Purposeful Giving: Align Your Business with the Magic of Cause Marketing with Beverly Cornell

Ready to make your brand’s giving efforts more impactful? 💡 In this episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing, host Beverly Cornell unpacks the magic of cause marketing with intention.

Key Takeaways:

1. Intentionality is Everything
   Cause marketing isn’t just about following trends or making donations. It’s about aligning your giving efforts with your brand’s core values and mission. When your chosen cause reflects what your business stands for, it builds authenticity and creates deeper connections with your audience.
2. There’s More to Giving Than Money
   Think beyond financial donations! Whether it’s offering your services pro bono, organizing volunteer efforts, or creating co-branded campaigns, there are countless ways to make an impact. These approaches not only support the cause but also foster team-building and enhance customer engagement.
3. Your Giving Strategy Should Be Measurable
   To make the most of your cause marketing efforts, set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Whether you aim to raise funds, volunteer hours, or awareness, having clear benchmarks ensures your efforts are impactful and aligned with your business growth.

Plus, Beverly shares the heartwarming story of BC & Associates’ international giving program, empowering team members to make a local impact while contributing to a global vision.

P.S. Ready to spark your unique opportunities and ignite your marketing? Here are three ways to work with us.

1. 📞 Schedule a Complimentary 15-minute Call and let’s delve into your goals and answer any questions you may have.
2. 📘 Read Beverly’s book Marketing for Entrepreneurs a quick guide filled with actionable steps to help make your brand and business shine even brighter. 🎙️ Listen to Beverly’s Marketing Podcast where she interviews entrepreneurs to get inspired and gain new business and marketing insights.
3. 🎓 Learn more about marketing and Enroll in Our Marketing Courses designed to bring clarity to your business efforts. They’re easy-to-understand and self-paced, perfect for busy entrepreneurs like you.

