How Associations & Nonprofits Can Create Digital Content That Leaves an Impact on Their Members

When you think of digital content what comes to mind? Videos, memes, gifs, reels? Most likely it's something?you saw on social media. Now here’s another question. When you think of digital content for your organization, what do you picture??

Our bet is on PowerPoint presentations or something similar. The point we’re trying to make is, why can’t your content be as attractive and addictive as the content you consume on a day-to-day basis?

Whether you’re creating reports, publications or educational materials, through this article, we’ll explore all that you can achieve with your digital content and how the right digital publishing software can make all the difference. Let’s dive in!

Tips to Create Highly Impactful Digital Content?

Make a Strong First Impression:

While your content will always be the driving force, how you present it, can make all the difference.

Begin by focusing on formatting. Contrary to popular belief, formatting is not just about aesthetic preferences, it’s about conveying your message more effectively.?

Next, use a consistent color theme. Using standardized colors for each kind of element, across your content with sufficient contrast between them, makes for easier reading.

This helps readers (i.e. - members) become more familiar with your material and brand while also making the content more accessible for those with disabilities.?

Finally, with the right digital publishing platform, the process of using visuals (such as photos, infographics, charts and so on) to better explain your content is highly simplified. So, feel free to use them well and make a strong first impression.

Create Interactive Indexes:

How much time do you spend searching for something you read earlier? Depending on where you read it, it could take quite a while to find.

One great advantage of digitizing content is the ability to add to it an interactive index, or as some would call it an interactive table of contents.?

Be it an extensive journal, research paper or any other form of content, with an interactive table of contents, the time spent searching for topics reduces drastically, allowing members to spend more time on the actual content itself.?

Include Animated Elements & Other Visual Aids:

It is said that the human brain processes visual information faster than it can process text-based information. Visual aids such as animations, photos, infographics, charts, graphs and so on, can help?highlight important aspects of your content. This could be especially useful in making your reports come to life.?

Utilize Moving Pictures (Videos):

Who amongst us can resist watching a good video? And that’s not even a personal opinion. One study has shown that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch a video and only 10% if it’s text-based.

Digitizing your content allows you to add videos to your content at the click of a button. These videos can grab the attention of your communities, add emotion to your story and strengthen the bond between you and your members. Explainer videos can be especially useful in educational content.?

Add Audio & Background Music:

Whether you want to enhance the educational experience you provide or a presentation you are delivering, background audio can make all the difference.?

Some people learn better by listening. Adding audio to your learning content gives them the option to choose the way they wish to consume it. Additionally, it allows them to study while on the move.

Background music on the other hand can be used in your reports. It provides emotional cues and hooks and works best with a story narration, especially while discussing your member’s achievements.

Consider Using Widgets:

For the uninitiated, widgets are comparable to mini apps that members can use while reading your content. These mini apps help readers perform necessary actions or attain supplementary information, without leaving your page. These are especially useful for eLearning content.

There are different types of widgets such as calculators, questionnaires, whiteboards, worksheets, games etc. You could also include third-party plugins such as YouTube videos, Google maps, Wikipedia pages, or social media links through widgets if you can’t embed them directly into your content.

Include Links to External Resources:

Although the aim is to keep readers on one’s own content, sometimes links to external resources are required to either corroborate the information presented or enhance it.

With digitized content, providing a list of references, be it for a publication or a report, becomes much easier. It allows readers to easily switch between the main content and the reference shared.?

Add Interactive Elements:

Today, it is a basic expectation that any online content will be able to deliver far more than what its physical counterpart can do. To that end, using interactive elements in your content gives your members a more immersive and engaging experience.?

For example, adding assessments such as multiple-choice questions, at relevant points in educational content, enables learners to gain more from the content, while also helping them quantify the progress they are making. This is possible only due to digitization.

Conclusion

With these tips in mind, you’re well on your way to truly leveraging your digital content. However, bear in mind that there is concern about adding too many or force-fitting elements. To avoid this, take a step back and see if the elements you’ve chosen fit organically within your content.

For more such tips & insights download our detailed guide.?

Meanwhile, for those of you who are still in two minds about taking on a digital transformation, take a look at our previous article.?

Thanks for reading!?

With over 5 million active users, KITABOO is a high-scale digital publishing platform that helps you create, publish & distribute your academic content.