out a plan to be consistent and maintain that is really important. Even for someone who is in a designated communications role, it can be hard to keep up with all the things you have on your to-do list. Block off designated amounts of time to work on your blog or social media posts so you can really prioritize getting those things done.

The last thing I see people running into is really spreading themselves too thin. So think, what is the 20% of the things you're doing that's giving you 80% of your results? Then just letting the things that aren't working well for you go. Then that'll give you more time and availability to doing the things that are working for you exceptionally well.

Any final thoughts for nonprofits creating content?

There's so many kinds of content that organizations can share. I'm certainly biased towards story-based content because I think it can be such a great way for organizations to engage audiences and I think a really tangible way for organizations to talk about the things that they do. So much of the work in the healthcare space can get jargon-y and definitely in the weeds of some of the things that you're working on. Sometimes by sharing a story about a person you helped or a project that you're working on, you can keep it high level enough that people can relate to it, and help people engage with it more effectively.

If you're looking for more ways to engage your audience with fresh content, consider joining Antidote's Connect Network. Our partners use our clinical trial matching tool to connect their audiences with research opportunities. We also work with our partners to create communications plans and ongoing content around clinical research. Get in touch to learn more.

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