You are scrolling down your Facebook page and you see a catchy video from an organization. You decide to play this video. In the video, a doctor compares the X-ray results of two lungs-the lungs of a smoker and that of a nonsmoker. Pointing to the X-ray result of the lung of the smoker, he says “That happens to your lung when you smoke excessively”, and pointing to the other lung he says “This happens to your lung when you regulate the rate at which you smoke”. Any questions?
You see a poster while driving back from work. In this poster, there are two girls standing side by side. The first girl has a bad tooth and above her head is a tag which reads “I consume candy frequently”. The other girl with a nice looking tooth has a tag over her head and this tag reads “I regulate my consumption of candies”.
What do the above-mentioned illustrations share in common? They are all a typical example of social marketing, which can also be regarded as “marketing for good”. You should have at one point, come across one of these scenarios.
DEFINITION OF SOCIAL MARKETING
The illustrations described above would have provided you with a little insight into what social marketing is. To make the picture clearer, we are going to provide you with a better definition of this marketing strategy. What is Social Marketing? Who adopts this marketing strategy? What are the important elements and tactics to adopt if you decide to use social marketing for your dental clinic? The answers you seek is here, let’s begin!
Social marketing is a tactics that is designed to implement social change, not to the direct benefit of a business or an organization. With the aid of traditional marketing methods, this strategy helps in increasing the awareness with regards a particular issue or case, with the goal of convincing an audience to drop their behavior.
Rather than promoting a product-like other marketing tactic-social marketing enlighten the public of the dangers that are attached to a certain behavior to create a change. The society benefits from this in several ways. And rather than urging the audience to purchase a particular product, social marketing urges the audience to change their bad habits or behavior.
This strategy is typically utilized for causes such as:
Safety and Health, such as:
- Putting a stop to excessive smoking habit
- Putting a stop to excessive drug use
- Infirming the mass about the benefit of exercising and healthy eating
- Driving appropriately
WHO UTILIZES SOCIAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS?
Social marketing strategy is mostly utilized by non-profit organizations, emergency services, including charities and government organizations. One thing you should be aware of is that, a. commercial business like a dental clinic can run a social marketing campaign. As a dental clinic, you can decide to run a social media campaign for something you are very passionate about.
WHY IS THIS MARKETING STRATEGY SO IMPORTANT?
Social marketing is significant for some reasons. Simply imagine utilizing traditional adverts for your products or services. Sometimes, online users aren’t often propelled to check out a product via an advert alone.
So, how does an attractive advert gets your notice? It either has an appealing design that wows you, or it is one that is quite hilarious. People often click on ads that are different from what they see each day-ads that inspire people take that brief action of checking out the product or service it promotes.
This is just similar to social marketing. Individuals don’t like to be pushed around, they like to act based on their will. The news they watch each day may not be enough to change their view about a certain social issue. Or these people may be in the dark regarding the problem or what it entails.
Some people may also find it quite difficult to break free from some habits, such as smoking, excessive drinking, etc. But a properly implemented social marketing attracts the attention of the people, and enhances their awareness regarding a certain issue, via emotion and a touch of creativity. Most importantly, this marketing strategy helps to make the world a better place.
Social marketing is an ideal tool for charity organizations. Such organizations leverage on this tactic in propelling people to make donations. And it really works because people want to change the world (positively) in the smallest way they can.
