Content Marketing for Social Impact: What Does It Mean for My Organization?

If you work in public or behavioral health, or the social impact space, as we like to say at KidGlov, chances are you wear many hats. If marketing is even a small part of your role, you’ve likely heard the buzz about “content marketing” and how it’s essential for staying relevant.

Great, yet another thing on your to do list: figure out how to become a content marketer. But what does content marketing mean for the social impact space, and what does it actually look like?

Simply put, content marketing is about creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to reach your audience. In the social impact world, it’s less about profit and more about educating the public, raising awareness, and driving action on critical issues. Achieving this takes time and consistency—and that’s where content marketing comes in.

By creating a thoughtful content marketing strategy, you can ensure your message resonates and inspires action, all while staying organized amidst your many roles. Here’s how to create a quick content marketing plan to guide your efforts while getting back to those 10 other hats you’re wearing:

Outline All the Known Topics for the Year

You’ll definitely need to update your content list throughout the year but starting with what you already know needs to be covered will help you prepare in advance. This makes it easier to adjust as needed later.

For example, do you need to make the public aware of cold and flu season by a certain date? Is your state making a big push for overdose awareness this year and you need to market that message at least once per month? Should you consider key months like suicide awareness month and schedule some mental health content around that time? These are all questions worth asking.

Make a Plan for Communicating

For each topic, list how you’ll raise public awareness and provide valuable information. A few ideas include creating some social media posts (pro tip: make sure to run social ads—only 2-3% of your audience sees organic posts), making a handout for local community centers, planning and promoting an online training session, or even using search engine ads (another pro tip: search ads are an ideal way to reach a large audience when they’re searching for pertinent topics like “overdose” or “vaccine”).

Aim for at least three communication tactics per topic. While seven tactics are ideal—marketing 101 says people need to see a message seven times to act—three is a realistic starting point with all the things on your plate.

Here’s an example, let’s say you need to make the public aware that it’s flu season and want to share some tips to stay healthy. You might:

1. Run an ad on social media
2. Create posters for local health centers
3. Run a paid search engine campaign to reach anyone searching for “cold” or “flu” or “vaccines” in your area
4. Film a video on your phone of a local doctor giving some flu advice and share that on your website
5. Advertise that video via paid digital advertising using an in-house or external marketing partner with digital expertise

When you’ve accomplished all five in the same location to the same audience (i.e. you’ve run all your ads in the same counties), you’ve just completed your first content marketing campaign. Congratulations!

Keep Track of Your Activity

No matter where you’re sharing a message, you’re likely funded by a grant or another source and will need to share data. Keep this in mind as you run your tactics. Save analytics from your social accounts, digital advertising dashboards, and website. For more detailed information on this, I wrote a blog about using website analytics for grant reporting that you can find it here.

Be Flexible

Again, the odds of topics and/or tactics changing throughout the year in your plan is about 100% in the social impact space. Stay flexible—add or remove as needed—but ensure your resources align with the content marketing plan. Keep in mind if you have enough staff or agency support to pivot and how changes will affect your funding, too.

Congratulations! If you’ve followed these steps, you are well on your way to accomplishing content marketing in your social impact organization. It really is that easy—and that hard. Remember, if you need an expert to take over, KidGlov is always here to help.

KidGlov is a full-service advertising, branding, and content marketing agency with B Corp and National Women’s Business Enterprise certifications. It is located in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, and specializes in nonprofit marketing, healthcare marketing, financial services marketing, social impact marketing, and purpose-driven businesses.