Archive for the ‘Social Marketing’ Category

What Is Social Marketing? (Including 17 Examples)

Social marketing campaigns are those that borrow from commercial marketing techniques for social engagement influencing a target audience to change their social behaviours and to benefit society.

The importance of social marketing cannot be underestimated because it often raises awareness of far-reaching topics that are often out of the sight and mind of the mainstream population.

Whether its related to the environment, public health, safety, or community development, marketing for good is a methodology for creating change.

As a formal discipline, social marketing started in 1971 when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman published their article Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change in the Journal of Marketing.

Since then, marketers have been playing with social marketing ideas, refining the strategies, and working on the most effective means of spurring widespread changes in social behaviour in a variety of fields.

In , public health and environmental concerns top the list of most used social marketing topics.

There are many approaches to obtaining a societal change through effective social cause marketingprograms. Still, the central tenant always remains the same: the social good is always the primary focus.

Whether its trying to convince the public to stop smoking or encouraging men in developing counties to use condoms, the focus is always on the public good first.

The concept of societal marketing, therefore, revolves around driving change to local, national, and international communities in creative ways, for the public interest.

Social marketing, therefore, should not be confused with other similar terms: social media marketing, green or sustainable marketing, and commercial marketing with a social focus.

According to the Institute for Social Marketing, these are the most important social marketing strategies and techniques:

The best examples of social cause marketing campaigns, which result in actual change, are the ones designed to shock, provoke, inform, and remind all at once!

Social marketing campaigns are not limited to advertising either; for example, they often get used in magazine covers too.

One example of this includes a series by the National Geographic calledPlanet or Plastic, published in June 2018.

In this campaign, NatGeo featured a photo of a plastic bag in the form of an iceberg as their front cover, to raise awareness ofthe billions of plastic wastage polluting the oceans.

Similarly, newspapers also engage in social cause marketing for the public interest.

An example of this includes when mainstream Australian newspapers blacked-out their front pages in October 2019, to raise awareness against government clampdown of media freedom.

Or most commonly, social good marketing campaigns come in the form of placards, used by activists during boycotts, demonstrations, and other forms of protests, like the Business As Usual = Death poster by the Extinction Rebellion.

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What Is Social Marketing? (Including 17 Examples)

What Is Social Marketing? | Feedough

Ever since the term was coined by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in 1971, there has been a steep rise in social marketing campaigns. Yes, the internet didnt actually exist at that time, and no, social marketing is not even slightly related to the term social media marketing.

Social marketing is a distinct marketing discipline which uses commercial marketing principles and techniques to advance a social cause and influence the target audience behaviors to improve their lives or the society in which they live.The characteristics which distinguish social marketing efforts from other marketing efforts are:

Unlike other marketing efforts where the ultimate gainer is the marketer, social marketing efforts aim at benefitting the society at large. This is the most important characteristic of social marketing.

Social marketing is all about influencing behaviors of the target audience. The marketing efforts may be used to:

Social marketing uses all the commercial marketing techniques. The only difference is that the ultimate beneficiary is the target audience.

In most cases, social marketing techniques are used by the national and international public welfare organizations and offices responsible for public welfare like WHO, centers for disease control and prevention, department of health, environmental protection departments, national highway departments etc.

Not-for-profit organizations also involve themselves in social marketing activities of those causes which align with their organizations missions. For example, Kaiser Family Foundation promotes getting tested for HIV disease by promoting their Know HIV/AIDS campaign.

For-profit organizations sometimes indulge in social marketing activities rather than cause marketing activities to fulfill their corporate social responsibility and build their brand image through better community relations strategies.

Cause related marketing is a form of marketing where a for-profit organization teams up with a not-for-profit or a charitableorganization to raise awareness and/or tackle a social or environmental problem and create business value for the organization at the same time.

Usually, a brand markets its product in affiliation with one of the societal causes and pledges to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales to the cause. Other cause marketing strategies include:

However, social marketing doesnt benefit the organization in monetary terms. In fact, it involves spending money for the betterment of the society and not the organization.

