Creating a Communications Plan for Your B Corp Certification
As pioneers in the evolving landscape of conscious capitalism, B Corps stand tall, merging profit with purpose. But once you’ve achieved B Corp Certification, what comes next? How do you make sure you’re not that proverbial tree in the forest, quietly existing?
It’s not just about the badge; it’s about the buzz. In this blog, we’ll dive into the essential strategies for amplifying your B Corp message, empowering you to create a compelling communication plan that resonates with your audience and magnifies the impact of your certification.
5 Tips for Communicating to Your Clients & Customers
- Develop Personalized Communication: Start by crafting personalized messages tailored to your existing clients and stakeholders. Acknowledge their support and loyalty over the years, emphasizing their role in your journey towards B Corp Certification.
- Highlight the Benefits: Clearly articulate the significance of B Corp Certification and how it aligns with your shared values. Emphasize the positive impact this certification has on your business practices, such as promoting transparency, sustainability, and social responsibility. They’ll only understand the importance if they have a clear view of the impact.
- Utilize Dedicated Point-of-Contact: If your business has designated points-of-contact for clients or stakeholders, leverage these relationships to deliver the news. A personalized outreach from a familiar contact adds authenticity and strengthens the bond between your organization and its supporters.
- Offer Recognition and Rewards: Show appreciation for your clients and stakeholders’ continued support by offering recognition or rewards for their participation or advocacy. This could include special discounts, exclusive offers, or invitations to celebratory events.
- Provide Opportunities for Engagement: Encourage dialogue and feedback from your clients and stakeholders regarding your B Corp Certification. Invite them to share their thoughts, suggestions, and ideas for further enhancing your commitment to social and environmental responsibility.
Tactical Tips for Boosting Your B Corp Announcement
- Leverage your website: Audit your existing website copy for purpose-driven messaging. How are you communicating the values that you’ve underlined with your B Corp Certification? Ensure this achievement is weaved into your overarching narrative.
- Furthermore, create a landing page on your website that explains your organization’s “Why B” – showcase your story of becoming a B Corp and describe how it ties back to your purpose and mission as an organization.
- Enable your employees: Individuals often have equal, if not better, average social media engagement than organizations. Create a library of copy and designed social assets that your employees can leverage across their social profiles to communicate your announcement.
- Better yet, reward them for their advocacy. Programs like GaggleAMP help organizations gamify employee participation and engagement in your social strategy.
- Invest in the delivery: You’ve dedicated time, energy, and purpose to this certification, make sure your audience is aware! You can pursue cause marketing strategies, or develop a plan for integrating your purpose into your product or service messaging. Paid Social can be an effective channel for cause marketing as it offers targeting options based on values and behavior. Other paid opportunities for B Corps:
- LinkedIn Ads for thought leadership content around the impact and purpose-led business space.
- Influencer Strategies that collaborate with influencers who align with your company’s mission.
- Leverage your B Hive Listing: The B Hive is a platform the B Corp community can use to connect, collaborate, access resources, share knowledge and offer discounts to one another. Ensure your B Hive Listing is up to date with service or product details and use the program to network and collaborate with other B Corp members. This can take many forms: collaborative events, marketing initiatives, webinars, and more.
Create a Plan for Ongoing Communication
One of the most common missteps observed among B Corps is the tendency is the failure to communicate about their purpose journey after the initial announcement. In reality, B Corp Certification might be the beginning of your story. Establishing an ongoing communication plan is essential to ensure that the momentum generated by the certification is sustained and that your organization’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility remains visible and relevant. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- How will new or prospective customers and clients understand our mission and values? If they don’t catch your initial announcement, how will new faces learn what you stand for? Consider how this messaging will weave itself into your ongoing communication channels (newsletters, paid strategy, social media strategy, earned media).
- How do we share the action behind our values? Consider adopting mini marketing action plans that communicate your dedication to upholding values and principles. These action plans serve as a roadmap for transparently sharing achievements, initiatives, and learnings, fostering deeper connections with stakeholders and reinforcing your organization’s reputation as a leader in ethical business practices.
- How do we plan to engage with the B Corp Community and other B Corp Organizations moving forward? Options include: attending conferences, participating in forums on the B Hive, attending networking events put on by B Lab, attending B Lab’s Champions Retreat, hosting collaborative events, etc.
The answers to these questions often result in starter-elements to your ongoing communications strategy.
Ready to Take Your B Corp Marketing Strategy to the Next Level?
The reality is that B Corp Certification can be a beast. If you’ve tackled that alone, you don’t have to tackle your marketing strategy alone too. We know some people with a little bit of experience. Our uniquely eqipped team of impact strategist and experienced marketing professionals can help you turn your brand’s purpose into compelling narratives that engage, inspire, and motivate action. Let us know how we can help.
