When planning nonprofit events, you might have a handful of go-to marketing channels in mind, including social media, email, and direct mail outreach. These are valuable channels, but if your nonprofit’s blog isn’t part of your event promotion strategy too, you could be missing out on an effective opportunity to reach potential attendees and generate more buzz.
By prioritizing blog content throughout your event marketing strategy, you can provide a compelling reason for supporters to attend and spotlight the benefits they’ll receive. In this guide, we’ll highlight the following tips for generating event buzz through blogging:
- Develop a blog series.
- Leverage user-generated content.
- Emphasize attendee benefits.
- Provide must-know registration information.
- Develop interactive content.
The best nonprofit website blogs keep visitors engaged using a variety of multimedia and interactive elements tailored to supporters’ interests. Remember to keep your audience’s unique preferences in mind when implementing the tips in this guide.
1. Develop a blog series.
You could certainly create one single blog post highlighting your upcoming event, but you may not have the space needed to cover every aspect of the event. With a blog post series, you can spotlight different angles of your event to paint a fuller picture of what the experience is all about.
Keep these tips in mind when developing an event series for your nonprofit’s blog:
- Highlight the most interesting and important event aspects. Does your event have a brand-new theme this year? Are you inviting special guests, like local celebrities? Will your event take place in a beautiful venue or your nonprofit’s renovated headquarters? Ensure your blog posts spotlight the event’s unique qualities to catch readers’ attention.
- Schedule your blogs at regular intervals. Start planning your blog series a couple of months before your event kicks off and post at regular intervals leading up to the event. This helps build anticipation and keep your event top-of-mind for supporters.
- Coordinate with your social media and email marketing teams to promote each post. Your web content and promotions teams should stay in touch so everyone knows when posts are published. With a clear posting schedule, you can ensure that any new posts are shared promptly on social media and within email newsletters to broaden their reach.
The key to success for your blog series is collaboration. If your marketing team has more than one member, it’s essential to determine who will handle each aspect of the content development process. From writing the posts to gathering images and promoting them to a wider audience, make sure each team member knows their role and adheres to each post’s deadline. This will keep your blogging process running smoothly and help you maintain an updated blog roll.
2. Leverage user-generated content.
According to Getting Attention’s marketing trends guide, user-generated content is “any form of content created and shared by users based on their experiences with your nonprofit.”
User-generated content can help make your blog posts more compelling because readers view this content as more authentic and relatable. In fact, consumers are 2.4 times more likely to say user-generated content is authentic compared to brand-created content.
Types of user-generated content you may incorporate into your event blog posts include:
- Interviews with event volunteers and coordinators
- Photos and testimonials from past event attendees
- Social media posts from event sponsors or attendees
- Social media posts from influencers who are promoting and attending the event
If you’re not sure about the best ways to incorporate this multimedia content into your blog posts, a nonprofit web consultant can help. These professionals can help you develop strategies for sorting through user-generated content and incorporating it into your website in a way that aligns with your brand.
3. Emphasize attendee benefits.
Your nonprofit’s most dedicated supporters will be excited to attend your event because they are deeply passionate about your mission. However, other supporters may have one question in common: “What’s in it for me?”
This is a completely normal question to have. After all, supporters will have to take the time out of their day to attend your event and may have to pay an entry fee. The least your nonprofit can do is showcase the benefits they’ll receive from participating.
Use your blog series to spotlight incentives for guests to attend, such as:
- Auction items they can bid on
- New skills they can acquire
- Fun experiences they can participate in
- Free merchandise they can access
- Influencers or leaders in the space they can meet
- Sponsor booths they can visit
- Crucial advocacy information they can receive about your mission
One of the greatest benefits event attendees can receive is the satisfaction that comes from knowing they’ve done something to support a worthy cause. Throughout your event marketing materials, share plenty of information about the positive impact supporters will have on those affected by your mission. Share photos or quotes from beneficiaries that convey the real-world impact of supporters’ attendance.
4. Provide must-know registration information.
Your blog posts should contain all the need-to-know logistics and registration information so interested attendees can determine if they can make it and sign up. Make sure your posts cover relevant FAQs like the event’s:
- Date
- Time
- Location
- Ticket price
- Special discounts
- Add-ons
- Merchandise
- Registration page link
If your event will be hybrid or fully virtual, add information about how attendees can access your event platform or livestream on the event day. Also, provide contact information for someone potential attendees can reach out to with any questions.
5. Develop interactive content.
As an event planner, you know that planning interactive moments during your event can engage attendees and create a better experience. Incorporating interactive content into your event blog posts can have the exact same effect.
Consider creating interactive blog content such as:
- Quizzes
- Polls
- Pre- and post-event surveys
- Contests/giveaways
For example, you could create a poll asking attendees which aspect of the event they’re most excited about. You could also encourage attendees to register by a certain date to be eligible for a merchandise giveaway.
If your current content management system (CMS) doesn’t have the full functionality you need to incorporate interactive content, consider switching to a robust platform like WordPress. According to Kanopi’s WordPress migration guide, WordPress is generally considered to be very user-friendly, with simple editorial and media-management processes that make it easy to leverage multiple content types.
Once you’ve created standout blog posts with these tips, share them across your marketing channels, including social media and email. Ensure all your marketing platforms work in harmony to increase event awareness and engage more registrants. This is your best shot to recruit more attendees and make your upcoming event the best one yet.
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