Cause Marketing Anyone?   

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The winter is over spring is in the air and with a new season comes a deluge of events for worthy causes Walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, tel-a-thons, fashion shows,  and on and on.

Are the organizers of these events potential clients?

Are the participants of these events potential clients?

Refer back to the previous Marketing in Minutes about "who are your clients"

If the organizers and participants of an event fall into the demographics of who you want to market to than a fundraising event can have a dramatic impact and provide valuable recognition for your services.

OK, I know most of us do not have the funds to be a platinum sponsor for events to get signage and all that good stuff that creates name recognition and gets us a seat at the event dinner next to the CEO of the charity where we could schmooz and wow them with the services and solutions that would be great for them and or for the members of their board who may run companies that would be great customers.

How can a small company leverage a charity event to get more recognition in a fiscally responsible way?

Social Media -  now I knew you saw this coming.  Social media is free, requiring your time and dedication and a plan.  Most events will have social media links - Facebook - Linked in - Twitter - Youtube etc.   

A.       Go to their face book page and "like" the event's facebook page"

B.      Tweet about the upcoming event using the event hashtag (usually would be    "#nameofevent" or "#abreviationofevent").

C.       Retweet posts from the event's official twitter feed.  Retweeting is a sure fire way of getting recognized by the event planners

D.      Update your linked in status to let people know you will be attending the event or donating your time, or money etc.

E.      Publicize the event to a few of the groups you belong to on linked in and other networking sites.

F.        Blog about the event.

G.       Reply and comment on other people's blogs about the event.

When the event actually happens and you introduce yourself to someone they may actually recognize you and think they almost know you because you did a great job in helping them publicize the event.

What's coming up that you could get involved with?

Earth Hour   

                                                                              3/19 8:30pm - 9:30pm

                                                                     Multiple events in multiple cities                                                     

Susan G Komen 

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