Nonprofit Marketers Focus on Storytelling as Part of Recipe for Content Marketing Success

CLEVELAND, Nov. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Nonprofit marketers are focused on becoming better storytellers, creating visual content and creating engaging content.  That's one of the key findings in the new Nonprofit Content Marketing 2015: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends--North America report produced by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and Blackbaud.

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This is the second year for the highly anticipated research that focuses on the content marketing practices of nonprofit marketing professionals. Sponsored by FusionSpark Media, this report is based on responses from 1,118 nonprofit marketers from different types and various sizes of organizations.

"It's exciting to see how nonprofit professionals continue to embrace content marketing.  Sixty-one percent are using content marketing and 69% are creating more content than they did one year ago.  Many are focused on storytelling as an initiative which tells us they're beginning to understand the power of content marketing," explains Joe Pulizzi, founder, Content Marketing Institute and author of Epic Content Marketing.

In general, nonprofit marketers are getting savvier, trying more tactics and distributing content across more social platforms.  Ninety-three percent of nonprofit marketers say social media content (other than blogs) is the tactic they use most and they're using it even more so than they were last year.  Additionally, nonprofit marketers rated nearly every social media platform they use as more effective this year versus last year. Facebook is cited by 94% as the platform they use most often, and they also rate it as the most effective platform they use.

"It's clear nonprofit marketers are making strides with their content marketing efforts," says Frank Barry, Director of New Growth Ventures, Blackbaud.  "While many don't have big budgets to dedicate to content marketing, they are still trying more tactics and using social media more often.  This creative use of resources indicates they're willing to experiment to see what works."

There are many more eye-opening findings in the full report.                 
Our SlideShare presentation is available for download.                
Graphics, charts, pictures, quotes and more, are available in Dropbox.

About Content Marketing Institute (CMI)                    
Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization. CMI teaches enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multi-channel storytelling. CMI's Content Marketing World event, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.  CMI also produces Intelligent Content Conference, Content Marketing Sydney and Content Marketing Singapore. CMI also publishes the bi-monthly magazine Chief Content Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known brands in the world. CMI is a 2012, 2013 and 2014 Inc. 500 company.

About Blackbaud                             
Serving the not-for-profit and education sectors for more than 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organisations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 30,000 customers in over 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, private K12 education, animal welfare and other charitable causes. The company offers a full spectrum of cloud-based and on-premise software solutions and related services for organisations of all sizes including: fundraising, eMarketing, advocacy, constituent relationship management (CRM), financial management, payment solutions, analytics, education solutions, and vertical-specific solutions. Using Blackbaud technology, these organisations raise more than $100 billion each year. Recognised as a top company by Forbes, InformationWeek, and Software Magazine and honored by Best Places to Work, Blackbaud is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and has operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom. 

Forward-looking Statements                        
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Although Blackbaud attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based. In addition, other important factors that could cause results to differ materially include the following: general economic risks; risks associated with our products and services capability to provide online giving experiences; risks related to uncertainty regarding market acceptance of products and services, including the adoption of online fundraising; risks associated with the capability of our products and services to aggregate data from multiple external sources and the ability to successfully use those aggregations, including those aggregations related to a unique Giving Footprint; the ability to achieve success in fundraising initiatives; risks associated with successful implementation of multiple integrated software products; delays or interruptions in hosted services; failure to securely collect, store and transmit personal information and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in the SEC filings for Blackbaud, copies of which are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or upon request from Blackbaud's investor relations department. All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

SOURCE Content Marketing Institute

Related Links

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com