Cause marketing is the latest addition to the digital marketing menu. Brands looking to build customer and public trust, stand out from the competition, and attract a younger generation of loyal brand advocates are using this marketing method more and more.
When brands align themselves with meaningful causes that customers can get behind they can start to have a more positive impact and, in so doing, earn the customer’s loyalty and trust. Many companies today are elevating cause marketing to a core part of their brand through social purpose strategy.
Today I’ll be walking you through the ins and outs of cause marketing and finishing off with some best practices to help you get your cause marketing strategy off to the best start.
By doing this, the brand and their affiliated charity enjoy the mutual benefits of increased exposure, profits, and (for the charity) an uptake in donations.
This is really effective—in more ways than one. When brands focus on a social cause that directly aligns with their own ethos and mission, a few things happen:
There’s more than one way to participate in cause marketing. It’s not just a case of giving a slice of your annual profits to charity (although that is always an option). Other cause marketing strategies include checkout-based donations, charitable promotions, percentage of sale donations, digital campaigns, and product donations.
Let’s unpack each of these in a bit more detail.
Checkout donations are donations made by customers at the point of sale. Customers are given the option to place a donation to your brand’s charitable partner when completing a purchase.
Sometimes brands will incorporate cause-based marketing through promotions and offers. This gives customers a way to actively engage in the giving process and get involved. For example, a brand might make a donation to their charity every time a customer buys a specific product. That product becomes affiliated with a charitable gift.
For instance, a coffee chain might donate a free coffee to a frontline worker every time an in-store customer spends over $10. Another way that brands engage in charitable promotions is by rolling out specific charity products. These products are usually available for a set period of time with proceeds going to the partner charity.
This strategy involves donating a set percentage or value of each sale to the registered charity. For example, a fashion brand might donate 10% of each sale to the homeless.
You’ve probably already seen digital campaigns online and in the media where brands team up with charities to tackle a topical social issue. These digital campaigns are often fronted with a catchy slogan or manifesto and can be super effective at driving engagement both for the brand and the charitable institution.
Some brands choose to donate their physical products and/or services instead of a percentage of sales. This works really well for digital products and subscription-based services (e.g mobile app testing software).
Cause marketing may seem like an optional nicety but it’s much more than that. It’s incredibly important for brands to show corporate social responsibility (CSR) and more and more customers want to do business with ethical companies.
Cause marketing is a fantastic way to make steps toward bettering your corporate social responsibility and shows prospects that you are trustworthy and value the impact that your brand has on the wider society.
By incorporating cause-based marketing into your digital marketing strategy you’ll be able to generate more revenue, attract new customers, and keep them loyal.
But it’s not just about appearances and business gain, either. By aligning your business with a worthy cause you can make real social impact and support a social, charitable, or political cause that aligns with your core values, goals, and beliefs.
As well as doing good, the right cause marketing strategy can be incredibly beneficial for brands. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest advantages below.
Ready to start using cause marketing in your business? Before you get started, it’s important to set yourself up with some helpful guidelines. Whether your business specializes in B2B or B2C, consumer products or professional services, in-person or online sales, these best practices will help you execute your cause marketing strategy for the best results and happy customers.
Giving to any charity is great, right?
Well, yes, but in the context of cause marketing, it’s important to choose a cause that aligns closely with your brand mission. Ask yourself, “what do we stand for?” Then pick a charity, non-profit, or social cause that speaks directly to that.
You’ll want to pick a partner that matches your company’s ethos, and a cause that will resonate closely with your target market. Make sure the organization you choose to support is one that everyone (from the C-suite to employees on the ground) can get behind.
As you start to develop your campaign, use your creativity to reach out to a wide audience. Your cause-based marketing campaign isn’t just an opportunity to reach out to customers in new ways.
You might even want to use your campaign as a way to help with inventory management and get those more slow-moving products off the shelves.
Remember that the most effective cause-based campaigns are ones that are topical and timely. Brands that are quick to respond to events and trends in real-time set themselves up for the best results.
Once you’ve picked your cause, it’s time to promote it. You’ll want to have a communications plan with a clear message so make sure you’re also clear about your brand identity to start with. How does your campaign align with core company goals and values? How can you show this?
A big part of promoting a giving-based campaign involves mobilizing consumers in their giving. Consumers who are sympathetic to your cause will want to know how they can help and then see that their contributions are making a real difference.
Use your company’s media platforms to encourage giving and provide results-based testimonials and success stories. Encouraging customers to share their individual contributions and efforts on their own platforms will help keep the conversation going and encourage others to get on board.
A great way to do this is to create a social media campaign that gets people talking. Generate a hashtag or catchy CTA that users can easily tag and share.
Identity marketing is all about creating personalized offers that consumers can get behind. This marketing method goes hand-in-hand with cause marketing to further drive customer loyalty and retention. The more personalized the content you put out, the more engaged and aligned your consumer will feel with your chosen cause.
Cause marketing is a fantastic way to give back to the communities you serve while building brand engagement and supporting growth. Consider making it part of your brand story.