Water Use It Wisely was a water conservation campaign started in 1999 to promote water conservation ethics in Arizona. Today, the campaign is active in nearly 400 towns, cities, states, utilities, and public and private organization and is one of the largest conservation educational outreach programs in the world.

The piano staircase was an initiative by Volkswagen which tried to change peoples behavior by transforming the staircase of the subway station into a piano keyboard. The initiative resulted in motivating 66% more people to use the stairs instead of the escalators.

TheBorder Roads Organisation(BRO)develops and maintains road networks in Indias border areas and friendly neighboring countries. The organization uses social marketing techniques to promote safe driving on the mountain roads.

Did we miss something? Come on! Tell us what you think about our article in the comments section.

A startup consultant, dreamer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over a 50 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.

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What Is Social Marketing? | Feedough

Social Marketing – Definition , Importance of Social Marketing

Definition:

Social good is the primary focus of the Social Marketing that revolves around channelizing positive changes in social, national, international and local communities for public interest by opting for some constructive and positive means.

Some people may get confused about Social Marketing with Social Media Marketing, Sustainable Marketing, and Commercial Marketing.

Social marketing is done when various marketing techniques are performed for making people change their behavior towards society. Social marketing is one of the powerful sell techniques used for targeting the audience for making them aware of the social good that can benefit individuals as well as broader society.

Social Marketing is primarily geared towards human behavior, which is also the product of this form of marketing. You can easily understand the concept of Social Marketing with the help of a quote said by a German World War II U-boat commander, Gerhard Weibe-

Why cant you sell brotherhood and rational thinking like you can sell soap?

So, Social Marketing is mainly channelized for promoting ideas that can play a significant role in boosting positive and constructive etiquettes and inclinations such as using eco-friendly solutions, following driving rules, opting for right social manners, not smoking in public places and so on.

All in all, Social Marketing revolves around selling the well-being of society. It is mainly done for safety issues, environmental awareness, public health, and also the development of the community.

One needs a societal change now and then. Social marketing is one of the best platforms where one can easily influence and convince people to work for the betterment of society.

Social marketing can bring the best chances in the locality as well as all over the nation.

To understand the significance of Social Marketing in todays time, below we are covering some of the critical statistics that talk about its power-

The stats mentioned above are evident in confirming how Social Marketing is gaining prevalence around the world, and how important it is for having a society that is involved in constructive ways of living where each and everyone is enjoying the right environment to grow and flourish in a valuable and positive manner.

You might now have understood what Social Marketing is, but you must be thinking when all this started, and how it became one of the fundamental concepts of business, social and marketing management in todays time. So, let us have a look at the history of Social Marketing here and now-

In the year 1971, Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman published an article in the Journal of Marketing, which was titled- Social Marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change.

Since then, this term of Social Marketing has been gaining prevalence in different fields of marketing, business, and social administrations.

Marketers, advertisers, and industry are coming up with a variety of social marketing ideas for channelizing different positive changes in social behaviors in various fields, niches, and industries.

Social Media Marketing is nowhere close to Social Marketing, because Social Media Marketing revolves around marketing through Social Media Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., while social marketing is dedicated to channelizing positive societal change by using Social Cause Marketing methods.

Corporations opt for this type of marketing for fulfilling their Corporate Social Responsibilities, but they choose sustainable marketing practices for boosting their business that is not the characteristic of Social Marketing at all.

You must have seen campaigns promoting fuel-efficient cars or recycled plastic bottles. They are parts of Commercial Marketing that serve some social causes as well as advertise the product or service of the company. But the primary focus of such marketing campaigns is selling a product or service and not the societal good.

Now, as you are well aware of Social Marketing and how it is different from other resembling or similar sort of marketing, let us now have a look upon the importance of Social Marketing-

Social Marketing is one of the best ways to influence people for taking action towards society and working on behavioral change. Various campaigns for social marketing can quickly develop an interest in the public. One can easily target their audience with the strategies they perform for social marketing.

