Every SEO and content marketing expert will tell you, it is the quality of a blog that makes it worthy of a search result position. Nonetheless, quality is determined by its value to and ability to supply the demand of users. Therefore, nonprofit blogging works when it speaks to the needs of their audience.
What is the 80/20 Rule? Without going into a long-winded history lesson, the 80/20 rules is a concept to identify the vital few. For example, Professor G. William Domhoff, Sociology Dept at the University of California at Santa Cruz, reports that top 20 percent of the population controls 85 percent of the America's wealth. So, the 80/20 rule is basically the roughly 20 percent of a group responsible for approximately 80 percent of something. In business, you can expect that around 20 percent of customers are responsible for 80 percent of sales.
For the purpose of this article, we are going to talk about individual contributors, but the strategies can also be applied to consumers of nonprofit services. If you examine your top 20 percent of individual contributors, it is likely they represent 80 percent of your individual donations. It is from this vital few you will develop your blogging strategy. Follow these steps for nonprofit blogging success.
Step 1: Develop multiple "buyer personas". - A buyer persona is a fictional character created from what you know about your nonprofit's individual contributors. It is not simply demographics, but developing a person you can ask questions. What are their interests and hobbies? How do they spend their evening? What social issues concern them most? From this, you can craft blogs that are more personalized.
Step 2: Create blogs targeting every stage of a contributor's life-cycle. - Successful blogging supplies a demand. However, contributor's at different stages of their life-cycle have different needs. Therefore, craft blogging content for each stage of a contributor's life-cycle.
- Target - Those individuals who may not know about your nonprofit organization, but match one of your personas.
- Prospect - Those who those have yet to make a donation or are in the decision-making process.
- Contributor - The persons who have made a donation and require ongoing relationship management.
- Advocate - A contributor who enthusiastically and publicly supports your organization and particular cause.
Step 3: Limit blatant marketing to 20 percent. - Buffer reports the average user is exposed to 10,000 branded messages every day. The simple fact is, no matter how worthy the cause, people will become numb to continuous fundraising efforts. Successful blogs are informative, useful, or entertaining. For example, if you provide children services, consider adding blog categories for fun local events, reviewing children's products, or giving parenting tips. This will help create and build an audience for your fundraising efforts.
Step 4: Review and use analytics data. - Crafting the perfect blog is both an art and a science. Evaluate what is working and what is not. Moreover, what was once effective can become a negative. The Content Marketing Institute reports "as much as 60 to 70% of content goes unused." If you are not receiving click-throughs, social shares, "likes," or responses to your call-to-action, then you must make changes.
What haven't we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk about using the 80/20 rule for nonprofit blogging, or need more information, please contact us.
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