More than 64% of consumers nowadays are described as “belief-driven buyers,” meaning that they choose where to shop and who to do business with based on shared beliefs, concerns, and causes. Customers are looking to put their money to good use, with more than 82% saying that brands should take a stand on social issues. [1]
An extension of social responsibility efforts, cause marketing and cause-related marketing do an even better job of generating brand awareness and creating a valuable public image for your small business. Cause marketing also provides other boosts to businesses, ranging from increased customer loyalty to improved employee engagement and faster recovery from negative incidents (product issues, customer service problems, etc.).
Here we’ll take a deeper dive into cause marketing, looking at what it is, how to develop a cause marketing campaign for your small business, some of the benefits of cause-related advertising, and some good cause-marketing examples that will provide inspiration for your efforts.
What is cause marketing?
Cause marketing (or cause-related marketing) is a kind of material support that a business offers to a nonprofit organization or event. This can range from sponsoring a 10K fun run benefiting cancer research to running a toy drive for a local children’s hospital. However, cause marketing can also describe efforts by companies and corporations to create a marketing program centered on a social issue or cause. Businesses may create cause-marketing campaigns based around national issues or events, such as “get out the vote” messaging or supporting the U.S. Olympic athletes during the summer or winter Olympics.
Cause marketing can take a number of different forms, but the key is that it creates a connection between a company and a cause or nonprofit organization, and that connection is both ethical and beneficial for everyone involved.
Benefits of cause marketing
Cause-based marketing provides SMBs with a huge range of benefits, and the first of them is the potential for gaining and retaining customers. Obviously, the goal of any business is to gain customers and grow, and cause-based marketing shows that you care about their causes and want to make a difference.
As a small-business owner, connecting with people in your community is one of the critical ingredients for success. And cause-related advertising to your local customer base can create an instant connection with people based on local issues that affect the community.
Of course, supporting a common cause that your community is behind also improves your company’s image. Cause-related marketing establishes that your small business is not only concerned with profit, but that your company is also a part of the community and that you and your employees care about the issues affecting people.
A cause-marketing campaign can also strengthen your connection not only with customers but with employees as well. Employees are driven to support businesses that share their values, and they are more likely to be energized and gain a greater sense of purpose when they see that you and your company recognize issues and take action to help address those issues.
The main types of cause-marketing campaigns
There are several types of cause-marketing campaigns and cause-related advertising that a business can engage in, and it would be impossible to list all of the versions here. However, there are several notable cause-marketing examples that can give you a great starting point for developing a campaign that fits your company, your values, and your customers.
- Sponsorships: Sponsoring an event (such as the 10K fun run we mentioned above) where the proceeds all go toward a common cause or charity is a great way for any organization to get involved in cause marketing. It’s good to make sure that events like these happen every year at the same time, so they can easily be planned for in advance. And with organizers and other sponsors involved, the impact is amplified without a huge expense of time or money (especially important for small-business owners).
- Cause-related products: Some companies will create specific products or product packaging during a cause-marketing campaign, while others may even launch a limited-edition, cause-specific version of a product to raise awareness and commit a percentage of sales revenue to nonprofit causes or organizations.
- Joint fundraising: Dollar matching donations, either from the community or from your employees, is another very common form of cause-based marketing and corporate giving. Similar to sponsorships, joint fundraising efforts help to connect your company with a cause and show your commitment thanks to the dollar matching of a fund drive.
- Employee engagement events: Offering your employees an opportunity to volunteer as a large group for a local cause or a regional organization is another great cause-marketing campaign. Images, video, and interviews from the day make terrific social media content for your company and may also be shared by local news and nonprofit organizations across their channels as well. This will boost your brand and demonstrate your involvement in and commitment to the community.
- Message amplification: Partnering with a nonprofit on a specific message and/or awareness campaign is another way to get involved in cause marketing. Including the message in your existing marketing channels, and even creating a specific email campaign built around awareness, can provide a solid link between your business and the cause or organization being supported.
- Transaction campaigns: One of the most common efforts you will see in cause marketing is donating a portion of each transaction or offering customers the opportunity to “round up” and donate the remaining change to a charitable organization. This can be a quick way to contribute and dip a toe in the cause-based marketing waters.
Examples of effective cause-marketing campaigns
Cause marketing has become a key marketing component for many brands and companies over the years, and there have been some terrific examples of cause-marketing campaigns that were genuine, effective, and impactful.
- NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign: For this effort, NFL players choose a cause that is important to them and customize their cleats to represent that cause. Those cleats are then auctioned and the proceeds are donated to charity, in addition to donations that are solicited from fans to benefit the players’ chosen cause. [2]
- American Express’ “Small Business Saturday”: Launched in 2010, the Small Business Saturday campaign has been a powerful driver of spending and support for small businesses nationwide, countering the big box store boom of Black Friday and the eCommerce focus of Cyber Monday. [3]
- Lyft’s “LyftUp” campaign: Enacted during the pandemic, “LyftUp” provided access to safe rides and transportation for essential workers and frontline employees. [4]
Cause marketing isn’t just for these large companies though. Any business can realize the benefits of cause marketing, drive stronger connections with their customers and community, and even develop mutually beneficial relationships with businesses and organizations that lead to continued growth and success.
How can you develop an effective cause-marketing strategy?
Once you are ready to begin developing a cause-marketing campaign for your business, there are a few steps that will guide you through the process and set you up for a successful launch.
- Choose your cause: This may seem obvious, but identifying, agreeing on, and getting buy-in for the cause you wish to support is by far the most important part of the process. In order to do so, you can explore a number of sources for information including the local news in your area, recent events and causes that other businesses have supported, and best of all, your own employees. Find out what your employees believe are critical issues that are relevant to your community and your business, and ones that they are already supporting and contributing to.
- Choose your organization: If you have selected a cause, there may be several organizations and nonprofits dedicated to that cause. Be sure to do your homework on which is the most trustworthy, which has the biggest impact, and which provides a valuable association for your brand and your company.
- Choose your method of contributing: Will you sponsor an event, establish a fundraiser of some sort, or organize volunteer opportunities? There are numerous options for ways to contribute and partner with organizations and causes. This can be made easier by collaborating with your chosen organization or group to understand what would benefit them the most while being achievable for you and your company. Corporate giving, sponsorships, and numerous other choices exist.
- Build your campaign: With the what, why, and how answered, now is the time to begin building your cause-marketing campaign. And while the message might be different from your usual marketing efforts, the approach doesn’t necessarily have to be. Email, paid and organic brand social content, point-of-sale signage, web videos, online advertising—all are great tools, and all of them are probably part of your effective campaigns already. Make sure that your cause-marketing strategy also includes collaboration and cross-promotion with the nonprofit organization you have chosen. Combining both audiences for online cause-marketing campaigns helps to expand reach and increase the marketing benefits for both organizations.
- Involve your customers: Share the story of your charitable cause with your customers so that they understand why the cause matters, how your company is helping, and how they can get involved. Also, be transparent in your campaign about the benefits of contributing and the concerns that your campaign hopes to address. Charities and social causes are not always well known, so make sure that your marketing plan includes opportunities to inform the public and your loyal customers about the potential positive impact of the campaign and their participation.
How can you measure cause-marketing campaign success?
Like all brand, product, or related marketing campaigns, you want to be able to see how effective your cause-marketing campaign has been. And like those other campaigns, you probably have a number of metrics and tools in place. From email opens and clickthrough rates to social engagement and sales, your cause-marketing campaign should move the needle in several areas. But there are some unique metrics in a cause-related advertising effort that may not be a part of your regular reporting on KPIs.
If your campaign is designed to drive contributions or donations to a nonprofit organization, then your partner organization or charity will have to provide you with access to metrics about contributions and where they are coming from. This way you can see how many of your customers were driven to contribute through email, push, social messaging, and so on.
If your campaign was built around employee volunteerism, then participation is one key metric. But measuring the positive impact for your brand is less straightforward, and might require a new approach to metrics or the development of campaign-specific measures.
You may also be monitoring your brand reputation and the conversation around your brand online, and this can be very helpful when analyzing your cause-marketing campaign as well. If your campaign has a defined date range, you should be able to see how the conversation online has been impacted by those cause-marketing efforts. And your nonprofit or charity partner may be able to review the same information from their end, all of which will help you understand the effectiveness of your efforts.
As with any marketing campaign, there are some gray areas where it is more difficult to get a clear picture of the effectiveness. Brand loyalty, customer loyalty, employee engagement, and other factors may require survey results or focus groups to help you understand how the campaign worked. But some of those may also be impossible to fully determine. Keep this in mind as you develop your plan, and choose the KPIs that make the most sense for your business, your campaign, and the data that will be available to you.
Get started with cause marketing for your small business
Now that you’ve got a more complete picture of cause marketing and the ways that small businesses can benefit from cause-related advertising, it’s the perfect time to sit down with your team and start drafting a plan. As mentioned above, the best place to start is with some conversations. Not only with your employees, but also with experienced marketing consultants who have helped companies drive effective cause-based marketing campaigns.
There are several marketing and advertising experts within the UpCity network who offer a range of services that will be helpful, including specific knowledge of cause marketing areas such as employee engagement, branding and messaging, and much more. From identifying great organizations and social issues to consider, to creating an impactful campaign that drives results for both your business and your partner organization, there is certain to be a selection of verified providers who can make your cause-marketing campaign a success. No matter whether it is your first attempt or your fiftieth, click through to find assistance that aligns with your goals and makes great things possible.
Sources
- 100 branding statistics, global impact, and consumer perception, Linearity
- NFL My Cause My Cleats, NFL
- Shop Small with American Express, American Express
- Transportation is a path to new beginnings, Lyft