Social Marketing positively influences the perceptions of audiences. Social marketing is best when programs conducted for the target audience are related to their understanding of the society, which will not only be more productive but will also bring an effective change.

Social marketing promotes good health care for people and influence people to adopt a fit and healthier lifestyle. It also lets people know that one must be aware of the behavioral changes for society, and one must live a quality life in the community. Social marketing can quickly achieve great advertisement just by promoting it on various platforms such as social media, by sharing photos, blogs, and also videos.

How Social marketing helps marketing a business?

Social marketing helps the business to build awareness between people.

Every business is incomplete without social marketing, as a business enjoys a widespread presence when the target audience base is aware of what kind of business one is doing. And without letting the most significant number of people be mindful of your brand, you cannot reach out for the advertisement. Social Marketing Strategy empowers a business with a kind of Social Awareness campaign that their target audiences need.

One must know that they should develop an interest in the public to target their audience efficiently. And one of the initial stages to advertise your product is to generate awareness amongst the people. A business can also develop transparency by conducting an excellent social marketing strategy.

As communication is essential, and if you quickly know about your target audiences and what kind of social change they are looking for, you can quickly gain their attention by sharing their perspective in a better way.

Who utilizes Social Marketing Campaigns?

Social Marketing is mainly utilised by

For a successful social marketing campaign, you must have the strategy for influencing the actual behavior of your target audiences together with awareness and their attitudes.

For a powerful social marketing campaign, it is significant to use a wide variety of symbolic visuals that can also be recognized easily by the target audiences on the go. For instance, Smokey the Bear for wildfire prevention is one such symbol that was adeptly used in Social Marketing Campaigns.

Adept customer orientation is one of the critical characteristics of the Social Marketing Campaign, and you need to understand the thought processes, viewpoints, inclinations, conditioning and tendencies of the people you want to influence through your Social Marketing Campaign.

It is essential that your social marketing campaign is memorable, short and comprises catchy slogans as well. For instance, the US Governments War on Drugs Campaign has a short and straightforward motto Just Say No which is quite impactful in influencing the people in the most straightforward possible manner.

For a result-driven Social Marketing Campaign, you should be aware of the behavioral theories that can help you understand the behavioral inclinations of the people. The interventions you develop in your strategies should also be based upon these theories.

You should also conduct data-driven research for analyzing the behaviors of your target audiences, as this will help you in developing the actionable insights in the people, so they change their behavior as per your social strategy

When it comes to result-driven Social marketing campaigns, that must point out negative consequences by using impactful imagery to demonstrate the cause on the go. One such example is the photos of starving children that were utilized in Christian Childrens Fund commercials.

While drafting your Social Marketing Strategy, you should be aware of the things that are competing for taking out the attention and time of the people to influence them for behaving in a particular way.

Your social marketing strategy should incorporate the proper distinction between Desired Behaviour and Problem Behaviour. You need to be clear how your target audiences understand things such as benefits, costs, rewards and barriers associated with the Desired and Problem behaviors. Your strategy should tell your viewers that if they leave out a particular kind of behavioral patterns, what benefits they will get in exchange.

When it comes to successful social marketing campaigns, you must incorporate 7 Ps of marketing in it. The 7 Ps include Product, Place, Price, Promotion, Process, People and Physical Evidence. Adept use of these 7Ps will decide the success of your Social Marketing campaigns.

For any marketing campaign, it is essential to know all the varieties of audiences and their unique characteristics, and the same is true for Social Marketing as well. Therefore, you must identify different audience segments based upon their standard features, and then you can opt for the interventions that can influence the behaviours of the people positively.

One of the best examples of social marketing is by conducting campaigns as we know that citizens of India are quite influential when it comes to changes in society.

Social marketing is quite sensitive in India. Various health promotion campaigns are arranged on a large scale by using social marketing. There are many aids awareness programs in some parts of the country. The social marketing is performed by the professional social workers who are specially trained for the campaigns.

