Why Using a Social Cause to Connect to Your Millennial Audience is Still a Smart Approach
Social causes as a form of marketing is a controversial subject, with some describing it as misleading and manipulative. Regardless of what one’s take on using charity or a social cause marketing, there’s no questioning its effectiveness with younger generations.
Why we do it
Social cause marketing is believed to have begun in the mid-1970s through a joint campaign between the Marriot Corporation and the March of Dimes. The Marriot promoted their family entertainment complex in California while raising funds for the March of Dimes cause, which succeeded at promoting the corporation as well as the cause. Since then, so many others have followed suit with joint charity campaigns. In this era of increased consumer awareness and interest in causes such as the environment, brands win major points when they engage.
What is your brand doing?
Millennial consumers don’t just want to buy from a corporation that dehumanizes its customers down to a number or profit margin. They want to know more about the brands they’re spending on and supporting. Is your brand doing anything to make the world a better, kinder place? Deepen loyalty with your audience base with an investment in a social cause. Show the world your business isn’t just about turning a profit, and that it’s got some real values and a mission behind it.
What happens to a brand who promotes a social cause?
More than two-thirds of millennials say their perception of a brand improves when said brand supports a social cause they approve of. Although you don’t want to appear boastful or as if you’re beating your chest over any charity accomplishments, strategic publicity of a cause or charity can be integral to setting up your company for success. In digital marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing, you don’t always want to be selling. You’ve got to say something meaningful. A social cause may be the piece you’re missing.
Does social cause marketing work to attract consumers?
More than half of consumers this year will buy from a brand that supports a social cause. The percentage of consumers who value a brand that supports a social cause has grown with each passing year, since 2010. Up to 87 percent of consumers are also likely to switch brands if one brand is aligned with a social cause, if price and quality are equal. This is because consumers believe when a company donates some of its profits to a worthy cause instead of their bottom line, that company’s more deserving of one’s consumer dollar. Social cause marketing is a very simple idea but it works.
What social cause should my brand support?
If it’s not obvious what social cause marketing could work for your brand, give it some thought. There are a number of social causes that are extremely popular with millennial audiences, including brands playing a role in development in underdeveloped parts of the world and environmental or eco-friendly causes. You may also choose to do something smaller and localized, offering to raise money for a charity cause in your own community. Promoting charity initiatives and social causes like this reflect extremely well on a business, and give insight into what’s important.
How can my brand use social cause marketing?
There are many ways you can employ social cause marketing. A lot of brands won’t ask for anything from their consumers, other than to support the same cause that you support. Some brands are a little more involved though with a number of approaches. For example, you can offer a donation with purchase, provide a link or offer to consumers to join your campaign and supporters, a ‘buy one, give one’ campaign, hold a volunteerism rally, offer a way to donate, consumer pledge drive, or a request for consumer action.
Choosing a non-partisan, inoffensive cause
As a small to medium sized business, or a start-up company, you don’t want to immediately disregard consumers who don’t share the same political view as you. Choosing a side between liberal and conservative, or a political ideology of any kind, is wrong. To this point, you shouldn’t appear partisan. It’s much more advantageous and kind to be non-partisan, and to choose a social cause that does not carry political controversy with it.
Consumers are expecting more from brands
It’s not enough now just to do good business. Cause marketing’s a great approach at communicating there’s more to your company than simply making money. Once a brand has influence, power, or a platform, it’s time to use it for positive means. You can publish your efforts through digital marketing, giving you more to talk about than your products or services. Social causes convert big in email, social media, and content marketing. If you can show you’re trying to change the world for the better, it almost creates a type of gravity that brings in consumers.
Write about it in blogs and articles regularly
Content marketing in blogs and articles should promote a social cause on a schedule. This isn’t saying every blog should include a mention of your social cause. While you’re writing about a variety of topics related to your products or services, don’t hesitate to add an article detailing issues you’re trying to solve, a charity you support, or what your brand’s doing to make the world a better place. After all, if you don’t talk about your efforts, who will – you’ve got to make publicity!
Don’t just write, take photos often
If your social cause has you attending events locally or even if it’s creating action elsewhere in the world, get photos and videos if you can. A picture truly does paint a thousand words and tagged right, you can send an image all over social media on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and on communities like reddit. A video marketing social cause campaign you can also publish on platforms like YouTube and Facebook. These should be professionally taken images, although they don’t have to be perfect. Images give you more content to use.
Why video marketing is so important to a social cause
What form of content marketing has the highest ROI – you guessed it, video. Accumulating and producing videos to share on social media and different platforms, including your website, doesn’t have to be complicate. Even a 15-second or 30-second clip can tell a beautiful story. Video storytelling can be central to tapping into emotion and because of the manner it’s produced, video is something that can be reused again and again. It builds goodwill, is cost-effective, and the ROI is compellingly high.
A loyalty building strategy
Brands that use social causes create loyalty among audiences. The more loyalty you foster, the greater the likelihood it is a consumer will choose you over a competitor. This loyalty doesn’t originate from price point, a product release, or innovation. It’s all about communication. Like-minded individuals naturally form community. Social causes bring people together. Use this.
What’s a basic social media marketing campaign for social causes?
Set up accounts for your brand on the major social platforms you intend to use. Then, commit to a post of at least once a day on all platforms. Not every post needs to relate to a social cause you support however it is good to stick to a regular plan. You may wish to mention your social cause once a week, or more or less frequently depending on the time of year and what you’re promoting. Content can be used from your site, coming in the form of blogs, video, images, or infographics. Plan ahead as to what areas your content will focus on. This is a basic social media marketing campaign for social causes.
Are you looking for high quality digital marketing to promote your social cause? Unlimited Exposure would love to help.
