A simple, often overlooked marketing strategy that may reap great benefits for your business is volunteering and giving back to the community. Large corporations like Wells Fargo, Google, and Goldman Sachs Group make notable donations to charities every year that serve an additional purpose than philanthropy alone. Volunteering and donating to charitable causes is an essential component of many companies’ marketing campaigns.
Are charitable efforts part of your company’s marketing strategy? Supporting a cause, charity, or nonprofit offers a significant ROI for your business, ranging from a tight-knit company culture to higher customer approval ratings that may give you the competitive edge that your business needs.
4 Ways Your Business Can Give Back to Charitable Causes
Cultivating strong relationships with the people in your community is a fundamental part of running a thriving business. A marketing strategy that’s especially useful with a limited budget is giving back to charitable causes through volunteering and donating. This is an effective way to earn local name recognition and awareness for your business while also giving back and supporting philanthropic causes.
Here are a few ways that your business can get involved with the community through volunteering and donating:
1. Involve Your Customers in Choosing Charitable Causes
One way to build a connection with your customers and serve your community is to directly ask your customers through social media, emails, and surveys how they would like to see your business give back. Figure out what’s essential to your customers and encourage them also to get involved.
2. Skills-Based Volunteering
Team members in your organization can use their specialized talents and skills to help support nonprofits and other charitable organizations. For example, an attorney may look for legal-based volunteer opportunities, or a social media specialist could help a local animal shelter with a social campaign to spread the word about an adoption event.
3. Donations and Sponsorships
There are times when volunteering out in the community isn’t possible—especially if you have no employees, or during current social distancing parameters. If you’re a solopreneur with no free time or you indeed cannot volunteer, consider sponsoring a local cause or donating your product or service to a nonprofit that could benefit from it.
4. Donate a Percentage of Sales to Charity
If allowing employees time off to volunteer together or individually isn’t possible, consider a strategic sales promotion by donating a portion of sales from a specific product, service, or time frame to a charity or nonprofit. Perhaps your company supports a particular cause that aligns with business values. In that case, you could run this sales promotion during a day or month that raises awareness for the cause, like in October for Breast Cancer Awareness.
How to Use Volunteering and Donating in Your Marketing Strategy
Small and large businesses alike can promote their charitable work that provides value to their community to heighten their company’s exposure locally and on social media. For example, consider the following strategies to market your company’s charitable endeavors:
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- Businesses that sponsor an organization or event can look forward to seeing their logos displayed across promotional materials and social media. That will get their brand in front of a new audience and, potentially, new customers.
- Employees who volunteer to support a cause can take photos and use them in new content on their company’s website, blog, or social media pages to create ongoing support from existing customers and draw attention from new ones.
- Contact your local chamber of commerce and apply for an award to gain recognition for your company’s charitable deeds. Most chambers of commerce are happy to support local businesses, and if yours has made a positive impact in the community, you may become locally recognized.
- Make your own volunteer award to honor local businesses who have made company wide efforts volunteering, donating, and supporting nonprofits and charitable causes. This is a great way to gain local recognition, especially if there are no existing volunteer awards for businesses within your community.
There are countless ways for businesses to support charitable causes that resonate with their company culture and customers. Promoting those efforts shines a light on the good your business is doing for the community and the cause you’re supporting. So start planning how your company can get out there, share the experience, and enjoy the influx of positive customer approval ratings that will undoubtedly benefit your business.
Discover More Innovative Marketing Strategies that Deliver Results for Your Business
Charitable efforts like donating and volunteering within your community are great ways to strengthen company morale and boost customer support. Suppose your business hasn’t yet considered adding philanthropy to your overall marketing strategy. In that case, it’s never too late to start giving back and show your customers that your company cares!
Want to discover more creative ways to earn higher customer approval ratings and overall sales? Contact Market My Market and schedule a free consultation.