Anti-tobacco Campaigns are done in various rural areas of India where social workers go and apply strategies to influence people for quitting tobacco. Social marketing is the closest way to reach out to the public. One can easily control people by letting them know about how to bring a good change in society.

Anti-Drug Campaigns are arranged in urban areas. As there are times when people are not aware of how a drug can harm someone until and unless camping is arranged to let people know about it. Campaigns can play various videos, promote it on social media, and write blogs on it.

Antipollution Campaigns are usually done in metropolitan cities, as these cities have a high amount of pollution levels. Various public performances are held in public places where people can watch and influence themselves by contributing something or the other for the environment.

It is the job of social workers to let people know about various antipollution strategies.

Road Safety Campaigns are also performed in different parts of the country as multiple people are unaware of the traffic rules and even for crossing the road. Especially those who are not aware of road safety, such as the people who are illiterate and not knowledgeable of the traffic signs.

Road safety campaigns are one of the critical applications of successful Social Marketing Campaigns.

Wrapping it up!

Social marketing is one of the best ways to influence anything for society as one must know that the community needs a change, and one must understand that it is essential to make people aware of beneficial things and providing a first behavioral change.

Social marketing can develop excellent support, especially from the knowledgeable audience. Through social marketing, one can quickly achieve the ultimate business goals and survive for a more extended period.

However, changing the behavioral patterns of people is a daunting task, and Social Marketers need to be aware of the systematic application of marketing along with the concepts and their implementation for accomplishing particular behavioral goals for the social good.

How important do you find Social Marketing in todays time? What is the most potent Social Marketing Strategy, according to you? Tell us in the comments below.

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Social Marketing - Definition , Importance of Social Marketing

Gawdo.com Explains The Role of Social Media Marketing in Marketing – ABCmoney.co.uk

Social media is an informal and interconnected system of interpersonal exchange online. It has become the preferred method of propagating business or brand awareness to a global audience. It is used as a marketing tool to connect customers and potential clients in a dynamic environment. Social media has the power to shape consumer attitudes and preferences. It can make or break a brand.

Social media marketing is simply the usage of social media platforms and sites to advertise a product or services. While the traditional terms such as web marketing and e-marketing are no longer synonymous with modern business, social media marketing continues to gain popularity for researchers and practitioners alike. If you are looking for an expert social media marketing agency, do check out Gawdo.com .There are numerous such platforms and some of them include: blogs, forums, podcasting, video, image, and social networking. As more people continue to use these platforms, there have been questions on how these activities can be attributed to the marketing practices.

A social media marketing strategy is designed to increase the visibility of a brand or product. It is done by producing content that will resonate with consumers. This content is then shared through various mediums, including message boards, social networking sites, discussion forums, and social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Some marketers also opt to build a personal website that can be used for social media marketing. Content created for this purpose then gets repurposed in different forms including news stories, blog posts, press releases, podcasts, and the list goes on.

SMM uses the following types of social networks: Web 2.0 social networks SMS and MMS networks Friend bots RSS feeds and plug-ins Social media marketing companies to help marketers with their SMM needs. Their services offer SMM campaigns based on specific target audience, demographics, geography, and product insights. SMM campaign planning involves collecting and analyzing data, strategizing approaches and developing tactics. There are many types of SMM; here are some of them:

An SMM campaign begins by understanding consumer trends and buying habits and then crafting a strategy to reach out to them. The goal is to promote products or services that are already popular. In most cases, a social media marketing firm is hired to provide a cohesive campaign plan and manpower to execute it. These firms can also do all the work for the business. They include developing and monitoring promotional campaigns, choosing the right keywords and monitoring and organizing social media networks for optimal results.

A popular alternative to SMM is to create and manage an online presence using websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow for easy sharing of photos, videos, information about sales and discounts and various other visual content. On the other hand, social media marketing can also be achieved by creating a dedicated page on the main website of a company and having fans and followers sign up to the page. Twitter is another good example; it allows businesses to tweet about important and relevant news from their enterprise.

