Combining Charity Work and Powerful Low Cost Marketing

Published on this site: December 23rd, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Someone once told that that what we achieve for ourselves dies with us, but what we achieve for humanity lives on forever. There is nothing like the freedom of being able to become so successful that we are able to contribute towards those less fortunate. Or maybe to assist in the research to eliminate a disease or to simply improve our community in a way that will have lasting impact.

As an entrepreneur and an owner of a number of businesses, including a restaurant, it is sometimes hard to contribute as much as we would like. New enterprises and the risks that go along with establishing them, produce all kinds of pressure that we endure for the purpose of progressing further for ourselves and for our family.

The Greatest Low Cost Marketing Technique

However, some time ago we discovered a way of being able to contribute more, even when funds were tight. In fact, by doing so we actually made more money and built our business faster than would have otherwise been possible. We learned this method from a marketing genius when we were looking for low cost marketing techniques.

One of the techniques he showed us was to contribute directly to assist a patient needing urgent medical attention in Asia. We were thrilled to take this on as she would not have been assisted without our help. We publicised our project to all of our customers who were affected by the plight of this family, with whom we had direct contact. Our contribution had no administrative costs associated with it.

We purposely took on a project to help a specific person that otherwise would not have been helped. This was because to simply say that we were donating an amount of money to a large charitable organisation, would not have the same 'call to action' on us or our customers. To see a relatively small amount of money go into a very large pot, as good as it may be, does not have the same impact.

So we had a section of our wall in the restaurant dedicated to her plight, where all of our customers could get updates, read letters and also contribute. They could also send letters and we would check them and pass them on.

With such an emotional effect on everyone, interest in our project became infectious and of course became a matter of community interest. This in turn attracted much free publicity for our restaurant in the newspaper and other publications and media channels. This boosted our sales enormously to the extent where we were able to contribute considerably more.

In short, our wish to donate and contribute, rather than becoming a financial burden on our limited resources, turned out to be one of our greatest business decisions we have made. The loyalty of our customer base has increased and people take pride in being associated with us and our charity projects.

You can do the same!

So if you are wondering how to undertake effective low cost marketing for your business, irrespective of its size, we urge you to look at contributing to your community or some worthwhile project that you customers would also be proud to support.

You can get more information on how you can do exactly the same thing, and build your business at the same time by visiting The Macdonald's Gourmet Burgers website.

The marketing genius I referred to is Darrell Berg-Smith and you can get lots of his free low cost marketing resources at www.darrellberg-smith.com and also learn more about such projects at www.landofsmilesfoundation.org

Ian Macdonald - as founder and owner of Macdonald's Gourmet Burgers combines his passion and knowledge of food, wine and nutrition with savvy business tactics. He is also the MD of a corporate consulting firm that advises on strategic negotiation, dispute resolution and workplace change. Clients are mainly from top 100 corporations. For lots of free resources from their extensive website go to: http://www.MacdonaldsGourmetBurgers.com