This book, by Kivi Leroux Miller is an amazing resource for anyone new to content marketing – or anyone looking for some fresh ideas. Despite the title: Content Marketing for Nonprofits, most of the information is applicable to for-profit businesses as well. The book is FULL of very practical suggestions for creating and curating content and for working with different platforms.

Content marketing is not new – and information about it has been around for a while – but Miller brings all the pieces together in a very readable, approachable book. Until I picked up this book in the summer, online marketing was something I didn’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole, despite knowing how important it is for an organization to have a great online presence. Now, I feel ready to jump in the deep end.

The book itself is divided into five sections:

1. Why content marketing?
2. Developing a strategy,
3. Creating a content plan,
4. Implementing the strategy, and
5. Using the right tools.

On my first read through, I lingered at the beginning, learning all about what participants, supporters and influences want and why we need to stop interrupting and start attracting our audience with great content. Lately, I’ve been referring to the last three sections quite a bit, since it turns out that I actually did jump in the deep end when I signed myself up for an emarketing course as one of my MBA electives. Our assignment is to work with a real, live company to develop an online marketing plan.

Here are some of the highlights:

Traditionally, marketing classes teach you to think in terms of target markets and target audiences. Miller emphasizes that focusing on specific groups is extremely valuable, but suggests that the term target audience is, perhaps, outdated. In Miller’s words:

…Targeting is troublesome because it conjures the image of you blasting your content toward the audience, rather than you creating content that naturally attracts specific types of people to you. The term audience presents a similar problem because it implies people sitting passively and quietly while you present to them. Today, your goal is engagement with people who care about the same things your organization does.

Engagement brings up new marketing challenges: you (the marketer) no longer have the same kind of control that you once did. With social media, suddenly the old target audience has the power to actively engage in creating, sharing and discussing your message. Miller suggests that it’s more useful to think of the people engaging with your organization online as PSIs:

• Participants, who are directly involved with implementing the programs and services of your organization,
• Supporters, who actively support your organization, but are not directly involved in program or service delivery, and
• Influencers, who are less interested, but can impact the perception of your organization (i.e. journalists).

Understanding your PSIs matters, because ultimately they are the ones who determine if your message is relevant. For example, if you donate to a particular organization, do you care about the nitty-gritty day to day operations? Or do you care about the impact your donation is having? The key to content marketing is to understand what your PSIs want, and to draw them in with free, useful content.

Miller explains how many traditional marketing concepts, such as marketing to emotions and aligning your marketing messages with your organization’s goal, can be applied to content marketing. She also provides a wonderful set of resources for managing your content via content calendars and making it easy for everyone to pitch in. The book is rich with examples of how organizations have applied Miller’s content marketing principles, which makes it easy to visualize how these principles can be applied to your organization.

I believe that the true value of Content Marketing for Nonprofits lies not in the book’s contents, but in the way that Miller bring all the pieces together in an approachable, empowering way. Step-by-step instructions walk you through defining your organization’s “voice” and creating a content calendar. Other chapters provide a wealth of ideas to draw from, such as Eleven Favourite Types of Articles. In the last section of the book, Miller provides an in depth discussion of each communications channel including ways to make your content work, pitfalls to avoid, and several great examples to learn from.

The Bottom Line? You can spend weeks scouring the internet and bookstore to find this information, or you can simply pick up Content Marketing for Nonprofits by Kivi Leroux Miller. This book had definitely found a permanent home in my library.