So many of you miss the opportunity to tie in cause-related marketing. It’s the perfect ingredient to demonstrate leadership in your community.
Here’s the point – Being involved in your community is one of your strongest tools to help build brand awareness. While you need to be directly involved in organizations that give back, you also need to make your business stand out.
Doing a successful promotion with a benefit to the consumer to drive traffic to your business is excellent. But what if you could do more than that? How about tying in a local nonprofit you believe in and making your promotion stand out even more?
The next time you’re ramping up a special offer, tie in a nonprofit organization for a piece of the success. I’m not suggesting you give all your profits away, just a percentage or an amount per sale. And if you do it right, there are a few other benefits:
- Contact the nonprofit in advance so they know you’re supporting them.
- Ask permission to use their logo in your promotion – if they give you the okay, it’ll add to the impact. If not, don’t worry about it.
- Use your blog to publish a post about the organization and why you feel they’re important. Close the post with a link to whatever you’re doing that involves the nonprofit.
- Put the word out in those social media channels that target your audience.
- Be an ambassador for the nonprofit all year long – not just when you’re doing a promotion.
When Don Blair and I did “Body Parts” together, we tied in the ALS Association with a donation for each book sold. Why? Because both Don’s wife Donna and my grandfather died of ALS. It made us both feel good, and while the book was obviously meant to make money, it 8was good to raise awareness for the fight against ALS and give back.
There’s nothing wrong with good old capitalism, but if you can give back to your community simultaneously, it raises the bar on your brand awareness.
