I
recently walked into a holiday decoration store in a mall. Neat
ornaments, nice decorations, and since it was a new store I told the
gentleman behind the counter that it was a great place. “Thanks”, he
said, “All of the stores proceeds goes to AIDS awareness and all of the
employees here are volunteers.” Shocked and inspired I wanted to buy
something on the spot. I did one more whirl around the store because I
thought I missed a sign that told me that. I found none.
I
walked out astonished. If I’d never said anything to the nice
volunteer, I’d probably never know about their great cause. Sad, because so
many people who were just looking may have purchased something had
they known.
Since the ’80’s more and more larger corporations have snuggled up to Cause Marketing. We’ve all seen the Product RED campaign where companies like the Gap or Nike, give back to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for every piece of RED clothing that is purchased. And we’re not strangers to Susan G. Komen and the retailers that offer something related to the pink ribbon for breast cancer.
But
smaller businesses are jumping on the bandwagon to help. In a down
economy non-profits find it increasingly difficult to get their usual
donors to act, so there’s never been a better time to help out if you
can.
At VerticalResponse we give email marketing for free
to any non-profit, especially the small ones that really need the help
that we can give. So instead of choosing just one, we choose thousands.
We do it because we believe in it, there’s
nothing in it for us except the great feeling we get helping those
whose mission is to help others. Our company also matches our
employee’s Kiva
donations, we encourage employees to make micro loans to entrepreneurs
in 3rd world countries. We also donate hundreds of hours of employees’
time to making our community better, to causes like Project Homeless Connect and the San Francisco Education Fund.
All of this wrapped up in one, makes us all feel great about working
for a company that cares, and hopefully shows the type of company we
aim to be.
So it’s never too late to get yourself active with a
non-profit partner you believe in. Consumers these days more and more
are looking at who they buy from. They want to patron companies that
are doing good things for people, animals, and the environment. So why
not give your prospects a reason to make a choice and give your
customers a reason to keep coming back?
Remember my blog where I said you’re not in control of your brand anymore,
your customer is? One of the things they might be looking for these
days is what you stand for. If you offer a similar product or service
as a competitor, your cause just might be the thing that pushes them to
your business over the competition.
How to Get Started!
1. What’s your cause?
– You might want to ask your employees what they care about getting
behind or pick something that has had an effect on you in your life.
2. How much can you afford?
Make sure you include in your budget that you’ll be giving a percentage
away to your cause. You certainly want this to benefit your business,
not hurt it.
3. Market your cause – If you’ve
got a retail store, like the one in the beginning of this post, make
sure you have proper signage about your cause in your store window and
around your property. Print it on all materials and display it
prominently on your website. Make sure the cause your supporting knows
about it too, they may even include you on their site like RED does for
it’s partners.
Include it in all of your email marketing
campaigns along with a link to the cause. Driving them new donors is
also beneficial to them. Make sure if you’re using social media like
Facebook you become a member of your cause, and make sure you talk
about your involvement on Twitter and Facebook.
4. Talk about your success
– Make sure once you get to a place that seems significant, get loud
and proud. Talk about the amount of money your cause received because
of the profits you were able to give. Tell stories about lives that may
have been saved, or successes of the cause because of businesses like
yours. People love to do business with a winner and you and your staff
will feel great about the work you do.
Ingrain cause marketing
in your company and it could be a boost to business, a boost for your
cause and a boost for employee morale for years to come.