Transcript

Beverly: 0:09

Hello and welcome to another episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, and today we're going to dive into the world of intentional giving. Cause marketing isn't just about writing checks. It's about creating a thoughtful, purpose driven program that aligns with your business's values, resonates with your customers, and makes a real difference. I recently posted a podcast all about gratitude, especially around Thanksgiving. You can check out that episode as well. It builds on that particular promise. So as we step into the season of giving, let's explore how you can develop a cause marketing strategy that not only supports important causes, but also strengthens your brand. When it comes to cause marketing, the key to success is intention. And I learned this from our friends over at Wizzabang, Bob and Susan talk a lot about cause marketing and how it can really help your business. But it all starts with intention. It's about finding a cause that truly aligns with your business's core values and your mission. Why is this so important? Because your customers, especially today's socially conscious consumers, can spot from a mile away, they want to support brands that are genuine in their efforts to make a difference. This isn't about just checking a box. This is about doing something that truly matters to you. You want to choose a cause that reflects what your business stands for, and you can create a more authentic connection with your audience. Those target customers, the people that you serve. This not only enhances your brand's reputation, but also continues to build that know, like trust and loyalty, the loyalty among your customers. So let's start by identifying what truly matters in your business. Ask yourself, what are our core values? What do we stand for? These are the guiding principles that should shape your cause marketing efforts. For instance, if one of your core values is sustainability, you might want to support environmental conservation initiatives. If community is at the heart of your business, local charities or organizations that focus on neighborhood improvement could be a perfect fit. The goal is to choose a cause that not only reflects your values, but also resonates with your customers and the communities that you serve. So a long time ago, In a land far away in Michigan. I was initially going to go for my bachelor's degree in international relations. And I had been a exchange student in both Spain and Brazil for a summer each. And when I was in I am I got to spend 4th of July at the Ambassador's house. And I absolutely loved it, and I realized that maybe I need to be a diplomat going forward. Fast forward to college. I went to college. During my first year of college away, I, I unfortunately, got a very serious mysterious virus that, really sidetracked my college education for about four months. I had to come home from college and after lots and lots of tests and such I did finally get better, but my doctors did recommend that I stick closer to home in case something happened or I had a relapse or something. Because again, it was a mystery. So I did stick close to home, but the program at the local college near where I grew up did not have an international relations program. So this idea of diplomacy was still at the heart of what I wanted to do, but it really wasn't something that was feasible. So the college that I was going to ended up saying, we have a law program if you want to go there. I kind of him and Hans, I don't think law is for me. I don't think I could ever compromise my ethics to defend someone who I knew was guilty or some corporate institution that was hurting people. So I just said that wasn't good for me. So after a couple of years, I said what can I get a degree in four years? I have already taken some of the courses for that you think I might and one of them was communications and marketing. And so I got my bachelor's in communications and marketing. I got my master's in diversity and communications. And so that diversity piece was still there and worked with a couple different, Language, actually three different businesses in the international space. I worked for a culture and language learning company where we taught corporate executives about cultures that they were going to be doing business with. I taught English as second language at one point to executives and their wives. I also worked for a translation agency, mostly doing technical translations, doing their marketing. And then I worked for a tech startup that was a language learning software tool that was a competitor to Rosetta Stone. So that international language, diversity element ran through my career, but I wasn't a diplomat. Recently, my team has become very international, as well as my clientele. We are now an international business. We have clients in kinder and in this process every quarter each of us focus on a different community effort, something that is passionate to us in our local communities. So we are fully remote all over the world. And I thought it was better. I've donated a long time for like causes that matter to me. But I wanted them to find causes that mattered to them. And that could be hours of service or financial. And then if there was some big project, maybe I could somehow help and support it. So it became very intentional as part of their quarterly reviews. Everybody picks one and it aligns with their personal values as well. So this is something that's extremely important to me, but we had to figure that out. And what's amazing about this because we have such an international presence, it actually. Makes me a little bit emotional because we, I feel like we're helping the world and that I do have that impact that I wanted to have to make the world a better place when I was 18 years old, 17 years old that young Beverly who viewed the world differently, a little less jaded, a little bit more optimistic, but I still get to have impact in ways that matter, that I'm passionate about, that fits our core values, that fits our team, that I think uses our skills. And our passions in a way that can benefit so many people. Once you've identified a cause that aligns to your values, the next step is going to be to develop a giving plan that is strategic and impactful. This isn't just about donating money. There are several ways that you can support a cause so you can do financial donations. which could be a percentage of profits that could be dedicated to your chosen cause. For example, you might decide that for every service you sell, a portion goes directly to that cause. You could also do in kind donations. So consider offering your services or products to the cause. If you're a marketing agency like us, we can provide pro bono marketing services to a nonprofit that aligns with your values. You could volunteer time, get your team involved by organizing volunteer days. This not only supports the cause, but also fosters team building and company culture. You could do collaborative campaigns. This could also be extremely good for spreading the word about your business. You could work together with the cause to create a co branded campaign that raises awareness and funds to each others. audience. This could involve some special promotion events. It could be like special sale days or weekends where like 10 percent of the profits that we can go to that particular business. So they could send people that weekend to help support their cause and a fundraising campaign or, through social media and email initiatives as well. The key is to set Smart goals with any initiative. You want to make sure it's specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound that outlines exactly what you want to achieve with your cause marketing efforts, whether it's raising a certain amount of money, reaching a specific number of volunteer hours, or sprint or expanding your brand's reach. Having these clear goals will help you measure success and stay on track. Your customers are your biggest allies. And when it comes to cause marketing, engage them by making it easy for them to participate in your giving efforts. Currently, we are actually exploring about having a Nonprofit arm of the business where people could donate in a tax free way. So you have to make it work for your business, but for us, we're actually exploring the idea of having a 5013C where you could, our clients and our community could donate and help support each of our team members around the world, based on the causes that matter to them. When you have your community and your clients that will support you, this could be as simple as matching their donations, encouraging them to share with their own stories and related to the cause or creating social media campaigns to highlight their involvement. But what about when you receive donations from other organizations? I know that being in a community, especially if it's a brick and mortar store, sometimes people approach you to help support organizations locally. This is where having a clear and structured giving back policy comes in handy. It helps you manage these requests and ensure that the causes that you're supporting align with your business values and goals. You can even create a simple donation request form that outlines what you support, how you choose partners, and what you expect from the partnership. This ensures that every collaboration That you have is mutually beneficial and aligned with your company's mission. So once your cause marketing program is in place, it is time to let people know all about it. Creating a cause marketing flyer is a great way to communicate your efforts. This flyer could highlight. The cause you're supporting, explain how customers can get involved and showcase the impact of their contributions. Make sure it's visually appealing and easy to understand and share this flyer in your store, through your emails and on social media to maximize its reach. We actually have a giving back tab on our website where we outline all the things that we participate in and have given money to. We talk about how much money we've given away, why it matters. And then direct any of our social media campaigns and email campaigns to that particular page. It just really depends on how involved you want to get with this particular giving back campaign. Developing a cause marketing program with intention takes some time and effort. When you build these programs, the rewards are so completely worth it. All that hard work is worth it. So not only will you make a positive impact in your community, but you'll also strengthen your brand's reputation and build deeper connections with your customers. So as you think about your next steps, remember to align your cause with your values, create a thoughtful giving plan, engage your audience and clearly communicate your efforts. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Spark Ignite Your Marketing. Don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur who can benefit from these insights. Until next time, keep sparking and igniting.