Lean into your owned channels
As you’re crafting marketing and communications plans and budgets for year-end and into 2025, please don’t be discouraged if your team and / or budget are not growing. You have an amazing opportunity to lean into your owned channels—in fact, I always recommend nonprofits maximize their owned media before investing in anything outside the organization. Get that owned machine humming along and then fill in the gaps as you can with paid or earned media.
A few quick definitions:
Owned media—any online property or communication that is owned and controlled by an individual or organization, including your website, blog, social media channels, etc.
Earned media—any content shared about you by a third party, that you did not control or pay for.
Paid media—content for which you pay to place in front of an audience.
Why owned media?
First and foremost, you have control, so your messages can be targeted, and delivered clearly and consistently.
You’re speaking to people who have opted in to your channel, hopefully because they believe in your work and your ability to change things. Speaking to people who want to hear from you is effective and efficient—no wasted time delivering messages that folks don’t want to, or aren’t ready to, hear.
Aside from the time it takes for your team to develop and deploy content (which should be significant, because you want to create quality stuff) you do not need an additional budget to use your own channels.
When you have a few owned channels, not only does your digital footprint grow, but you can also realize some benefit from reusing content across channels (nope I don’t mean posting the same thing to instagram and facebook, sorry Meta).
Using several owned channels can help you create a communications and marketing ecosystem that continually reinforces your messaging to diverse audiences.
Each channel provides its own network of followers who will also have their own channels on which to reshare your content.
Digital channels give you lots of data about users, engagement, etc., so that you can measure, learn, and adapt your content.
What channels should I be using?
For a nonprofit with a small (1-2 people) communications team, I recommend investing in strategies around:
Your website—this is likely the most visible expression of your brand and is the place where images and copy work together. A site that you can update as your organization evolves is key.
Email lists / newsletters—segment these lists from the beginning as much as you can. Trust me, you will eventually want to deliver news, opportunities, or thinking to your partners, but not your donors, and vice versa.
Blog posts—Writing about your work and the change you are making is not only a great way to connect with your audiences, but also gives the team a chance to develop and refine their approach, strategy, and goals. Writing is a key component in developing expertise, so all members of the team can benefit.
Social media—This is the first thing many think of when they think of owned channels. In general, I recommend leaning into LinkedIn for nonprofits of all sizes who are looking for partners and funders, and then selecting no more than two additional social media platforms based on growth goals (attracting younger donors or expanding regionally, for example).
How do I get the most out of my owned channels?
Understand your audiences, and know where they are. The time you take to analyze your email list, website visitors, and social followers will pay off in targeted, efficient messaging that gets results.
Create content that is appropriate to the channels, as well as the audience. For example, if you want to take advantage of the network you have built on LinkedIn, create posts that are clear, informative, and compelling; in other words, content your followers will want to share. If you don’t know what that is, take some time to review like providers who are in your sector but have grown larger audiences.
Don’t worry so much about metrics when you are getting started. Focus on creating quality content, and keep in mind the people who are seeing your content. What do you want them to think, feel, or do when they hear from you? Create the content that does that.
Stick with it. Any of these strategies take time and consistent repetition, so that your audiences trust you, and eventually engage with you. You can’t rush that and you can’t fake authenticity.
Activate your own delivery systems: share your blog posts on your social channels and in your newsletters, get inspiration for your next blog post from interesting comments or questions on social, encourage email sign-ups on your website. And perhaps most importantly, build a culture of communications that encourages your staff, board, and supporters to reshare your content to their networks.
If you’re wondering how your organization can more effectively use the channels you own, reach out and let’s chat!
