Why educational content will make your association shine
Committing to educational content is a decision that can be difficult to make. Nevertheless, the benefits for your association will be real.
Why will educational content make your association shine? Why will this strategy amplify your message? That is what we will explore in this article.
Educational content amplifies your message
Here, we will focus in part on one particular type of educational content: the infographic.
The social media game
We need to look through the lens of social media to understand how producing educational content has the power to amplify your association's message.
According to a study combining social media and psychology, "More than 65% of users aged 18 to 64 share content from [Facebook and YouTube]. The younger people are, the more likely they are to share. YouTube is the network with the highest share rate across all age groups."
The same study shows that infographics are the most shared type of content. Infographics are particularly well suited to educational content. This finding is echoed by a further study presenting the type of content most shared on social media.
If your infographics — or other educational content produced at scale — are shared, it is your overall message and the very reason your association exists that is carried across the web.
Thousands of people could be reached by your message even though they had never heard of your association five minutes earlier.
By reaching the general public, you will have amplified the reach of your message.
If your mission is mutual support around trisomy 21, your first piece of educational content might be an association infographic focusing on:
- key figures to better understand trisomy;
- essential information on how to respond;
- a series of 10 frequently asked questions and answers about trisomy 21 (tailored to your persona).
Infographics as the first piece of educational content
We recommend reading this infographic on trisomy 21 for a compelling example of educational content on this subject.
Bring your expertise to the web by drawing on your members
Ask the members of your association what questions they had at key stages or moments in their experience. List those questions and formulate clear, precise answers.
Ask those same members where the gaps were in their support or care. If those gaps still exist, fill them.
Your members have undoubtedly learned from their own experience. It is up to you to make use of these unique experiences.
The sum of knowledge held by all of your members combined should be seen as an asset. From a marketing perspective, this knowledge is a trump card to play in attracting new members.
It is a fair bet that one of your objectives is to offer your expertise and support to all those who might need it. The challenge is finding those people.
Content of general interest: anticipate your persona's questions
One of the ways to draw them to you is clearly to position your association — through its website — as an expert. By publishing educational content, you will cover the widest possible range of questions and answers your persona might have.
Better still: as an expert, you will be able to anticipate the questions your persona will be asking in the days, weeks, and months to come.
The challenge lies in identifying the key questions. Formulating appropriate answers should not be a problem if you draw on the collective knowledge of your members.
How will your association's website content serve the general interest?
Here is the methodology. How should you go about turning your content into content of general interest?
- Conduct a survey of the questions your members asked themselves at the various stages of their care or experience.
- Identify the key questions.
- Formulate a precise, clear, and unambiguous answer.
- Publish an SEO-optimised article — free and accessible to the general public — centred on one question. (Example: "Can a school prevent me from enrolling my autistic child?"). One question = one article.
- Invite visitors who arrive organically to view other questions related to that first question.
- (Optional, within a marketing automation framework) Ask them to subscribe to a newsletter through which they will automatically receive several answers.
- It is worth bearing in mind one reality: once transposed to your association's website, these questions and answers will form a body of content. This body of content should be considered content of general interest. Why? Because the general public will be able to find precise answers to their questions.
This article will therefore have helped you realise that:
your target audience is online and your association must have its own website to reach even more people;
the knowledge held by your association's members must be put to work in order to attract new members.
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