Social Enterprise: New Report Shows Brands How to Revolutionise Online Marketing to Win Customers

Network for Good has launched an e-Guide called, 'Digital Strategy for Good: Avoiding Cause Marketing Missteps - 5 Cause Key Trends.' This perceptive report gives brands a real insight of how to engage consumers online. It gives powerful 'real' examples of how some companies are putting cause marketing into practice to win the hearts of its consumers and are getting results. In an era when we are all bombarded a hundred miles an hour by marketing messages, where we have the power to filter our digital lives, marketers need to find new ways to break through the clutter to be noticed and heard. This report shows how.

Network for Good's report shows organisations how strong promotion needs to be built around authentic relationships with consumers, and that cause-related marketing is an influential way to do so. This online social enterprise publication is based on Network for Good's in-depth expertise as a U.S. based charity which powers more digital giving than any other American platform. In its ten-year history, it has processed nearly $700 million for over 80,000 nonprofits.  

The content of this social enterprise report clearly says that there's 'no one-size fits all' approach to cause marketing and that it's very much up to a company to determine how to apply the learning given its own set of goals and unique mix of brand assets such as consumer targets, cause partners and resources. The guide flags up 'watchwords' that brands need to know of and defines these as - 'authentic', 'meaningful', 'compelling', 'relevant', 'thoughtful' and 'collective'.  Those organisations that stay true to its brand's ethos, respects its cause partners and invite its consumers be part of a conversation will generate social impact and brand value far beyond its marketing investment. Also flagged in this guide are five 'trends to watch'. They are - 'Crowdsourced Philanthropy'; '(Digital) Action Campaigns'; 'Issue Awareness Campaigns'; 'Cause Affinity Platforms' and 'Social Enterprise Spinoffs'.

In this fast moving world consumers want more than mass-market brand messages. People actively silence digital "noise" that doesn't talk to them as individuals or invites them to co-create with a brand's identity through participatory marketing. This social enterprise e-Guide defines participatory marketing as digital engagement through social media and new technology that lets a brand have conversations and build relationships with its consumers. The key is to understand what your consumers care about and tap into their passions, hopes and dreams to create those conversations.

Network for Good explains that irrespective of which cause-marketing trend a brand's opts for, the real recipe for success is clear: it's all about authentic cause partnership that involve significant social impact and business goals. Add to this a compelling call to action and include relevant social sharing. All this will help to create important conversations with consumers about the impact they are making with the brand. Brands big or small can understand and adapt the latest trends in cause marketing to deepen its relationships with its own consumers.