Content Marketing - - - - - Meeting the needs of your donors Simply put, content marketing is any marketing strategy that uses the creation or sharing of content-based media to attract its target audience. When you are giving people content that piques their interests and fuels their curiosity, they will keep coming back to you for more. This creates loyalty and community among your existing supporters, and attracts new people to your nonprofit. Done purposefully, content marketing can form the backbone of your online presence. It turns businesses into storytellers and donors into listeners and followers. Visual content allows you to control the emotional experience. Images ignite the imagination and set the stage for story telling. Your site’s images can cause your site visitors to feel emotionally invested. Your images can turn that into donations that are emotionally motivated. Infographics great to show results and wont be a wall of text. If you’re running a campaign, then maybe you should consider adding a small infographic to your donation page to help your potential donors visualize the impact of their donation. 68% of consumers prefer to learn through short videos. Video production costs have gone down thanks to tech innovation, and the potential for repurposing video content is astounding. What should you make videos about? - Explain your organization’s cause and motivations - Show the need behind a certain fundraising campaign - Capture success stories on video - Create images an app like Canva; don’t just link dump. - In brief, they claim that: Impact = C × (R + E + A + T + E) AKA, Contrast times Reach plus Exposure plus Articulation plus Trust plus Echo gives you, Ta Da! Impact - - Contrast: your content needs to stand out. Exposure: how often people hear from you ? once a month ? once a week ? you don’t want to spam them. Articulation: people should be able to understand what you are trying to say quickly and easily Develop a content strategy Now, in order to know whether what you’re doing is worth the time and effort, you’ve got to do some evaluations. Facebook (bite sized bits of content and to link to other sources), Twitter (share updates, observations and fun finds), Youtube, Instagram (snippets, events), email news letters (important events, news, in more detailed than social media) No single metric is going to give you the magic answer of how successful your content marketing has been. Instead, you need to look at a couple of key factors. Convince and Convertgives us four to watch out for: - 1. Consumption Metrics - How many page views or downloads did you get? How many people saw your content? You can pull this easily from Google Analytics, YouTube Insights, or the like. Some people never look past this number, but it is not enough in and of itself. - 2. Sharing Metrics - You know the drill – tweets, likes, Linkedin shares, Google + shares, Reddit upvotes, et cetera. These are often the “sexiest” because they are public. You can boost this metric significantly by making all your content easily shareable with linked social media icons so that all a viewer needs to do is click. - 3. Lead Generation Metrics - This is where you start figuring out if you’re getting the bang for your buck. How many people who consumed your content actually completed the action item you asked for? This will also help you determine which content is the most effective. - 4. Donation Metrics - You want to know which pieces of content someone consumed before actually making a donation. Then determine a projected amount this user will donate (lifetime value). Divide that up between content and you should know where the money’s coming from. The following are not considered off-campus fundraising, and are therefore permitted anytime: Charging admission for attendees at on-campus events run by your group. Selling of merchandise on campus including t-shirts, baked goods, water bottles, etc. The following forms of off-campus fundraising are allowable at any time: Soliciting event sponsorships from local small businesses up to $1000 per business Soliciting donations of goods or services in kind from local businesses provided that each item is valued at less than $1000. Note: Tax-deductible receipts from the University will not be provided for these activities. Solicitation of family, friends, and alumni (via direct mail and phone calls) Recognized Student Organizations may solicit donations from family, friends, and alumni under the following criteria: Your organization must possess an internal list of contacts. Duke University will not provide a list or database of alumni, friends or family. You may not solicit donations exceeding $1000 from each recipient Your letter must say that gifts to your student organization are not tax deductible You must request in writing to UCAE permission to solicit for amounts in excess of $1000. Please include the following in your request: o Stated purpose for solicitation o Copy of direct mail piece (if applicable) o List of recipients Notes: You must clearly indicate that your solicitation is from the student organization, not from Duke University. There may be limitations on which alumni targeted donors may be approached. Tax-deductible receipts from the University will not be provided for these activities. Solicitation of sponsorships Student organizations may advertise a sponsorship program; however, sponsorship programs cannot be exclusive to corporations and must be open to companies and individuals. The following criteria apply to all sponsorship programs: You may not solicit donations exceeding $1000 from each recipient (business or individual). You may not offer logos or links to the sponsor's website from your organization's website in exchange for a sponsorship; however, you may list the name of the company or individual on your organization's website. Any benefit that includes the opportunity for a company to host an educational visit (workshop, panel, etc.) must be exclusive to your organization and must align with your organization's mission. These educational visits cannot be open to the wider student body unless your organization has prior approval from UCAE. Duke has exclusive contracts with a number of national corporations. You must consult with UCAE in advance of soliciting national corporations. Sponsorships with these corporations will be considered on a case-by-case basis. You may not solicit grants from corporate, family or private foundations. Note: Gifts to student organizations are not tax-deductible; therefore, tax-deductible receipts from the University will not be provided for these activities. The following forms of off-campus fundraising require prior approval from UCAE and Student Affairs Development: Soliciting corporate donations exceeding $1000. Soliciting donations of services in kind where items are valued over $1000 each, with the exception of food catering at events. Soliciting donations from individual family members or friends exceeding $1000 Soliciting donations from alumni exceeding $1000 Note: There may be limitations in the way in which approved alumni targeted donors may be approached. The following forms of fundraising are not allowed at any time: Soliciting corporate, community and family foundations or grants. Signing contracts that include ongoing funding agreements on behalf of Duke or a Dukesponsored student organization. Using any online platform on behalf of a recognized student organization or on the Duke University server as a means for online donations or online sales. This is against Duke’s ecommerce policy. Some examples are Paypal, Venmo, Square, Kickstarter, GoFundMe, etc. Be targeted toward individuals and corporations related to the group or activity Have a specific and reasonable timeline Include a contingency plan, should efforts not be as successful as expected
