A recent study by the Content Marketing Institute that surveyed more than 1,000 nonprofit marketers worldwide, shows that nonprofits are facing some of the same windfalls and challenges as their Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumers (B2C) counterparts. Many have cited bullish attitudes over the effectiveness of their campaigns – especially with the use of social media, but many nonprofit marketers are still facing issues with budget.
Overall, results from the study found that non-profits marketers believe their campaigns are effective – 35% this year over 26% last year cited success. Mirroring the B2B’s and B2C’s, nonprofits are also trying to implement more social media and better storytelling into their marketing programs. As such, nonprofits are more using approximately five social media platforms from Instagram to Facebook. While Facebook scored the largest usage from nonprofits, Instagram had the most increased usage in 2015 over 2014. Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media channels, with approximately 70 million photos shared daily and 300 million active monthly users.
In addition, the study showed that nonprofits are using more micro-sites and info-graphics to promote their campaigns – finding them to be sound tactics.
One of the more surprising findings is that many nonprofits (similar to B2B’s and B2C’s) are NOT writing or documenting their strategic plans or results. The Institute found that only 23% said they had a documented strategy and more than 40% said they only have a verbal marketing plan. Those who had a documented or written plan, cited their campaign results were more effective and they could more easily track return of investment or ROI in contrast to their colleagues with verbal strategies.
In terms of budgets, nonprofits are still fighting for more capital – but not as much. The Institute cites that the proportion of nonprofits citing budget as a challenge has dropped this year to 56% from 67-percent. This is a good sign, since the study also reported that 69% of the non-profits said they are producing more content this year than ever (12 initiatives in 2015 per year over 11 in 2014). As Google’s SEO algorithm shifts toward a focus on quality, the future of content marketing for nonprofit companies looks very bright.
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