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Cause Marketing

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tues, 4/14/2015

Supporting the effort of a non-profit campaign can be the most rewarding effort your company can ever do. That being said, selecting the non-profit to support, creating ideas around the campaign, and then execution of the campaign, can be the most difficult tasks asked of your employees
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Many benefits surface when supporting a non-profit during a marketing campaign, up to and including funding the non-profit for various needs. Deciding which non-profit to support can be difficult because you need full cooperation from both your staff and the staff of the non-profit, to make the campaign successful.

Come up with a short list of organizations to support, by asking around your company. If two or three of your staff members already support an effort, chances are they will buy in to a company wide marketing campaign, easier than if you select one without their input. Once the organization is selected, you may go back to the person or people who already support the organization, and see if they would like to be chair or co-chair of the campaign.

Now that you have your team in place to execute the effort, goals need to be established. They may surround monetary goals, and at the same time, there could be several other goals to achieve along the way. It may be exposure to certain groups of people, or may be the number of media outlets who will cover the event at no charge, etc.

Once the goals are in place, assign each member of the company team to tasks that will lead toward the goals. Develop timelines for completion, backing away from the end day of the campaign, making sure there is plenty of time to reach the goals. Then go for it!

Sounds like a lot of work, and it is. At the end of the day, you will experience some of the most gratifying moments of your life. Oh yea, remember to smile and have fun during the execution!

What are your challenges when it comes to developing cause marketing campaigns? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next timeā€¦