Content Creation: The Ultimate “How To” Guide

Content Creation: The Ultimate “How To” Guide Katharine Coles Use Twitter Hashtag #npweb Special Thanks To Our Sponsors

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Today’s Speaker Katharine Coles CEO and Founder, Mad Marketeer Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership Assisting with chat questions: April Hunt, Nonprofit Webinars

Content Creation:The Ultimate “How To” Guide presented by MAD MARKETEER Corporate Quality at Nonprofit Prices Katharine Coles Katharine@MadMarketeer.com 310-947-8511

What’s Your Story? Good content isn’t easy! This set of questions will help you through the process of testing and validating your idea and building an effective Go-to-Market strategy. Who is your target donor/user? What is the user experience you plan to offer? Does the donor care? Why? What is your differentiated value proposition to the donor/user? Which market? Which segment? What demographic? What psychographic? How big is the market? Is it big enough? How do you expand, if not? Do you need to expand, or is staying within the niche desirable? What is the usage model? Can you actually fund what needs to be funded? How does the donor/user currently accomplish the objective? What other organizations are in the same space and how do you position against them? What is the business model? Donations? Members? Sponsors? How do you build traffic? What (FREE if possible) incentive can you offer to bring users en-masse to your site? What premium offer can you make that donors/users would want to pay for? How much would they pay? © 2005 - 2010 Sramana Mitra

What’s Your Story? (cont’d)What is your context strategy?What is your content strategy?What is your commerce strategy?What is your community strategy?What is your search strategy?What is your personalization strategy?Are you going to advertise online to recruit donors/volunteers? Google/Yahoo! PPC? On blogs andother sites? Which sites?What are your search engine marketing/search engine optimization strategies? What keywords are youtrying to own/position around? How expensive are they?For your category, what are the most influential blogs? How will you get them to talk about you?What are the top mainstream media properties that you need to get written up in?Whom do you need to partner with to offer a full solution/whole product?Whom do you partner with to generate traffic? Under what terms?Do you have a widget strategy for Facebook, iPhone, Hi5, MySpace, etc. to generate traffic andvisibility?

Content and Messaging

Challenge Question Do you always think in terms of your visitors and people that don’t know you?

The Messaging Elements:Used in Website, Print, Social Media, etc. UNDERSTAND: •Mission/Purpose •Differentiators/THE Message DEVELOP: •Menu •Tagline •Hook Statement •Content for Conversions

Create a CLEAR mission statementAn effective mission statement should include:• What you do• Who you do it for• How you do it• Your values

Mission Statement Before Strengthening Communities Through Strong and Healthy Families. What do they do? For whom? How? Values?

Mission Statement After Helping victims of sexual abuse, ages three through adult, and their families to heal by treating the “whole person” and addressing the comprehensive needs of the individual and the family with individual, group, and family psychological and emotional therapy. We believe that healing is more effective and complete when addressing the abuse related issues of the entire family unit.

Differentiator/ THE Message“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus ofsimilar organizations, employingsimilar people, with similar educationalbackgrounds, coming up with similarideas, producing similar things, withsimilar prices and similar quality.”Kjell Nordstrom and Jonas Ridderstrale,Funky Business

“ WHY DOES IT MATTER TO THE DONOR?”

“EXACTLY HOW DO I PASSIONATELY CONVEY THATDIFFERENCE TO THE CLIENT ”

Create Your Menu

TaglineTagline (a sub-line usually used with your logo): WHAT you do.

Taglines: Are YOU the Salvation Army?

Create a tagline that tells a completestory - BEFOREOrganization Tagline BEFOREMid-Coast Family Services Changing lives every dayNorthwest Infant Survival & In the belief that every child should live SIDS Alliance

AFTEROrganization Tagline BEFORE Tagline AFTERMid-Coast Family Changing lives every Helping youth, adults &Services day families eliminate family violence, homelessness & substance abuseNorthwest Infant In the belief that Supporting families & Survival & every child promoting safe sleep SIDS Alliance should live

Taglines: Use crisp, concisecommunications

Tagline

Challenge Question The tagline game ASK: What does your organization do?

Hook Statement Hook Statement (a “welcome” block of information): WHAT/HOW you do it, WHO you do it for and WHY someone should care.

Hook Statement must be obvious

Talk about what you can do for yourconstituents, not about your mission

Communicate emotion Cedar House is dedicated to improving the lives of those suffering from chemical dependency by providing evidence-based, high quality therapeutic clinical treatment services, while educating and engaging the community through open communication and outreach activities.

Your “Hook” Statement:Is this effective?If your child is critically ill or injured, will the healthcare providers make the right decision? It is frightening, buttrue, that not all children have access to the same quality of care. It appears that where a child lives has an important impact on whether the child can survive a serious illness or injury. We want to create a system inwhich patients of all ages, and in all communities, receivewell-planned and coordinated emergency and critical care services. Every baby, every child, needs the most appropriate care, at the optimal location, with the minimum delay. That is our mission.

Keep it short & concise!When seconds count, emergency care providers, nurses and physicians should be up-to- date on the latest pediatric emergency care. TN EMSC provides on-going education and training so that the best care is given to every critically ill or injured child – no matter where they live.

Using photos/animation to reinforce Our Mission is to empower people with vision loss to maximize their independence.

Remember: Tell a Story Visitors are not interested in your mission, history, or boring facts. Talk about the wonderful things you do. Talk about how their money or time can help.

Do you want to read this?

Rule of Thumb: Keep your text short and useheadings, sub-headings, and bullet points. Most visitorsdo not read, they scan!

Format is important - 20 Second Test

Transparency: Don’t pretend you’resomething you’re not Photo by Keith Allison http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/2311062920/

Don’t hide the obvious (blogs orotherwise) Face controversial or sensitive topics head on when possible …. It rings true.

Using photos/animation to reinforce

Animated Gif 40

Flash 41

Create content so visitors can engage

Longer duration = greater success!

Sharing and Storing Your Content DropBox.com http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

Marketing Tip: What’s so great aboutcreating content? Leads by Indexed Web Pages Source: State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report - http://bit.ly/cVMpkn

POLL QuestionHow many of you know how manyindexed pages you currently havein your website?

Indexed pages help traffic & brandingwhen you keep showing up in results

B2C example

Marketing Tip: What’s so importantabout SEO and PPC content? It can impact “findability” Paid Search Results Natural Search Results

How to Find Your Google Page Rank(highly correlated with search results) Download Google Toolbar OR go to: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php ► Reflects Google’s view of the importance of web pages ► High correlations between page rank and search results

POLL QuestionHow many of you know what yourGoogle Page Rank is?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Internal actions to improve results:•Meta Keywords•Meta Descriptions•Keyword Density•URLs - http://www.artkidzinbizfoundation.org/Art-Contest-2010•Title Tags•Header Tags•Alt Tags•Intra Site Links•Sitemap•Footer Links

POLL QuestionHow many of you have your sitesearch optimized?

The Big Question? What terms will someone search on that does NOT know you exist?

The Next Big Question? How many other organizations are also using that term?

Search: Cure Autism (page #27)Google PageRank 4/10

Search Term: Abandoned pets, Los Angeles (#1spot) Google PageRank 1/10

Why you need content!

Paid Search or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Create an ad, then pay ONLY when someone clicks through on the ad - Relatively inexpensive - Practice ground for learning most effective keywords - Drives traffic to your site of people actively seeking information

Deliver on your promise

Goal: Finding Your Information

Site Flow Disruption

Would YOU trust this company?

Discontinuity: Phrase Matching

Marketing Tip: What’s go greatabout blogging? One of the most effective tactics

Blogging & Social Media Influence SEO Source: Data from over 1,500 small businesses - http://bit.ly/XDkQV

Blogging Attracts More Visitors Source: Data from over 1,500 small businesses - http://bit.ly/XDkQV

Marketing Tip: What’s so greatabout email marketing? Email delivers $42 for every $1 spent. (Source: The DMA, 2010) U.S. spending on email marketing increasing by compound annual rate of 11% until at least 2014. (Source: Forrester)

Communicate with constituents regularly

10 Content Ideas forBlogs, Email and Social MediaAnswer Customer Questions (Generate a list of questions)Aggregate Industry Information (Compile popular industry statistics,images, videos, etc. into one article … save them time!)Think Beyond Text (Publish video, audio interviews of industry experts,event photos, etc.)Seek Out Guest Authors (They get exposures and a link to their ownwebsite or blog!)Make Lists (how-to, best-of, etc.)Make ChartsThink Like an OpEd Writer (Take a stance… get controversialLook at Your Analytics (Write a post relevant to who is following you)Review Industry Books (Write or produce video reviews; identify segments)Break News (Summarize news announcements and relate to your industry)http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6023/10-Simple-Strategies-for-Business-Blog-Content.aspx#ixzz1ElRzEq6m

A few RULES for blogging & social media Don’t talk about your self because people don’t care What they want are insights, opinions, your unique perspective or voice. Talk or blog AS yourself, not about yourself. Grammar matters! (otherwise no one shares) Quality matters! (otherwise no one reads)

Top Elements for Online News Room PR contacts News releases Background information Product info/press kits Photographs Searchable archives Executive biographies Social media links (not page) Blog News coverage

Legal ContentWhat MUST be in email legal text: As all CAN-SPAM compliant emailers know, marketing emails need to include a physical address and an opt- out, both of which often end up in the legal text. The address (street or P.O. box) where your brand can receive actual, physical mail, makes it clear that youre not a scammer and gives subscribers one more contact point.

Legal ContentHandling offer disclaimers and exclusions: Details about special offers and sales -- "the fine print" -- often end up in the legal text at the bottom of messages as well. When deciding what makes sense to include in your legal text as opposed to in the email body, consider why subscribers need the info (i.e., rare situations or natural assumptions). Avoid asterisks at the end of a special offer

Legal ContentAvoiding (or dealing with) long legal text: Nothing is less visually appealing or effective than legal text that goes on forever. But what to do when you have lots of info to deliver? State "Exclusions apply" and include a "Get details>" link If you have to have long legal copy, find a way to keep it organized and scannable.

Thank You! Get Started Today. Sign up TODAY to receive a free 30 minute Marketing Assessment. We’ll discuss how you can increase online traffic and get more donations and volunteers by providing you with specific recommendations regarding your website content, search engine optimization, and social media. To also get free advice, receive marketing tips and ask your questions: www.MadMarketeer.com/Mailing List www.Facebook.com/MadMarketeer Interested in software or other marketing services that drive traffic, leads and revenue, contact us today! 310-947-8511 katharine@MadMarketeer.com

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Content Creation: The Ultimate “How To” Guide

by NonprofitWebinars.com on Feb 23, 2011

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Content Creation: The Ultimate “How To” Guide — Presentation Transcript