In today’s rocky economy it may be small businesses that have may have the most to gain from integrating cause marketing into their marketing efforts. For purposes of definition, cause marketing is a relationship that bridges commerce and cause in a way that benefits both parties.
Cause marketing has been shown to improve sales, brand and increase customer loyalty. It can help a company stand out from competitors and improve employee recruiting and retention. And it does several and sometimes all these things while helping a cause.
Cause marketing is like red wine. It feels good and it’s good for you.
Here then are ‘7 Tips to Turbocharge Your Small Business Marketing With Cause Marketing.’
- Pick an appropriate cause. Consider not only a cause’s appeal, but its capacity to support your effort. It may be that the best cause marketing fit for your small business may be a small charity.
- Weigh the option of weaving cause marketing into your overall business strategy. General Mills’ Boxtops for Education campaign, which benefits tens of thousands of local schools nationwide, has gone on year-round for a dozen years. It’s a key part of their business model. Galactic Pizza in
- Don’t ‘causewash.’ We all know what greenwashing is. That’s when you make false or overstated claims about the greenness of your product, service or company. Well, you can causewash, too. But don’t do it. Your customers are savvy. And if they begin to not trust your intentions or the authenticity of your cause marketing campaign, it will backfire on you.
- Consider doing cause marketing for a small business peer in the developing world using Kiva.org or another microenterprise lender. You know what it’s like to finance the startup and ongoing operations of your small business. So too do millions of existing or budding entrepreneurs in the developing world. With an outfit like Kiva, your business and your customers could pick a fellow entrepreneur in the developing world to support, and then follow their results.
- Make your cause marketing offer really compelling. When you buy a pair of TOMS Shoes, the company gives away another pair to a child in the developing world. TOMS Shoes does precious little advertising. They don’t have to. Their word of mouth has been so good they’ve gotten exposure they couldn’t have purchased.
- Give your cause marketing campaign a fitting amount of support. You don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money promoting your campaign. But you do need to support it. And as every small businessperson knows, time and money are almost interchangeable. You just have to decide which you value most. Let’s say you own a small fly fishing shop and you’re offering $5 to Trout Unlimited when they buy $100 or more worth of gear. You could post that on your blog, website or FaceBook page, put up a sign in front of the register, send out a press release, Twitter it, include it in your newsletter, etc. Remember, one of the benefits of cause marketing is that it gives your business a new story to tell to customers, prospects and the press. Take advantage of that.
- Proceed cautiously if your business doesn’t face the consumer. The research is clear. Companies that advertise benefit the most from cause marketing. Now there is such a thing as B2B cause marketing that can really benefit your business. But to pull that off you probably need some help.
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