What is Cause Marketing?

Customers love voting with their dollars. They're looking for brands with the same values, supporting the same environmental or social goals, or matching their advocacy for their local community.  

A Harris Poll in 2022 found that "82% of shoppers want a consumer brand's values to align with their own, and they'll vote with their wallet if they don't feel a match." But your organization doesn't have to completely restructure your supply chain to align with your consumers' values. Instead, an innovative marketing approach called cause marketing can help you reach conscious consumers, build your connections within your local community, and give your brand's reputation a boost along the way.  

Cause marketing campaigns are collaborative projects between a business and a nonprofit organization or a business acting to promote or help a specific cause. For example, a retail store may host a food drive or donation campaign for a local pet shelter.  

Alternatively, a company may host or sponsor a nonprofit event. Both parties benefit from these campaigns: the business gets a reputation for being ethically motivated, and the nonprofit receives more attention, funding, or reach. Customers and nonprofit patrons also benefit because the collaboration aligns with their values and helps them feel great about their purchases. 

Create a Cause Marketing Campaign in These 6 Easy Steps 

This framework is designed to help your company build campaigns and local relationships that will foster great business for months and years. 

Follow these six simple steps to create your first cause marketing campaigns: 

1. Select a Cause

Companies can support many different causes through their marketing efforts; each could perfectly fit your brand. However, it helps to choose a mission that ties strongly to your business goals and niche. 

Why? 

There's a much stronger sense of alignment. A clean water initiative will interest your customers, employees, and other stakeholders if you sell fishing supplies. If you have a coffee shop, food-related causes, ethical supply chains, and recycling initiatives can tie into your brand. Look for options that align with your company values, not just your niche. This can help you build partnerships that will last much longer than a single campaign. 

Once you've created a list of prospective nonprofit organizations or causes, zero in on the ones your target market cares about most. This strategic step will make the campaign even more effective. 

2. Create a Clear and Compelling Message

Great copy and graphics design work can help make your cause marketing even more appealing. Create all the different messaging types you'd want for your campaigns — taglines, calls to action, program names, video and image ads, etc. — to make your message compelling and memorable.  

If you're collecting funds for a national nonprofit organization, they may already have brand assets you can incorporate into your marketing materials to clarify the focus. 

3. Select the Right Channels to Reach Your Target Audience

Advertise your cause goals just like you would with a new product release or event. Your target market will want to know if you're collecting donations, raising money, or collaborating with a known organization. Some of the channels you can use are: 

• Email: Send messages to customers and subscribers in your mailing list. 
• Radio: Purchase time on local radio stations to spread brand awareness, especially if your cause is locally based. 
• Social Media: Create posts on all of your social media channels. Communicate any events or timelines, so interested audiences don't miss out. If you partner with a nonprofit, you can post on each other's social media pages to share audiences. 

But don't post anything just yet. At this stage, you're creating materials and preparing for a launch. 

4. Find a Partner

If you want to partner directly with a nonprofit organization, now's the time to find the perfect fit. You can raise money or collect goods for nonprofits, collaborate with local chapters of larger organizations, or find a grassroots partner in your local community. As you reach out, make sure you and your new partner understand each party's responsibilities, your actions, and how each campaign stage will work. 

5. Launch Your Campaign

At this stage, it's time to start the campaign! You can release your marketing materials, air your radio ads, and set up signs or collections posts in your store. Mark the start and end of the campaign so everyone knows how long it will last when the final day is, and when they'll hear about the results. 

6. Track and Measure Success

Throughout the campaign, be sure to track the results of your efforts. Some of the aspects you can follow include the following: 

• The amount of money donated/the number of goods collected for donation (participants will want to know those numbers, and you can post them as a callback) 
• The number of new customers won through the collaboration and similar cause marketing benefits for your business 
• What went wrong so you can improve it for your next campaign 
• What went well so you can continue to develop your cause marketing strategies 

Mid-West Family Is Here to Help with Your Cause Marketing Campaigns 

Creating a cause marketing campaign is rewarding but can also be overwhelming. The team at Mid-West Family is here to help you every step of the way with strategies, marketing services, and multi-media marketing management. Contact us today to start your cause marketing campaigns!