Why to start your nonprofit’s blog today
I talk to a lot of nonprofits considering starting a blog, or even considering for several years now. But the smart small businesses and nonprofits use their blogs regularly for many reasons, and not just the ones you may expect. There are definite benefits to getting started with your blog sooner rather than later, and this post will explain why!
Do we really need a blog?
What you can use your nonprofit blog for:
There’s a perception of blogs that they are full of recipes and unrelated to the real work of the business. If recipes are your thing, knock yourself out! But a blog doesn’t just mean vacation memories and a diary posts. What is a blog at it’s simplest?
A blog is simply an organized way of posting updates to your website.
Here’s the thing: It doesn’t even need to be called a blog! I’ve ‘renamed’ blogs as “News”, “Updates”, “Articles”, “Midweek Connection” “Meeting Minutes”... whatever makes sense to your situation. If you feel like the word “Blog” will convey the wrong message to your audience, change it to what makes sense for you! The features will still be the same, and so will the benefits!
How a blog could help your nonprofit
Informs readers of what you do and how they can join
Perhaps the most obvious reason to start a blog is to help your readers understand more about you! Many readers may find you from a rabbit trail, and seeing your updates and happenings can really help your readers know if they are a good fit for what you offer, or to join as a volunteer. Blog posts are a great way to get across some of the personality of your organization, and as we’ll talk about next, build trust.
Builds trust with your readers that they see the work you’re doing as ongoing and reliable
This is the whole reason you have a website - to show those who may be interesting that you are a vibrant, healthy, trustworthy organization to be a part of! When they see you show up week after week, or monthly with your updates, they see you’re committed to the work you do. When they see events being updated regularly, they see somewhere they want to see succeed and continue to grow! Writing about the happenings of your group develops a reputation for you, perhaps even before they have seen you in person!
You have more control over your own website than your social media
It happens sometimes - especially in organizations. Someone who took care of the Facebook account loses the password, or worse, it gets hacked. When this happens, you can lose connection with all of your followers instantly - not a good thing to have happen! Prevent this by using your website as your home base, that won’t be affected by algorithm changes or app updates. This is one reason why I recommend building a strong email list too. Which brings us to...
Use your blog to build your email list
Whenever you can collect email addresses for your members and those interested, DO! And don’t just let them sit in a folder somewhere, type them in, and use them to update your members with what is going on.
Consider this:
When looking at the frequency with which consumers would like to receive brand emails, 49% (Statista, 2017) of consumers said that they would like to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis. This email marketing statistic is especially handy when you’re worrying about sending emails to your customers too often. Your audience likes to hear from you, and apparently, they’re happy to hear from you via email.
If you’ve been thinking your clients “can’t handle another email in their inbox”, think again. This statistic claims over half of them enjoy it! If they sign up, they want it - so stay connected!
Works as a content source for newsletters, social media, etc
One of the easiest ways to use a blog to your benefit is by using it as a ‘home base’ article that you can use to repost as additional content. Once you’ve written your blog post, don’t just let it sit to collect dust on your website. Use it to create “micro-content” - additional items that can be used in your other methods of communication.
Have a newsletter? Set up your email campaign to automatically send your new blog posts to subscribers each week.
Have a Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account? Make a post talking about the blog post topic with a relevant image, and add it so followers can find the post that way. And, the terrific news is, once you’ve really gotten into a consistent schedule, you can start recycling older blog posts and reintroducing them to readers who may have missed them the first time around. That’s time saving!
Serves as a great archive, and can be organized
Setting up your blog with the correct categories and tags means that you’ll be able to organize and display your posts as they accumulate. Want a page only featuring all of your Meeting Minutes? Want all of your posts with testimonials featured in one place? Want your posts organized by year, or month? These things are easy to accomplish, and make it more likely for your readers to dig more and learn more about you.
Updating your website frequently boosts it with Google SEO
Did you know that keeping your site active makes the Google Robots like you? When Google sees your site is current and consistently using the same ‘keywords’ (words that others will be using to search on Google), Google will prioritize your site over another! Frequently updating your blog is one way to do this, and Squarespace is built to help make this easy for Google to read. Using words that your ideal members are already using to search in the headings and text of the blog post, in the post URL (check out the URL of this post and you’ll see what I mean), as well as by tagging your location in the blog post all help to push you closer to the top of Google. Want to learn more about blogging in Squarespace? Check out my Squarespace 7.1 Blog Post Checklist that walks you through the steps one by one.
Now that you’ve read through the benefits, are you convinced? Send me an email with your questions and I’ll gladly chat with you about how an intentional blog and website can help your organization feel empowered and excited about your digital communication again!
Ready to brainstorm?
If you’re ready to get specific about your nonprofit website, you can download your free fillable PDF of this blog post to help you brainstorm with your board or by yourself first.
Once you’ve filled it out, if you want to run it past someone, get in touch with me! I offer free Consultation Calls to all prospective clients to help them streamline their goals, needs and projects. Then you can present it to your board confidently and get your project underway, organized and completed in no time!
I look forward to hearing all about your organization!
