A Tale of Two Cause Marketing Campaigns

Cause marketing is a great way to raise money for a cause and build brand recognition, for both the charity and corporate entity. These cause marketing campaigns typically involve a cashier asking customers for a donation for a specific cause at checkout. Often, paper “pinups” accompany these types of cause marketing campaigns, marking each customer’s donation and decorating the store.

The customer feels good, the company looks good, and the charity can raise tremendous amounts of unrestricted revenue. I have worked on point of sale campaigns raising a few thousand dollars to over a million. Everybody wins!

Let’s take a look at two cause marketing programs I managed. They were both national campaigns running across Canada, for the same charity, at the same time but in partnership with two different retailers. A few key differences between the two approaches to cause marketing added up to a $1 million difference in the dollars raised.

Company X: The Organic Approach to Cause Marketing

Company X believed very strongly that nobody on staff should be required to ask customers to buy a pinup for our charity. Pinups would be made available at the cash and staff would be encouraged to ask if it felt right but were never required to. They received a very informal “pitch training” from my charity at the beginning of the campaign but aside from that, the only other support was print, digital and television advertising (and lots of it). Company X had three times the foot traffic of Company Y and a large marketing budget, so the potential was huge!

Company Y: The Top Down Approach to Cause Marketing

Company Y did not believe in an organic approach. For them, the pinup campaign was like any other upsell at the cash and they added pinup sales to their weekly, monthly and quarterly metrics, which were used to measure the profitability of each store. Local and regional mangers were held to sales of pinups, as were the VPs, all the way up to the CEO who expected to achieve a pre-established revenue goal. My charity was very involved in the training, visiting floor meetings before the day started as well as providing stories to each store about our programs in their city and how they were making a difference.

A Tale of Two Cause Marketing Campaigns: The Results!

Despite having three times the number of transactions, Company X raised about $300,000. Not bad! We had a ton of returned pinups though, which we paid to print and ship (there and back) but we still did quite well overall. Company Y, however, raised $1.2 million in the same period with less retail transactions. They had a much higher conversion rate and raised significantly more money.

Is this an argument for a strong top down approach? Perhaps. More importantly, it illustrates the fact that for point of sale campaigns to be successful it takes infrastructure, planning and a true partnership. Without proper strategy and goal setting, a point of sale campaign can be a very public failure and negatively impact your brand, your employees and your charitable partner’s impact on the community.

Tips for Leveraging Cause Marketing for Sponsorship Success

How else can you grow your cause marketing aspirations in the sponsorship sphere? Here are my best practices to utilize.

Select Your Cause with Care

Yes, you officially have my permission to focus on your cause. This is cause marketing we’re talking about here. However, since it’s the basis of so much of your partnership with a sponsor, you really need to choose your cause carefully.

If you have several causes, then think of it like this. You should select the one that’s the most likely to get sponsors to choose to work with you. Noble causes, like treating childhood cancer, or feel-good causes, such as helping sick or homeless animals, are good ones.

That said, if your cause doesn’t exactly fit the bill, that doesn’t mean you have to pivot in an entirely different direction. Authenticity is at the core of cause marketing, so be passionate about what you stand for.

Team with Relevant Companies 

While a convincing cause is important in cause marketing, that doesn’t mean every company under the sun is a potential partner for you in a sponsorship arrangement. You must ensure relevancy between goals and values in whoever your potential partner is.

I recommend starting with your audience, whether they’re donors, attendees, or customers. Ask about the brands they most like and engage with, then use those as the starting point to build your prospects list.

This is a time-consuming, sometimes arduous process. I won’t try to pretend it isn’t. However, it’s necessary for finding the most viable, relevant sponsors.

Discover What Sets You Apart

Every business needs a value proposition. Although yours maybe isn’t a business, per se, as an organization or nonprofit, you still need a value proposition.

You might not sell goods or services, and maybe you don’t directly “compete” with others in your niche, but still. At the end of the day, you want people to give to your cause instead of another organization’s, right?

That comes back to the value proposition.

Take some time, as you begin this cause marketing journey, to determine what makes your organization or nonprofit unique. What is it that you do that only you can do? How you answer that question will go a long way toward determining your next steps.

Determine How to Engage with Your Audience

What’s it going to take to meaningfully connect with your audience? That’s a question that needs answering on behalf of your organization or nonprofit.

It’s not enough to present your cause to your donors or attendees and expect profitable, successful outcomes. Cause marketing is marketing, at the end of the day, just as sponsorship is marketing.

That means delivering marketing outcomes is the way to get what you seek. Consider what kinds of services or assets you can sell to a sponsor, what kind of experiential marketing opportunities or activations you can use to connect your audience and sponsor.

And no, you don’t need a large budget to connect memorably with your audience. I’ve worked with clients of all sizes and scopes here at The Sponsorship Collective, including nonprofits and charitable organizations that couldn’t afford to spend a lot of money.

All that matters with an activation is that it connects your sponsor and your audience. That doesn’t always require a five- or six-figure budget to achieve. You can even do it for free. Yes, I mean it. I’ve seen it happen more than once!

Use Digital Platforms 

It’s time to go digital.

These days, even if you’re a quiet nonprofit or old-school type of organization, you still need an online presence. Your website is an excellent place to promote your cause marketing campaign, as is social media.

That said, building a presence takes time, and it’s not something you should attempt while balancing cause marketing at the same time. I recommend starting well in advance.

Your website should be optimized for mobile visitors, as that’s how the majority of people will find you. It should load fast, have a clean design, and boast easy navigation.

Growing on social media requires you to post regularly. It’s okay to share content from other accounts you find, as long as they aren’t direct “competitors” (yeah, there’s that word again). The point is to provide value for your audience and give them a reason to continually follow you.

Measure Your Success

Like every marketing campaign, you must measure your cause marketing impact as your event, program, or opportunity draws to a close. I’ve discussed in this post which metrics to measure and why. Here’s a recap:

• Email open rates
• Email click-through rates
• Website traffic
• Unique website visitors
• Repeat website visitors
• Bounce rate
• Email subscription rate
• Email un-subscription rate
• Social media followers
• Social media engagement (likes, shares, reposts)
• Brand mentions
• Customer feedback
• Net Promoter Score
• Number of new donations
• Donations value

 

FAQs

What are the principles of successful cause marketing?

There are three main pillars of cause marketing. First, you need a plan or goal of what you hope to achieve. Secondly, you must plan strategically. Then, begin engaging with your audience and sponsor to achieve objectives.

Is it harder to get a sponsor as a nonprofit? 

No, although this answer will likely surprise my nonprofit readers interested in sponsorship. The only difficulty is when you focus too much on your cause (outside of cause marketing, of course) or think that your cause will allow you to bypass all parts of the sponsorship process. Spoiler: it won’t.

Which Approach to Cause Marketing Leads to Longevity?

Company Y, by the way, is still running this campaign every year while Company X has moved on to a new charity of choice. Perhaps because they weren’t getting the results they wanted, or maybe because our partnership just wasn’t strong enough. What is certain is that Company Y loves their campaign and everyone from the CEO to the high school student working the register on weekends gets on board. An engaged workforce, a strong brand and a hands-on charity allow all of this to come together. Now that’s a result worth cashing in on!