Marketing Matters

Go Green! Our Socially Conscious Business, Working Towards a Greater Good. Change Agents! Insert next catchphrase here.

These buzzwords are being touted as "strategies" and they are on the tip of everyone’s marketing tongue as they distill into messaging that appears daily in a campaign near you. The good news is we are living in an awakening world where we’re being offered plenty to feel good about. And if your organization is one that offers or wants to offer this good to everyone, maybe now is the time to find a marketing agency that specializes in separating you and your good deeds from all the others. After all, social-cause marketing is one of the fastest-growing segments for advertising and communications agencies. Just throw a rock, you’ll hit one of us.

But is that the right approach? Unfortunately, just saying you’re something does not make it so – whether it’s a marketing agency convincing you it specializes in your field or your company jumping on a bandwagon to appeal to an enlightened audience. Specific experience developing marketing for responsible efforts and organizations is just a beginning.

The real work starts with the truth, yours and the agency you choose. The agency you work with should understand the complexities of how marketing and messaging must work together. They should know that almost every business model or organization has more than one audience and that audiences are not always easily divided by demographic, but rather by their needs or personal perspectives. These are just basic tenets of marketing, and while some agencies may have told stories for organizations similar to yours, in their efforts to put the spotlight on your cause or social-good effort they may be missing the most important aspects of how you can get your audience to take action.

When it comes time to work with a communications expert, don’t consider only marketers who promote themselves as social-cause specialists. First ask yourself what you truly need out of your marketing and branding. Here are some simple questions that can help you focus:

1. Would the the familiarity of your past marketing team help or hinder if they were to be refocused on a new or improved social message?
2. Do you need to look like you just belong to a movement? Or is your message and value proposition compelling and believable?
3. Do the experts you are talking to know where messaging ends and strategies that persuade your audience to action begin?
4. Does your budget allow you to differentiate yourselves or are you better off ‘catching the wave’ of overall segment awareness to optimize our marketing ROI?

In today’s marketplace, a business strategy that: aligns marketing with development and mission is the the best way to generate the most out of any communication budget because when these three tiers are focused upon they can generate the triad of success for mission-based services or development reliant organizations: brand equity, funds AND social impact.