Taking part or launching charitable events makes great business sense. It can provide great visibility, boosting both your brand awareness and your business reputation. In addition to this, it can also help build relationships within your community and showcase other sides of your business that your customers will appreciate.

Ready to think about your own charity project? Here are a few tips to get you started.

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Charity Selection

Brainstorm with your team which charities are on your shortlist and why. Ask yourself how this will impact your customer base and try to find one that the community will embrace and support. Choose a charity that will resonate or one that is personal for you. For maximum impact, reach out and consult with your brides to decide who you should be ‘giving’ your time and money too.

Planning

Before you start implementing anything it’s a good idea to sit down and brainstorm some ideas and activities that you can manage. Are you looking to organise an off-site event or in-house coffee morning? Would you rather do a Facebook Live auction or raffle with prizes collected from local businesses? You might even decide to combine several of these ideas.

Event/Strategic Partners

Link up with local wedding and community-based businesses. Talk to them about the ideas that you have and use your charity work as a means to build professional relationships with the businesses around you. Once you get them on-board to help, spread the word of the great work you are doing together. It’s a great idea to capture pictures and videos of your charity work, especially if they are events that you have arranged. These are great for your social media channels and will ultimately help you promote more events in the future.

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Press

To get the most success out of your charity event you need to shout about it! Update your blog, post information on your social media channels and send press releases out to your local community. It’s always a great idea to contact your local radio and newspapers, you may be surprised at the support and coverage you receive.

Notify the organisations or charity that you are raising money for and ask them to share the news. It’s okay to show details about your charity work on your social media channels as this will show your followers that your business has a deeper, more meaningful purpose too.

Cheque Presentation

When the good work is done, ensure that you arrange a photo opportunity and cheque presentation to capitalise on the PR. Once you have done this, send it to local papers, trade industry press and local social media community platforms.

This year our ‘Wear Your Wedding Dress Again’ party made news on Good Morning Britain. On top of this, over the years we have also been on the radio and in many newspapers and publications with coverage of our charity work.

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In conclusion, make sure you shout about the charity work you do. Moreover, in what could be described these days as a huge sea of wedding dress shops in which retailers are trying to differentiate themselves, some may do well to think outside the box to get noticed. This approach has certainly worked for some marketing savvy retailers and we have loved every minute of the charity work we have done.

For more business advice like this, take a look at our 10 PR Tips for Your Bridal Business.