Cause marketing – for renewable energy, nonprofits and B corporations – is a unique challenge.
“Greater-good marketing” or “big-picture marketing” is how I think of it.
It’s always fun to gauge the reactions I get from the phrase, “I’m a marketing writer.”
It gets such varied responses. Sometimes it’s met with a respectful nod or an “Oh, cool!”
Sometimes I get a wry smile or, once in a while, a look of disdain.
I used to see marketing as the stuff snake oil and used car salesmen were bred from. Grown, rather than born, and pulled from the black slime. Unearthed in the land of “Stuff Nobody Needs.” But here’s the thing…
Marketing is important (including cause marketing)
Marketing, in general, fuels the economy. Booming businesses create more jobs. More employed people reduces depression and crime, and further fuels innovation.
Crazy how big picture it can get, fast.
More tangibly, marketing is great when it introduces a person to something they really need. Helping someone find something that could make their lives significantly better is a powerful thing.
Cause marketing in healthcare can improve or save lives
For example, a new blood sugar monitor allowing diabetics to be constantly aware of their numbers can be life-changing. It can mean a better, healthier, and even a longer life.
If no one funds the organization that does the research or develops the product, it’s a loss for a lot of people.
Cause marketing makes people aware of wonderful things they wouldn’t be aware of otherwise.
Marketing brings attention to important issues or ways of thinking about things. Signs or posters for social campaigns have caught my attention and got me thinking differently.
Marketing an important issue can transform how someone sees that issue. Helping them think about the consequences of something that simply never crossed their mind before can change the world.
For example, raising awareness about how much plastic builds up in landfills every year might change someone’s habits.
That’s powerful.
There’s good marketing and there’s bad marketing
Helping people learn more about how their actions affect others is an incredible thing. All the better if we can offer them a solution and a way that they can help improve things.
Selling people stuff they will toss out or forget because it’s totally superfluous? That’s bad marketing.
Renewable energy is a big part of good marketing (or cause marketing)
Clean energy solutions to help move humanity in a healthier direction is of global importance.
Capturing clean, abundant resources like solar and wind power instead of investing in and burning harmful fossil fuels simply makes sense.
I’m a nature lover and I can’t stand the thought that one day, clean breathable air might be scarce.
Every human should experience the vibrant force of life in the natural world. We need to protect that, for its own sake and for ours.
Humanitarian efforts and nonprofits need marketing too
I’m a real softy for humanity. I know, humanity has its ugly side. But the good side is so worth fighting for. When I woke up from surgery a while back, I was in a lot of pain.
While my husband asked the nurse to give me more pain meds, I was lying there thinking about all the people throughout time and even now in underdeveloped countries who don’t have access to proper medical care.
I had my needs met. So many others don’t. I was in pain physically for myself and, on another level, for my fellow humans throughout time.
We’ve gotta do all we can to help each other. To relieve suffering as much as we can. That’s where my passion for nonprofit organizations, B Corporations, and renewable energy comes in strong.
I’m not timid about it. I’m an online marketing writer. The good kind.