This is a guest post by SEO, professional blogger and guest blogger
Ann Smarty. Ann (@seosmarty) owns MyBlogGuest.com and
I just signed up for her new link monitoring tool.
Marketing: a broad term that means simply to make your business’ name, brand and products known to its intended audience.
While marketing of some form is an absolute necessity for any business, no matter their niche, the advertising tactics available to be deployed are many and far-ranging in both method and result.
When you want to mix advertising with the opportunity to give to a cause or endeavor that you feel is worth your investment of time and money, the ability to help others while helping yourself is much easier than you may suspect!
From charity work to event planning and sponsorship, opportunities abound to mix selflessness with selfishness for the betterment of all involved; here are a few examples of ways to effectively utilize the power of giving in marketing:
Event Sponsorship
While often expensive where far-reaching events are concerned, attaching your name or brand to a popular event in your niche is a sure way to connect with customers in a meaningful way and inspire confidence in your product, service and expertise at the same time. Putting your marketing dollars towards a deserving event, for example a startup conference that you’re interested in supporting, allows you to give generously while generating a genuine buzz often unavailable via other marketing methods.
Having your name closely associated with an event is just the beginning; your sponsorship also provides you with an outstanding platform from which to meet and greet colleagues, potential business partners and investors and hundreds or even thousands of potential sales leads.
Viewing a sponsored event as a jumping-off point to launch your brand deep into the psyche of those interested in your niche will allow your business to reap the most rewards from your generosity.
Even if your business is just getting started, sponsorship allows you at least a temporary spot with the bigger names in your industry, giving customers a reason to consider your offerings alongside theirs.
Charity Involvement
While giving to charity is often seen as an entirely altruistic act, being able to recoup something in return doesn’t make the giving any less helpful or meaningful. The ability to support a charity with a worthy cause presents not only an opportunity to help people, but also an opportunity to expose your brand and business to the world.
Whether you are giving your time in the form of volunteer work or providing financial support, your aid achieves its charitable cause; the business benefits derived from that aid are simply icing on an already sweet cake!
Good Deeds and Good Word of Mouth
If getting your business involved in all-out sponsorship or charity work isn’t possible due to constraints on time or financial resources, consider simply donating small efforts to the people, places and organizations around you, working to build your local community, whether physical or virtual, and attaching your brand to the positive acts in doing so.
Remember that every bid counts! If you can’t donate money (being in a hungry start-up mode), consider spreading a word! Notice for example how much this Dallas real estate blogs about donation opportunities in their area. This certainly builds trust!
Conclusion
Giving is an art often lost in business circles – not because businesspeople are less likely to be empathetic, caring individuals but rather because, in all aspects of business, the bottom line makes every dollar count. Solving this problem takes some sacrifice but, as we’ve discussed above, that sacrifice does not need to come without benefit.
Whether your purpose in giving is entirely altruistic, entirely selfish or, as is more likely the case, falls somewhere in between, the importance of the act lies entirely in its results; if you’re able to gain a business advantage while working to help a worthy cause than all the better!
The next time your small business is looking to invest its marketing dollars in a unique and meaningful way, consider supporting a cause close to your heart in order to make the endeavor a valuable one for as many people as possible.
Ann Smarty is a professional blogger and guest blogger. She owns MyBlogGuest.com which connects guest bloggers to blog owners (and also does guest posting process tracking for you). If you are into link building, join beta testers of Ann’s new link monitoring tool.