Strategic Storytelling: How to Integrate Your Mission into Your Content Calendar
PART 2 OF MARKETING TIPS IF YOU DON’T HAVE A MARKETING DEPARTMENT
In the previous blog post titled Marketing tips if you don’t have a marketing department, we listed tips for getting an organization started with its marketing messaging. For a short refresher, here is the list of tips to start (and if you didn’t read the previous article, I suggest looking back at the 5-minute read).
Tackle the mission statement early and repeat it.
Create your top three messages based on the mission statement.
Use the three messages everywhere.
Share your work under a “message umbrella.”.
Done is better than perfect.
The example we provided is a nonprofit arts organization called “Arts for All.” Their mission is to ensure everyone has access to art. We took their three tactics to achieve this goal and listed all their activities under each tactic like this:
We bring art to schools.
Weekly art workshops in the local high school.
Hosting an art show in a school with the students.
We invest in artists.
Artist in-residency program.
Pay artists on staff.
We host community art engagements.
Monthly art shows.
Now, we can take this list and create a content calendar. Consider the different platforms and the commitment to posting. You don’t have to be on every platform! Choose what makes the most sense for your organization based on your audience and bandwidth for keeping up with content production. We recommend posting content at least three times a week, and IG can be daily if you have enough content.
Looking at the list above, three main messages can correspond to the three weekly content posts. So the calendar could look something like this:
Monday: We bring art to schools. We have weekly art workshops in the local high school.
Wednesday: We invest in artists. We have artist-in-residency programs.
Friday: We host community art engagements. We host monthly art shows. (this month is…)
With each post, include a picture or graphic and if there is a call to action or a place to learn more. At least twice a month, make a post reminding people about the mission and how your organization achieves it.
This is the basic frame of a content calendar, which can be replicated and iterated weekly and into the months ahead. This content calendar gives structure, and then you can exercise creativity inside of the parameters, knowing that the mission and core values are the consistent messages your audience hears.
Need support on your content strategy or tactics? Feel free to drop us a note here.