Value Based Marketing is an appeal to a customer’s values and ethics. It shifts marketing from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric one. In fact, consumers now name “authenticity”, or being true to a brand’s values, as the most important factor in the purchase of something from a brand.
This can often align with the effect of a positive customer experience, which benefits different points of the sales process, including lead generation and lead nurturing. Nowadays, philanthropy and cause marketing isn’t just good for the world, it’s good business.
What Is Value Based Marketing?
Values-based marketing happens when a brand connects with its audience based on shared values. It’s an outward-focused strategy fuelled by authenticity and focused on doing good in the world. The strategy focuses on making a genuine connection with the customer beyond interest in a product or service.
A values-based marketing strategy can help your brand establish greater trust with consumers. If your brand resonates with the people in a powerful way, they’ll be eager to engage with you and spread the word. Beyond what a brand sells, values-based marketing seeks to resonate with its target audience on closely-held social and ethical issues.
How Does It Help Your Business?
An audience that trusts your brand will, in turn, send their friends and family to you through word of mouth. You will not only gain loyal followers; they will bring other loyal followers with them. Demonstrating values-based marketing and actually living those values will help you build trust with your audience.
In a world where work has become primarily digital, breaking through the clutter is increasingly difficult. Marketers have to do much more than simply capture demand. Today, it’s all about creating demand and ultimately sustaining it. That’s where value can play a critical role.
With value-based content and materials, companies have the tools they need to drive better engagement. Interactive calculators can help increase traffic. Data-rich materials and case studies can help reduce bounce rates. A value-based marketing strategy delivers tangible results across the board.
What Do Customers Look For?
Consumers focus on authenticity-based brand loyalty, now more than in the past. If a brand stays true to its message, mission, and values, consumers value this. As a result, their loyalty to the brand factors into the decision to purchase its products and services.
Some of the features that customers look for in values based marketing are –
- Meaningful interactions with brand representatives that achieve a sense of relationship with the brand.
- Familiar value systems to relate to based on their own experiences.
- Authenticity, which proves that the business truly is what they show the world to be.
- Support for specific organizations and causes that your audience can get behind.
- Decisions and follow-up by brands to show that they hold the values they show.
How Can You Implement Values Based Marketing?
If you feel values based marketing is the right way that your business needs, follow these steps –
- Define your brand’s core values
- Revisit your target audience to know more about their expectations
- Study and research on competitors to know about their strategies
- Adapt your strategy as per your core values
Pay attention to the strategies and types of communication that resonate most with your audience. Then, replicate that approach. An effective values-based marketing strategy is multi-faceted and resonates with audiences on multiple levels.
Some examples of values based marketing include –
- Inspiring and simple messages to resonate with your audience
- Visual storytelling to support your narrative
- Emphasizing connection and shared storytelling
- Strong emphasis on social sharing and user-generated content
Having your audience share content that includes their own actions will help spread the message and draw in more followers.
Summing It Up!
Once you’ve clearly defined your core values and determined how to best communicate them, demonstrate them consistently. As you earn your audience’s trust and engage with them based on your shared values, you’ll attract more loyal customers along the way. It’s a strategy that appeals to their most deeply-held values and builds a strong rapport between you and them.
