5 Non-Profit Direct Marketing Approaches
There are a million charities or causes these days. Every few days there is someone at the door. It might be the local baseball team or it might be a local church. Both have their own audience.
Since there’s a lot going on in that general market it’s good to refocus and look at what you’re doing. Below are a few ideas to think over before you design your next campaign.
1. Think direct.
Provide people with tangible ways to engage and respond. Slaveryfootprint.org, for example, provides a downloadable app that allows users to go into stores, check in, and let brands know they care about the use of slaves in their supply chain. Website visitors can instantly send letters, too. It’s all shareable. When people find out they have thirty-four slaves working for them, they often make a public confession. This is taking action, by spreading the word.
2. Focus.
Boil the idea down to a single thought. The human brain is wired to take away one thing from an engagement, whether it’s a conversation with someone, watching a movie, interacting with a digital experience, or watching a commercial. Slaveryfootprint.org wanted people to know that they have slaves working for them and they can find out how many.
3. No guilt.
Don’t pull the guilt lever. It’s too often trotted out in cause marketing, and it’s totally worn out. People find it easier nowadays to turn away when you show them gruesome pictures. Make your message approachable, make it OK, even entertaining to engage with it.
4. Be positive.
Too many cause marketers are anti-consumerist and treat the marketplace as a villain. Avoid the overplayed “companies-are-evil.” If the world economy slows down, people spend less—on for-profit and nonprofit.
5. Be precise.
It’s important to raise consciousness, but it can be misleading if it’s too generalized. In the case of Slaveryfootprint.org, the general view of slavery is the big-brand sweatshop. While there may be some issues there, it’s not the issue. We’re talking about out-and-out slavery in the supply chain, meaning many big brands don’t know that the cotton bought on the open market comes from child slaves in Uzbekistan. Or the seafood industry buys shrimp from shrimp boats that use slaves.
(via DM News)