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Category Archives: Cause Sales

Selling Cause Marketing in a Down Economy

Written on May 1, 2008 in Cause Marketer's Journal, Cause Sales

There’s no doubt selling sponsorships and cause marketing is a lot harder this year than last. The cause marketing side is especially challenging as many retailers–the backbone industry for many cause marketing programs, whether it be point-of-sale or percentage-of-sale–just aren’t doing well and are looking to cut anything that’s not directly driving sales.

Here’s what we’re saying and doing to keep the partners we have and to recruit new ones.

Cause marketing drives sales. A lot of people view cause marketing as just “branding” or “identity management”. “Yeah, it helps your image but where does it really get you?,” they say. Fortunately, we’ve collected a lot of great evidence that shows that cause marketing can help companies make and save money. One of my favorite is from a retailer that made $350,000 from a coupon they had on our Halloween Town mobile. Those are the kind of results businesses want to hear about and will help get cause marketing viewed differently.

Cause marketing is free advertising. Our point-of-sale programs come at no cost to the retailer. Nothing. Zilch. Nevertheless, they are great ways to build loyalty and favorability with employees and customers, highlight in-store promotions and offers and, of course, raise money for a great cause. When one of our partners wanted to promote a new service to consumers but didn’t want to spend a lot of money advertising it, we printed the offer right on the mobile so employees could point it out and shoppers wouldn’t miss it. The retailer closed more business, we raised more money and shoppers got a great deal–all for a buck. Win-win-win.

Enlist cause marketing champions. As a nonprofit, you can only open so many doors by yourself. It helps to enlist the aid of others. Allies can include media outlets, sports teams, anyone who might have a connection or relationship with key businesses. Your pitch to them is that their advertisers are sick of ad reps showing up with expensive advertising programs. Instead, offer them something for free. Explain that if they have multiple store fronts and lots of foot traffic they can do a point-of-sale program that will raise money for a great cause and underwrite a free advertising program with their favorite radio or TV station, newspaper or sports arena. You don’t want money from the marketing budget; you want access to the store’s customers. The latter is where the real opportunity lies. There’s ten times more money to be made there than from the company checkbook. Just ask Bono and the folks at Product (RED).

Focus on other forms of corporate support. W. C. Fields said, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, and try again. Then give up.” Sometimes the moment isn’t right for cause marketing and you should look to other forms of corporate funding. Fortunately, I work for a large institution with lots of business partners so we’ve doubled our efforts in reaching out to other “friends” of the organization. Thanks in part to them our largest fundraiser of the year will set a new record next Saturday night. Of course, this type of corporate fundraising is not as challenging and interesting as cause marketing. But the dollars we’ll raise will be as good as any other until our sails fill again and we can set our sights on more lofty goals. As the Roman proverb commands, “When there is no wind, row.”

Cause Marketing: The Trailer

Written on March 24, 2008 in Cause Marketer's Journal, Cause Sales

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Something we didn’t do the first two years of Halloween Town was record the event so we could share the footage with prospective partners. Seeing is believing with Halloween Town, and if we couldn’t get them to come to the event having a video for them to watch would be the second best thing. But for whatever reason we never did it. Until we made it a priority at last year’s event.

Our new sales video captures all the great sets we built for the event, the brandland experience we created for our partners, how the event benefited the hospital and all the Halloween fun our 13,000 guests had! Our event marketing firm, wedu, did a great job shooting and editing the piece.

Having a sales video like this is all about not giving a prospect a reason to say no. Without video, you’re left to your words, which don’t always sway prospects by themselves. Some people–probably most people these days–are visual thinkers that insist on seeing before believing. (Either that or they’re all from Missouri. Good question for Mike Swenson over at Citizen Brand.)

This isn’t the first time I’ve used video to make a point. When I worked at public television back in 2000 I realized that we were letting potential underwriters get away every time we talked about a PBS program they hadn’t seen. We solved this by buying a small television and toting along clips of every show we produced. “Never seen Frontline? Check out this clip.” Video made PBS a lot more tangible and kept the conversation going when in the past it had stopped cold.

So how will we use the Halloween Town clip? We’ll share it with sponsors. But we won’t just blindly send it out to prospects. Like a foreign film, it needs interpretation and elaboration, which can only be done by the trained sales person that will accompany it wherever it goes.

Watch our new Halloween Town sales video here.

10 Ways to Win a Corporate Partner (con’t)

Written on October 17, 2007 in Cause Marketing 101, Cause Practices, Cause Sales

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Katya has a great post on ten ways to win a corporate partner. To hers I’ll add my own insights and comments for cause marketers.

Find your match. As Katya points out, "you want to partner around mutual benefits." Focus your energies on companies with whom you have natural synergy. Mission, goals, audience, and, let’s not forget, just plain personal chemistry. If it’s not a good fit you’ll know it from the get-go. Emerson was right: "Only in our simple, easy and spontaneous actions are we strong."
Find out the business and philanthropic agendas. And press the former more than the latter. Not every business is interested in charity, but all businesses are interested in making money. Show how philanthropy can drive sales and you’ve built a platform from which to present your mission.
Find an entre. Connections can make a huge difference. But what do you do if you don’t have one? Start by offering them something of value that comes at no cost to them. Now that’s a conversation-starter.
Try to get to the business people rather than the community service people. Where do you think there’s more money in a company, in the marketing department or in the community relations department? Act accordingly. Sadly, I’ve never met with a community relations person who really "got" cause marketing. But business people grasp the value almost immediately.
Start your sentences in the right way. I love this one. Fundraisers make the mistake of always talking about the things THEY need, instead of focusing on the needs, interests and goals of their listener. In short, they’re a one way street! Use audience-centric language that shows you’re as focused on your partner’s success as your own.
Sell the benefits to them along with the social impact. Business people hear the latter all the time, but rarely hear about the benefits to them. Get and keep their attention by being better than 99% of the fundraisers that have ever sat across from them.
Go into partnerships – like relationships – with open eyes. There are ups and downs in any partnership. Just remember on what your relationship is built: trust, respect and, most importantly, mutual interest.
Put work into it. Become an extension of your corporate partner’s marketing team. For the mid-size companies I generally work with (that are already pretty lean on marketing) I become their consultant on cause-related endeavors, even for the ones that don’t involve my organization. Being useful and unbiased only makes me more valuable to my partner–and keeps me close to potential opportunities.
Communicate constantly. Just keep it relevant. Regardless of what I’m sending my partners I always ask: is this something they will find useful, if not valuable. Again, see things through their eyes and position yourself as a resource that’s helping them cut through the clutter and grow their business.
Know when to call it quits. If you do the nine things Katya and I suggest you’ll always be the heart breaker. They’ll be the ones crying, not you.