Balancing the cuteness of puppies with hard-hitting advocacy to shine a lightweight on animal struggling and encourage individuals to drive significant change takes actual content material experience.
Emily Hamlin Smith, senior editorial director of the Humane Society of the US, and her staff have carried out that with their quarterly print journal All Animals and different digital content material. This yr’s editorial protection of the society’s rescue of practically 4,000 beagles from a breeding facility earned a finalist nod for Greatest Use of Images within the 2023 Content material Advertising and marketing Awards.
And All Animals received Greatest Nonprofit Publication this yr and in 2022, 2021, and 2020. All that award-winning work earned Emily a nod as a 2023 B2C Content material Marketer of the 12 months finalist.
CMI spoke with Emily to study her content material technique, the gorgeous use of visuals within the journal, and the necessary position print nonetheless performs in an more and more digital world.
It begins with a unified staff
Along with the five hundred,000-circulation journal, The Humane Society powers content material on HumanePro.org, a hub for animal welfare teams, pet professionals akin to shelter staff and veterinarians, wildlife rehabbers, and so forth. The editorial staff additionally has fingers on the society’s exterior communications, electronic mail campaigns, social media, and extra.
Emily oversees 5 senior editors who’ve a specialty space. For instance, one primarily handles All Animals content material, whereas one other oversees HumanePro.org. Her staff additionally consists of two devoted writers.
“All of us collaborate throughout issues,” she explains. “The objective of that’s to maintain all people engaged in all the work, and it additionally helps us have a constant tone throughout all of our communications as a result of we’re all on the identical web page.”
Telling the animals’ story
The society sends All Animals journal to donors who give a one-time present of no less than $25 or month-to-month recurring donations of no less than $10. The objective is to indicate donors how the society places their contributions to work via the lens of particular person animals.
“I feel that each animal has a narrative, similar to each particular person does. They’ll’t inform it in their very own phrases, in order that they want us to try this for them,” Emily says. “You are able to do it in a number of methods, both via phrases or visuals, and I feel that if you put the 2 collectively, it may be extremely highly effective.”
Combining phrases and visuals lets the @HumaneSociety inform extremely highly effective tales on behalf of animals, says @Emilyrhsmith through @DawnPapandrea @CMIContent. #ContentMarketing Click on To Tweet
Telling the animals’ tales can create an emotional response that triggers the viewer’s response to the decision to motion – to immediate readers to maintain donating.
Turning footage into greater than a thousand phrases
The story of the beagle pet rescue, which concerned over 120 shelters and rescues in 29 states, lived on all the Humane Society’s digital channels and the CEO’s weblog. It additionally had immense media pickup, together with protection from The New York Instances to The Washington Publish.
When the print journal went into manufacturing, Emily and the staff confronted a problem – giving one thing new to the readers who additionally adopted them on their digital channels. They achieved that by visually telling the story of the complete rescue with many beforehand unpublished photos.
“A part of that function was a two-page unfold picture of the canines being loaded into an air transport. We may actually give that large image perspective of what it took to carry this historic transportation mission collectively,” Emily says.
Additionally they shared the story of 1 animal within the rescue. “Fin was the final canine who got here out of the ability in Virginia. We had been in a position to comply with up with him in his new residence and form of shut the loop for the supporters who had been following us on digital channels,” Emily says.
The rescue story additionally concerned greater than the work of the society. “It was our shelter and rescue companions; it was volunteers. We needed to offer a complete have a look at what they made attainable, and our objective with that’s to make the supporters really feel like they had been part of it, too. As a result of we’re not ready to try this work with out their assist,” she says.
The difficulty’s visible storytelling strategy made an impression on readers who donated greater than $57,000 through the journal’s enterprise reply envelope alone. “They tell us that the story opened their eyes to the fact of testing on canines, one thing that many individuals aren’t conscious occurs in the US,” Emily says. “It was a chief instance of what can occur if you collaborate as an entire staff, and all people brings their concepts ahead.”
The @HumaneSociety acquired over $57,000 in donations from the envelopes in a single problem of its #print journal All Animals, says @Emilyrhsmith through @DawnPapandrea @CMIContent. #ContentMarketing Click on To Tweet
Making the case for print in a digital world
The shuttering of so many print magazines annually naturally weighs on the thoughts of a print journal editor. However Emily says All Animals nonetheless proves its worth. Management buys into the content material tactic as a result of they hear from donors who say the journal resonates with them.
One donor made a $1 million bequest due to what she noticed within the journal about how the society used the contributions. “She knew that she was placing her funding and her legacy in good fingers. We had been all smiling ear to ear for weeks after we heard that as a result of that’s what we wish to do,” Emily says.
Nonetheless, Emily doesn’t take their success without any consideration. Her staff ensures that each journal problem counts by prioritizing the society’s key campaigns. Additionally they do readership surveys recurrently to gauge donors’ responses to their work. Among the many findings: Greater than half say they’ve modified one in all their consuming habits due to what they’ve learn. Many say they now take the time to search for cruelty-free cosmetics. And 80% say they share one thing they learn with a buddy or member of the family.
“Once we can illustrate that to the decision-makers on the group, it actually reveals our worth and the way the contact factors that we now have via the journal prolong far past that envelope that’s inside. That folks actually join with it,” Emily explains.
Digital content material continues to be essential to maintain completely different viewers demographics engaged. The society will launch a digital model of All Animals this fall. Emily says, “As we see how that performs, then we’re going to begin how individuals work together with it. Can we add some extra interactive options that make it just a little bit extra thrilling and attractive than simply flipping via a PDF?”
Mixing advocacy, journalism, and repair
Emily doesn’t consider in counting on shock worth or anger to encourage individuals to behave. “We wish to be exhibiting the fact of the state of affairs, but in addition exhibiting the donors how there’s hope and the way we’re serving to and the way they’re serving to. A few of these photos are actually robust – canines in cages on farms or in a market – however we wish to ensure that we’re balancing that for readers with how these canines are getting a second likelihood at life,” she says.
That’s why every problem incorporates light-hearted, feel-good, and victory tales just like the beagle rescue, together with the tougher studies on subjects like animal testing in cosmetics or the canine meat commerce.
The again of the journal offers readers service content material, too. They’ve printed options on easy methods to make adjustments in your yard to assist shield city wildlife, ideas for caring for a pet, and recommendation on serving to outside animals akin to group cats.
“I wish to give them a means to assist, whether or not that’s writing a letter to their lawmaker or sending in a donation. I wish to ensure that we’re inspiring individuals, educating individuals, after which giving them an motion step,” Emily says.
That matches her private content material philosophy: “Inform a narrative, interact, educate, after which give one thing to do to make them part of the answer.”
Attaining on a regular basis content material victories
Although the Humane Society editorial staff has earned some wonderful content material wins this yr, they’re extra motivated by the smaller wins, like one-off emails from readers or feedback on a narrative. Emily says, “That doesn’t translate on to {dollars} at that second, however to me, offering that consciousness, the inspiration, and the schooling is step one to bringing them into the group’s work. That tells me that we’re doing our job.”
MORE EXAMPLES FROM 2023 CONTENT MARKETING AWARD FINALISTS
Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute
