Cause marketing is an increasingly vital tool for reaching your customers, but many marketers are still unfamiliar with implementing it effectively. Its goal is to establish your brand as a core part of your community, which helps develop loyalty and encourages lifetime customers. Fortunately, implementing cause marketing is surprisingly simple to accomplish, requiring you to adjust your messaging or partner with entities who share your vision for a better community.
The Importance of Cause Marketing
Cause marketing taps into the personal values of your audience. Since customers are more likely to trust brands who share the same values as them, they would be more likely to trust your brand. Your cause could be supporting local charities, a pledge to make a cleaner environment, or speaking about societal injustice. Cause marketing is compelling when marketing to Gen Z and Millennial customers since 83% of these customers feel a brand's values should match their own. Millennial and Gen Z customers also aren't afraid to act when they believe a brand supports negative causes, as 65% of them said they would boycott a company for its stance on important issues.
Additionally, cause marketing is important across all generations. Approximately 71% of consumers were more likely to stay loyal to brands with similar values as theirs. Since Gen Z currently has most of the spending power, cause marketing will only continue to grow in importance.
How You Can Benefit from Cause Marketing
Cause marketing is surprisingly simple to implement and quickly establishes your brand's connection towards its unique community. To begin, you'll need to familiarize yourself with your local audience members. What community causes are most important to them, and how much are they willing to donate to those causes?
Once you know where your community's interests lie, you can start to develop consistent charitable branding around those causes. To start, it's as simple as putting out a social media post stating your awareness about an issue. Over time you'll develop an association with customers regarding these issues, which helps keep you at the front of their minds when making purchasing decisions!
However, words aren't enough for effective cause marketing since you also need to give back to your community actively! You could act by making monetary donations to a local charity, donating toys and essentials to families in need, or hosting charitable events in your area, inspiring more members of your audience to get involved.
You can further enhance a cause marketing campaign by forming local partnerships with charitable organizations. You'll gain new audience members by attracting the people loyal to those entities. Don't forget to promote the partnership and your other philanthropic actions online to grow your audience outside of local boundaries!
Even if your company never intended to raise awareness for a particular issue, cause marketing could still work to your advantage. For example, the outdoor gear brand Patagonia initially only sold climbing tools. The owner, Yvon Chouinard, quickly realized that using a company's platform and products was a great way to inspire positive changes.
As the years progressed, the company would make all its products recyclable and donate thousands of dollars towards endangered species preservation. The company even encouraged its customers to buy fewer products to help reduce consumer waste! Even with such a bizarre strategy, the company's yearly sales totaled $543 million after that campaign, an increase of over 30%!
Incorporating Cause into Your Campaign
If your company is relatively new, you're in the perfect position to develop a mission around a specific cause. Adopting a particular identity early on will attract more customers because they already support your company's core ideals. These customers are also more receptive to interactions with your brand on social media, building a solid brand community!
Any small business knows that it can be challenging to initially build your brand's reputation. Cause marketing does most of the work for you, establishing your company as a charitable figure with the community's interests at heart. It also helps your brand stand out from bigger, rivaling businesses that don't support any notable causes!
Even if your brand has been around for years, adopting a few cause marketing elements can be beneficial! It's as simple as running a promotion with proceeds benefiting a local charity of your choosing. You can also help promote (or even host!) fundraisers in your area.
One of the most effective ways to make meaningful connections with local organizations is through a media partner. Your company may not be ready to host events itself, especially if it's a small business with limited resources. A media partner can still facilitate your connections with local charities that align perfectly with your brand's messaging!
Learn More Cause Marketing Tips with a Media Partner
Cause marketing is more important than ever. It benefits both businesses and the charities that they support, all while promoting goodwill from thousands of consumers! With a vital mission and the help of a professional media partner, cause marketing can keep your brand relevant for years.
