New Research Shows 92 Percent of Nonprofits Use Content Marketing

Report reveals how nonprofits approach content marketing; in-person events and Facebook top the list of content distribution sources

CLEVELAND, Nov. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and Blackbaud have released the findings from a first-time study that shows how nonprofit professionals in North America approach content marketing. The study shows that 92 percent of nonprofit professionals use content marketing. Ninety-one percent use Facebook to distribute content, and 65 percent are producing more content than they were one year ago.

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In addition, 69 percent of nonprofit organizations have someone in place who oversees content marketing, but only 25 percent have a documented content strategy. Overall, just 26 percent say they are effective at content marketing, the creation and distribution of educational and/or compelling content in multiple media formats to attract and/or retain clients/constituents.

“Forty-five percent of nonprofit professionals are challenged with a lack of knowledge and training about content marketing, compared with 26 percent of for-profit marketers,” says Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and author of the book Epic Content Marketing. “As more nonprofit professionals become better educated on content marketing, we hope to see more of them develop documented content strategies and grow in confidence with their effectiveness.”

“This research gives nonprofit professionals the opportunity to look at what their peers are doing in order to get ideas for their own content marketing programs,” says Frank Barry, director of digital marketing, Blackbaud. “For instance, many nonprofit professionals who use in-person events and eNewsletters say those content marketing tactics are very effective. Anyone not using those tactics might be inclined to take another look.”

2014 Nonprofit Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America was produced by Content Marketing Institute and Blackbaud and sponsored by FusionSpark Media, Inc. The survey was mailed electronically to a sample of nonprofit marketers from lists provided by Content Marketing Institute, Blackbaud, MarketingProfs, and Brightcove. A total of 1,714 nonprofit professionals from North American organizations responded in July and August 2013, representing a full range of industries, functional areas, and organization sizes. The full report can be downloaded here.

About Content Marketing Institute:

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 Worldevent, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every September, and Content Marketing World Sydney, every March. CMI also produces the quarterly 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 and 2013 Inc. 500 company.

About Blackbaud:

Serving the nonprofit and education sectors for 30 years, Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) combines technology and expertise to help organizations achieve their missions. Blackbaud works with more than 29,000 nonprofit customers in more than 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services, arts and culture, faith, the environment, independent K-12 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 organizations of all sizes including: fundraising software, online fundraising software, event fundraising software, advocacy, constituent relationship management (CRM), analytics, financial management and vertical-specific solutions for ticketing, school management, and more. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

Blackbaud — Forward-looking Statements

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SOURCE Content Marketing Institute