Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbons Can Help Expand Your Business
Want to Grow your Business? Lend a Hand.
From affinity credit cards to pink breast cancer awareness ribbons, examples of for-profit organizations partnering with charities for their mutual benefit, abound. Companies have discovered that charity marketing offers numerous opportunities to not only grow one’s business, but also help others by appealing to people who want to associate with organizations that support causes, assist the disadvantaged, etc. Savvy start-ups are capitalizing on this altruism to increase awareness, generate goodwill, and drive demand.
Contributing to this trend is broader acceptance of the role of business in society – it is no longer gauche to profit from charitable giving. In fact, charities are looking for businesses to help them with their causes. Aware of businesses’ ulterior motives, today’s charities will work with organizations to maximize their ROI. So why not grow your business by lending a helping hand?
Choose the Right Charity
The charity or cause you select will dictate how much exposure you get, the extent of your marketing reach, and the quality of your networking/prospecting opportunities. As well, when you partner with a charity, you leverage the brand and goodwill (or bad will) of the charity – who you choose to associate with affects your brand. So choose carefully!
Pick a charity you believe in and know something about – not only will you have more fun, but you’ll also feel better about allocating your company’s time and resources to a cause you care about.
Consider local as well as national/global charities. While you may get more mainstream media coverage working with a national/global charity, you may also get lost amongst the charity’s other corporate sponsors. Sponsoring a local charity increases the likelihood that your company’s contribution will be visible.
Choose charities that offer opportunities to show off your organization’s skills. For example, if your organization markets professional IT services, donate consulting hours to set-up a technology lab for a local senior center. If you offer Web design services, offer to build or revamp a charity’s website.
As well, choose a charity or cause that will resonate with your target audience. If you sell software to the education market, choose charities that make technology more accessible to children, teachers, and/or schools. Find out what your customers care about and show support for their concerns.
Promote Your Involvement
Key to effective charity marketing is promotion of your company’s good works.
Issue a press release publicizing your company’s donation or participation in a charity event. Write about your efforts in newsletters and blogs, as well as social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Charity marketing programs promoted via social media sites often become “viral”, leading to not only greater awareness of your company’s efforts, but also of your chosen cause or charity.
When sponsoring events, choose high-profile events or causes that draw media attention and put you contact with influential people. Encourage employees to volunteer for events and participate in non-profit boards. Keep in mind that corporate decision makers often sit on the boards of charities. Not only do charities provide a terrific vehicle for raising your company’s profile, but they also offer a wonderful networking opportunity for you and your staff.
As well, ask the charity to not only recognize your efforts/contributions, but also promote your company. Request prominently placed signage at an event, or ask that the company be mentioned in the charity’s newsletters or marketing materials. Additionally, if you designate a product or service for the charity with a percentage of all sales going to the charity, encourage the charity to sell or promote the offering. By asking the charity to promote your company, product and/or service, you will be able to increase your reach, as well as further capitalize on the charity’s brand and goodwill.
Market your Product or Service to your Charity’s Stakeholders
From donors to board members, every charity has a following of potential prospects for your business that share a common characteristic: an affinity for a particular charity or cause. It’s highly likely that these stakeholders have other characteristics in common. Profile your charity’s stakeholders and develop marketing campaigns specific to this audience.
Create special promotions targeted at this audience. For example, donate a percentage of sales generated from this audience back to the charity. Offer discounts to charity donors/members. You can also create a customer loyalty program for supporters of your charity, to encourage members to purchase your products or services.
Additionally, consider partnering with your charity to target a particular audience or market. For example, if you sell HIPAA compliance software, develop and fund a telemarketing campaign that targets major donors in the healthcare industry. Not only will you help the charity to grow its donor base, but you’ll also have the opportunity to develop contacts – perhaps even relationships with – key decision makers within your target vertical. By leveraging the goodwill of your charity, you may be able to get past gatekeepers you may not be able to get past, on your own.
She Who Hesitates is Lost
Lastly, remember that while you may have an ulterior motive for getting involved, at least you’re getting involved. Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed to engage in charity marketing. Charities want help with their causes, and will gladly work with you to help you help them. And if you don’t do it, some other marketer will!
One quick and easy way to get started is with www.allthis.com – a new online auction site that allows individuals or organizations with a cause to convert time and talent into dollars. For a small fee, you can quickly create an auction for a product or service, to benefit a charity of your choosing. Using widgets for Twitter and Facebook, you can easily promote your auction as well as your company, while raising funds for your charity.
Check-out Washington Square Consulting’s allthis.com auction to benefit the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation at http://bit.ly/dfkqI9. Just creating this auction resulted in a >5% increase in daily unique visitor traffic to www.washingtonsquareconsulting.com.
For help with your allthis.com auction or with other charity marketing activities, visit www.washingtonsquareconsulting.com, or email us at info@washingtonsquareconsulting.com. Or better yet, help us help others by bidding on our auction at http://bit.ly/dfkqI9, today!
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