The Power of Social Impact Marketing: How Brands Can Drive Change

Introduction

Doing business entails the implementation of a web of different policies, strategies, and principles. Long gone are the days when companies operated to sell their products and services to earn the maximum profits without caring a bit about the environment or any other harmful impact they had.

Now businesses need to be more than just profit-making machines; they need to be a part of society and responsible members. Being mindful of your business’s social impact and advocating for concerning causes is called social impact marketing. A company executes this by participating in social welfare, working over and above the business’s core purpose.

The company needs to highlight its effort to bring positive change in the environment. Businesses can subtly market their products along with philanthropic efforts. Consumer behavior has recently changed and has become more environmentally and socially concerned.

Many people are now conscious about the products they buy and whether they meet society’s ethical standards. Hence, social impact marketing has become necessary for business growth and survival. So, keep reading to discover the benefits of social impact marketing and how this is achieved successfully.

The Benefits Of Social Impact Marketing

Fosters Trust:

Businesses can achieve consumer loyalty by social impact marketing, as the consumers will be assured that whatever they buy is not harming society in any way and making it more sustainable.

Enhanced Brand Awareness:

Being socially responsible attracts media attention, which can have a very boosting impact on business growth.

Competitiveness:

Being socially responsible helps businesses differentiate themselves from competitors and raises their bar.

Motivation:

Giving back to society brings in a sense of peace and responsibility. Hence, this boosts employee motivation, as they feel they are associated with a socially and environmentally responsible brand.

Reputation:

Working towards a positive societal change will raise a company’s reputation and aid its goodwill, attracting more investors and shareholders.

International recognition:

Showing social responsibility can help a business gain global recognition, attracting worldwide investment and multinationals to set up in your country.

Positive Inspiration:

Working extra to build and better society can inspire the public and other businesses to work towards a better community, cultivating unity and growth immensely.

To drive change and build social impact marketing campaigns, a company needs to do the following:

Understand Your Public

While curating a campaign, understanding and knowing what your public wants and their beliefs means a lot. If you launch a campaign that does not align with your community’s beliefs, it will backfire.

A business must engage with its stakeholders to understand them closely and plan campaigns accordingly. Companies can conduct interviews and surveys to determine what their customers want.

Collaborate with Other Activists

Working closely with other people associated with the particular cause can help you achieve your target faster and more smoothly. For example, if you are working towards an educational cause, you need to first partner up with more knowledgeable people regarding this.

They can guide you properly and avoid any mistakes. You can associate with charities and non-profit organizations who can help you to co-create a campaign.

Be Transparent

You need to be true to a cause if you are advocating it. Any political bias should not secretly influence your social efforts. You can correctly and successfully carry out these campaigns only if you deeply know what you are working towards.

Half-hearted efforts fail badly, but they can also harm the people involved in the campaigning. Furthermore, the sources by which you conduct a campaign should also be socially responsible. For instance, many companies have sustainability agendas but keep using plastic packaging.

Hence, this is contradictory, which reduces the trust people place in you.

Follow Ethical Standards Internally First

Every person associated with your company should practice the value your business advocates. Social impact marketing and corporate social responsibility are closely linked, where CSR entails working to produce a positive impact in the community and being ethical and considerate internally.

You can only advocate cause once and if everyone in your organization is satisfied with and complies with your company’s ethical standards. Business managers, employees, shareholders, and owners must build a positive and professional work environment and speak for external societal causes. Hence, this comes down to the age-old but essential saying, “Practice what you preach.”

Monitor and Improve

To ensure the continuity and survival of a campaign, you need to monitor it regularly. The business must keep checking for changing behaviors and beliefs and work accordingly. Set metrics and then track the growth of your campaign, therefore.

Tracking your campaign’s journey can help you see the areas that need improvement, and you can readily do so if you closely follow it. Revisions can take the shape of investing higher funds, researching more, and associating with the right people. After all, doing well requires genuine effort.

Examples/Ways of Doing Social Impact Marketing

• Use renewable resources like solar power systems.
• Start cleanliness campaigns by cleaning your neighborhood or the beach now and then.
• Invest in educational start-ups for the underprivileged.
• Campaign against unethical practices such as child labor and workplace discrimination.
• Support small, local businesses to promote employment in the community.
• Be environmentally responsible by eliminating your business’s harmful environmental impact, such as reducing waste and conserving energy.
• Recycle waste material, and encourage others to buy, for example, placing bins for recycling in different areas of your neighborhood.

Bottom Line

In conclusion, social impact marketing is an effective strategy for increasing customer engagement and fostering brand loyalty while positively affecting society and the environment. Businesses may gain credibility, solidify their position as industry leaders, and mobilize their clientele by working with any credible social impact agency.

Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign shows that even big companies can use their platforms to challenge traditional beauty standards and support body positivity while staying true to their brand values. There are endless opportunities for every business, big or small, to employ social impact marketing to contribute to society and the world.