Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Over the past 10 years, consumers have increasingly purchased brands from socially aware organizations.  With this shift, a huge emphasis has been placed on company procedures and sustainable practices. “Social responsibility has migrated from soft line to hard law,” says Paula Luff, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at Hess Corporation.  

She is right.  It’s no longer an added bonus for a business to be socially responsible; it is what’s expected from society.  Companies must understand consumer demand for CSR-related information and develop an appropriateCSR strategy based on company branding and values.

The Better Business Bureau recently held their annual forum, “Transformers: How Corporate Responsibility Trends Are Changing Business Now” in downtown Manhattan. This session featured top corporate responsibility professionals sharing best practices and tactics to develop socially responsible programs based on the increased demand for this information from today’s consumers.

While the discussion was related to many elements of CSR programming and reporting, there were five key takeaways that every company should understand:...

Most people visit your site because they want something. Your ability to give them that something determines whether they take up your offer and your landing page converts. A while back, I talked about the importance of reading your customers’ minds to improve conversions, but you can go one better, by understanding not just their minds but their emotions.

According to Psychology Today, there’s a strong emotional component to the way people evaluate brands and potential purchases. And it’s not just about feeling good about your ad (though that’s important, too); it’s about what’s going on inside their brain....