What is Cause Marketing?

Cause marketing is a marketing campaign promoting a cause your clients believe in. This generates awareness of your law firm’s brand and creates goodwill for your brand. (See an in-depth definition of cause marketing)

A cause marketing campaign’s success is dependant upon prominently communicating your law firm’s brand connection with the cause, otherwise, the goodwill is lost.

Every major company uses cause marketing. Bobby’s Burger Palace used this cause marketing ad to get people in the store.

How Effective Is Cause Marketing?

Cause marketing is the most effective type of marketing even for lawyers. Read about a study on cause branding, what Ken Hardison of PILMMA says about it and how Cellino & Barnes effectively used cause marketing for their law firm.

Cone Communications found in a study on cause branding that 85% of American consumers “have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about” and “80% are likely to switch brands, similar in price and quality, to one that supports a cause.”

Ken Hardison of The Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing & Management Association (PILMMA) advocates cause marketing in his article Inspire Your Law Firm On Independence Day, although he doesn’t tell you it’s called cause marketing and he doesn’t tell you how to do it.

See the effect created when the Cellino & Barnes law firm used cause marketing at a hockey game. The law firm got a bigger round of applause than the hockey team which was “on their way to their fourth straight win of the season”.

The law firm flashed an announcement on the screen “Home from Iraq.”  The announcer said, “back from Iraq is the American hero” and the soldier, who was at the game, was flashed on the screen waving to the crowd. The screen panned back to the message now with the Cellino & Barnes law firm showing on the lower right corner of the screen.

What Can Your Law Firm Do For Cause Marketing?

A HURT911® licensee joined forces with an advertising agency that places signs on cars (mobile billboards) advertising to find a kidney for a mom. 

Cause Marketing Can Generate Valuable Free Publicity

Cause marketing can generate a lot of free publicity so make sure you notify local newspapers, radio, and TV. This is the story on TV news about how 1-800-HURT-911® was helping to find a kidney.

Cause Marketing Won’t Benefit Your Law Firm If No One Knows What You Do

This was a great cause marketing idea but it wasn’t apparent to viewers what 1-800-HURT-911® does. Is it an organization of personal injury lawyers or a kidney organization?

Grace of 1-800-HURT-911® said she wanted to help out but didn’t say that she and the personal injury lawyers at 1-800-HURT-911® wanted to help out. No one knows from this interview that 1-800-HURT-911® are personal injury lawyers. People could assume it’s a kidney organization. 

The car signs don’t say it either. Instead of “Call 1-800-HURT-911”, it should say: 

Call 1-800-HURT-911
Personal Injury Lawyers

Make a cause marketing video for your law firm website.  This video was made by a HURT911® licensee.