Nonprofit marketers are increasingly using content, although effectiveness increases when certain factors are present (i.e., a documented content marketing strategy, frequent content marketing team meetings and organizational clarity on what content marketing success looks like). The biggest influencer, however, is content marketing maturity level.

According to findings from the Nonprofit Content Marketing 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America (http://contentmarketinginstitute.com), there are steps you can take to improve your organization’s content marketing.

1. Document your content marketing strategy. After all, if the strategy is not documented, how can you effectively share and communicate it with others on your team and in your organization? This is a critical differentiator among those who report their content marketing is effective and those who rate theirs as less effective.
2. Understand how maturity affects your content marketing strategy’s effectiveness, and give it time. You cannot transform your content marketing overnight. What resources (people, budget, etc.) are available? Develop a realistic timeline to create, document and implement your content marketing strategy.
3. Schedule time to communicate. While many find meetings annoying and a waste of time, engaging with your content marketing team face-to-face does make a difference. Use these encounters to identify content gaps or areas of unnecessary duplication, discuss tactical execution, better understand what is working and what isn’t, make adjustments and ensure everybody is on the same page.
4. Have an editorial or content marketing mission statement that clearly defines who your audience is and how your content will help it. Spell out whom you are helping, how you are helping them and what the desired outcomes are and will be. Make this the foundation for everyone in your organization who creates content.
5. Clarify what success or effectiveness looks like in your organization. Incorporate measurable benchmark goals for specific tactics as well as the overall strategy.