One of the best ways to get customers to engage with a brand is to use social marketing campaigns, which in turn, build up brand awareness. It is also capable of connecting with businesses in other countries, tapping into a global market that can become an untapped resource. Examples of social media marketing tools that can increase a companys visibility include websites like Linkedln and Twitter.

SMM can also incorporate video advertisements, pay per click search engine advertisements, and paid internet advertising. SMM firms usually sell advertising space to companies and projects that need them. They offer marketing services that help businesses enhance their websites, blogs, and social media marketing efforts. With so many SMM options available marketing through online channels has proven to be very effective and convenient. SMM is all about getting the message out in front of audiences. If done effectively, it increases brand awareness, increases market share, increases revenue and profits, and helps businesses establish a competitive advantage.

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Gawdo.com Explains The Role of Social Media Marketing in Marketing - ABCmoney.co.uk

How to market your business when you really, really HATE social media – Business MattersBusiness Matters

But what if the thought of all this posting, sharing, liking, boosting, engaging, following and whatnot else leaves you cold? Should you suppress these feelings and slog over social media anyway?

It may be music to the ears of social media dodgers that, according to Gina Hollands, Commercial Director from creative marketing agency PMW thats the worst thing you can do. For marketing to be effective, it needs to be authentic, says Gina. If your heart isnt in one type of marketing and you do it regardless, your audience will see right through it and the outcome wont be desirable it could even be detrimental for your business.

So, in this age of social media seeming to be the only way to win the hearts and minds of consumers everywhere, whats the alternative if its just not your bag? Here, Gina gives her top five tips.

Identify where your strengths lie and focus on these. So, if youre a great networker, spend your marketing time networking; if you enjoy liaising with the media, then make PR your go-to marketing strategy; if youre more of a personal relationships type, then make a few appointments to have coffee with people you already know in the industry and see where these conversations take you. When you concentrate on what you do well, your results will be better and youll enjoy the process a lot more.

If you just think you might not like social media, but havent ever really given it a go, then try it out you might be surprised how you take to it. There is a lot of prejudice around social media that its just a bunch of teenagers dancing around or people sharing pictures of their dinner, but in fact, many a contact can be made and a deal done when you get it right. Consider taking a beginners course or asking a friend who knows their way around the platforms to teach you the basics, and go from there. If you still dont like it after a few months, then at least youve tried. But if you dont try, youll never know!

Love it or loathe it, it is no secret that social media has propelled many a brand from zero to hero. Thats not to say of course that its the only way to market a business, but it is definitely a cost effective and accessible way. It may be that you have absolutely no motivation to go there, however, and if that is the case its worth paying someone else to take the pain away. Depending on how far you want to go with your social media, you could enlist the help of a local freelancer to create your pages and make a few posts or, if you want to really get serious with your social and use it as a platform for advertising your brand and providing insight and analysis, then hiring a social media specialist could be the answer.

It may be hard to believe, but you can still market your business without the need to turn to social media immediately. Certainly, once finances allow, it is wise to invest in hiring a third party to undertake your social media if you dont want to do it yourself, but in the meantime, consider other routes to market, such as trade fairs, traditional advertising, press releases, events and other marketing methods which suit you and your brand.

We always say at PMW to do something well or dont do it at all. Diluting your marketing budget by spreading it too thinly across an array of marketing platforms wont get you anywhere, other than destination disappointment. Its better to choose one marketing method which appeals to you, which you can afford and which suits your brand and do it well. Once youve perfected that, consider investing the return from this activity into your second chosen platform, and repeating the process.

The key things to remember when marketing your brand are to remain within the realms of affordability and if youre doing your own marketing likeability. When youre authentic to yourself, your passion will shine through and marketing success should follow.

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How to market your business when you really, really HATE social media - Business MattersBusiness Matters