Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Products of caring companies are seen as superior

New research just released shows that corporate social goodwill can elevate a company’s profits by improving consumers’ perceptions of its products, but only when it’s seen as genuine.[Chernev, Alexander and Sean Blair (2015), “Doing Well by Doing Good: The Benevolent Halo of Social Goodwill” Journal of Consumer Research Summary]

New research shows that social goodwill increases the perceived quality of your products

Your products will only be perceived as better when your Social Responsibility Policies are motivated by an authentic values-led strategy, rather than thinly-veiled self-interest and hopeful publicity...

Veteran nonprofit writers know that charities win credibility with strong writing and lose credibility with poor writing.

“Great content builds authority,” writes Caryn Stein, Director of Content Strategy for the Network for Good. “Great content reinforces trust.”

And with credibility, authority, and trust come grants, donations, influence, visibility, members, and volunteers — all the makings of a successful nonprofit organization.For those who practice the art of writing for nonprofits, I offer up these six deadly writing sins, which I know about only because I have, on occasion, committed every last one of them....

charity: water, a nonprofit that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations, is leading the way when it comes to redefining nonprofit marketing; they are exceptional at inbound marketing, focusing on creating powerful content to inspire people to join their cause. Their marketing has tangible results: in 2012 alone they raised $33 million, and over $8 million of that was raised through their online fundraising platformplatform.

While it might not be possible for other nonprofits to perfectly emulate charity: water´s marketing strategy––in fact, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for them to try given that each nonprofit has a distinct mission, target audience and way of operating––all would benefit from applying even just a few of the lessons we can learn from their incredible marketing. With that in mind, here are nine marketing lessons other nonprofits can take away from charity: water...

Online search is increasingly the vehicle through which many people find out, inform themselves and learn about most things they are interested in.

Although its commercial interests, profit-driven business model, secretive approach, and some of its technology limitations would really not suggest to leave that much power to Google, many of our information decisions are influenced, if not altogether driven by what this search engine suggests back to anyone of our queries.

As a consequence search plays a very critical role in our present society, and it would only seem wise for all that we do not readily accept the idea of relying on an auto-generated list of popular web sites ranked by a set of secret algorithms.

But, the reality is that without really being much aware of it, we have slowly but vastly delegated to Google the task of deciding for us what is most relevant and what is not, over just about any topic we can think of....

Pinterest is a great place for non-profits to engage, build an audience and gain a following. Even if you think your NPO isn’t suited for a visual platform such as Pinterest, I encourage you to keep an open mind, read this article and reconsider adding Pinterest to your NPOs social media strategy. Did you know that Pinterest has 70 millions active users and is wildly popular among American women? (Does you NPO target females, moms maybe?) Keep reading!

While Pinterest hasn’t yet scaled to the size of its competitors, it has firmly secured its position as the 2nd largest referrer of social traffic.

Most NPOs do really well on Pinterest, isn’t it time yours does, too? In this article you’ll find out:

• Why NPOs should consider being present on Pinterest.
• 3 tips on how to get your NPO started on Pinterest.
• 10 ideas for Pinterest boards every NPO on Pinterest should have....

UBC studies suggest all those ribbon campaigns might not be that effective in raising cash...

A study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia came to some sobering conclusions.In a series of experiments conducted in the field and the lab, researchers asked participants to show their support for various causes. In one study, one group was given a poppy to commemorate Remembrance Day and asked to put it on immediately. Another group was given a poppy in a sealed envelope to take away with them. A third group, given neither a poppy nor an envelope, acted as a control. Individuals in all three groups were then asked to make a donation to support Canada’s war veterans. (The money raised was, in fact, donated.)

Individuals who had accepted the poppy in a sealed envelope donated significantly more than those in the other two groups....