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(Article first published in Oct '09. It has been modified slightly to suit its publication on our site)
Providing charities with free goods or services is great for the soul, but it can also be extremely good for business too. In these days of businesses spending a great deal of time and money on social media networking, people forget that helping charities is the oldest form of social networking that exists. But tread carefully and don't try to exploit charities with "bribes". Instead simply look at your donation as your "fee" that allows you start connecting with the right people within the organisation and those who are otherwise connected with it.
Charities (and non-profit organisations) are obviously always looking to save money, so they will always be happy to accept free products or services; and so long as you do not try to exploit your "gift", they may be happy to reciprocate with a wide range of co-marketing and promotional opportunities.
So, how can you make the most (if you wish to) of the charitable activities you engage in?
- Choose The Right Charity
By the "right" charity I mean one that you truly care about. You MUST care about the charity you give to in some form. Don't make a cynical self-serving choice as it WILL come back to bite you. However, if it so happens that the charity also has a large concentration of people who are potential target customers for you, then all the better! For instance a hair dressing salon might choose a breast cancer charity, a dog grooming business might choose an animal welfare charity and a motor dealer might choose a charity that provides day-trips for the disabled or elderly.
- Choose The Right Donation
You can make any kind of donation to a charity, but the best way to get reciprocal promotion is to provide specific goods or services that are aligned with what you do. With the previous examples in mind, the hair salon would provide free services to any women who were going through or recovering from chemotherapy, while running events to collect donations for the charity. The dog groomer would run free grooming sessions to collect money for the charity while perhaps providing free grooming to the charity. Finally the motor dealer could donate a vehicle or the use of a vehicle to the charity.
- Self Promote Your Business
This approach will involve you using your new charity connection as a promotional vehicle for your business. If you get involved in the right causes then the press will take an interest in you. Otherwise, you can include your charity's name/s in your own promotional materials. Make sure people know that you provided the services or product; Have a banner behind you while providing the service or include your logo and name on the product. Yes this is a little self-serving but it's OK.
You can also create a newsletter and ask the charity to send it to their database of employees, volunteers and those who have given donations.
- Ask The Charity To Promote You
This one is a little more tricky, but if you ask in the right way and ask for the right thing they will be happy to include your logo on some or all of their materials, include you in their newsletter updates, etc.
- Co-Promote Your Services
You could come up with a specific service or product and give a certain amount to the charity for every customer who takes up the offer. If this is the case then the charity may be only too delighted to help promote your business.
Just always remember that the primary reason to give to charities is to HELP charities. This means that you give without expectation of receiving. But just like business networking, something amazing happens when you start to give, suddenly people want to give back to you, so this article is about helping that process to happen rather than forcing it.
Franco De Bonis has worked in the field of sales and marketing promotion since 1990 and was most recently the global marketing manager for a major international technology company before setting up The DG Group in January 2007.
The DG Group is dedicated to delivering all the marketing solutions any company may require. Whether it's a website or leaflets and brochures, or even some product packaging; The DG Group will manage the whole project and even provide guidance along the way.
The content in this section is the original creation of The DG Group and is protected by copyright. You may use this content on your site or in other materials providing you acknowledge The DG Group as the author and include a link to our site.
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