THINKing

A Cause Marketing Christmas

We’ve run across a few articles concerning cause marketing during the Christmas season that you might find of interest.

Cause Marketing Christmas – As a holiday, Christmas is surprisingly challenging to cause market around, but a local homebuilder has the bones of a good campaign based on a gingerbread house-building contest.

Give It Up

It’s been a tough year for everyone, but especially non-profit organizations. Are you doing any cause marketing during the holidays to benefit your favorite charity?

If so, great. If not, I’d like to encourage you to help either through direct donations or by providing marketing and PR support. Why? Charitable donations and corporate sponsorships have a measurable effect on a business’ bottom line. Charitable activities have been show to:

#tweeta20 – That’s A Wrap

Well, #tweeta20 – the social media project designed to raise awareness and funds for Thompson Child & Family Focus -  is behind us now and I think it was a success. I think we raised more awareness of the good work that Thompson does than we did money. Although we raised at least $4,000 via social media at last count.

Do These 10 Things Today

Are you looking for ways to build your business? Sometimes we become paralyzed because there seems to be so many things we could and should be doing to market our companies. Longtime readers know I’m typically a strategy first guy, but sometimes you just need to do something to get  things rolling. So, here are 10 easy marketing ideas you can start on today:

Meet The Tweeters

We talked recently about #tweeta20,  a social media project in which I’m participating along with @PRQueen.The project is for Thompson Child & Family Focus, aka @ThompsonCFF.

A number of prominent Charlotte, NC tweeters have graciously volunteered their time to assist in this worthy cause.  Please follow these good folks:

Tweeta20 – A Non-Profit Social Media Pilot Project

On Tuesday, May 11, nine Charlotte social media folks and I will spend an hour trying to raise money for Thompson Child & Family Focus, an organization that has spent nearly 125 years providing education, treatment and support for children traumatized by sexual abuse, domestic violence or rampant neglect.

Feeling Charitable

I need your help. I want to get more people signed up for the My Creative Team monthly enewsletter. So, I’ve decided to donate a dollar to charity for every person who signs up between now and Christmas Eve.  Even if you decide to opt-out after Christmas, I’ll donate up to $1,500 to the Crisis Assistance Ministry. Why Crisis Assistance Ministry? Because, as they say on their website,

How About Giving Charities A Holiday This Year?

Despite a recession, Americans spent more on holiday shopping in two months in 2008 than they did all year on charitable giving. Holiday retail sales for November and December 2008 in the general merchandise category totaled roughly $460 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Charitable giving for 2008 declined to $307 billion from $314 billion in 2007.

Use The Neglected Weapons In Your Marketing Arsenal

Business marketers have a lot of weapons in their arsenals but they often overlook some very important ones. So, let’s do a quick inventory.

Of course, you already have a company name, a positioning statement, logo, stationery, business cards and a website.
Right?

All About Email

I’m a big believer in email for customer retention, so I’ve been reading a lot about it recently. Thought I’d share some links for you. If you are interested, My Creative Team produces a monthly enewsletter. Here’s our latest.

Your 2009 To-Do List

Start Planning For 2009 Now