Corporate social responsibility. What it is and how to use it in your marketing strategy

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is also known as Corporate Sustainability (CS) or responsible business.

Social responsibility is based on the active contribution of a company, to improve the social and economic environment. In this way, the company will be more competitive and will gain added value.

· Characteristics of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is generally a concept connected to large companies, but it also can be considered as a strategic tool to increase the competitiveness of SMEs.

It is essential to understand that CSR should not be considered a altruistic behavior carried out by the company nor a advertising tool to enhance its image, but as a way to management that implies its collaboration with society, incorporating the concerns of people as part of its strategy and assuming the commitment to respond to the actions taken by the company transparently.

The main features of social responsibility are:

1. A responsible business practice.
2. Follow responsible marketing strategies.
3. Commitment to voluntary initiatives that go beyond what is required by law and contractual obligations.
4. Integrate social actions into management and business strategy, as this is not a one-time, isolated task.
5. Working with charity for relevant actions.
6. Improve the company’s competitiveness by helping to create a better life for everyone.

· Types of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is an increasingly relevant aspect for customers and users, who understand that productivity cost savings and profits can never justify exploitation, infringement of people’s fundamental rights or the degradation of the environment.

The productive and commercial activities of the companies impact directly or indirectly the society and the environment in a much more broader and more in-depth way than individual actions.

Companies must assume the consequences of their activities, which are not always direct, but depend a lot on the factors that suppose such actions that in many cases can be harmful to individuals or the environment.

CSR covers the following areas:

1. Environmental: to be responsible in this regard, it is necessary to optimize as much as possible the resources used and try to minimize the impact, for example, on energy saving measures (upcycling).
2. Community: Any company is active in a social environment and in a society that can benefit from its activity, if the company is aware of its importance to improve the lives of people who are part of  its environment. Companies should ensure the development of the communities in which they are located.
3. About the market: companies must maintain the standards of quality in their products and services, contributing to transparency so that customers have all the guarantees that they are purchasing the safest product.
4. About work: it is fundamental to create actions aimed at trying to reconcile work and family, to offer courses and training, reducing overtime and maintaining cordial treatment with partners and employees.

· Email Marketing, the promoter of Corporate Social Responsibility

Email Marketing is a direct channel with the user that allows companies to adapt the content to each consumer and thus obtain a greater return on their investment. It is a technique that uses email as a form of contact to attract potential customers.

This type of marketing uses email to send a message to a group of contacts, so it is customizable and non-invasive. Although many companies use email marketing incorrectly; it is vital to remember that the user will have to subscribe to your newsletters voluntarily, so if you do things well, he will be predisposed to open your  email.

It is vital to use email marketing to promote your corporate social responsibility strategy, because one of its main advantages is for sending news to customers and subscribers. Email marketing can work very well with a responsible marketing strategy:

Mailrelay is an example of an email marketing tool, which can help you publicize your activities, generating engagement, collecting information and contributing to the development of content marketing strategies.

· Advantages of email marketing

In addition to being able to disclose all the actions of Corporate Social Responsibility, Email Marketing presents several advantages when compared to other systems, which is making this strategy even more popular with many companies.

For a company, sending messages by email is fundamental, to build engagement with people who are interested in its activities. If we compare the money you need to invest in communicating with your customers or leads by other means such as paper or other marketing actions, the return on investment is much higher. Furthermore, it’s much easier to measure the effectiveness of any action by email.

Another of its good points is that it is eco-friendly. The environmental impact of traditional marketing, actions is very high. However, Email Marketing allows companies to send thousands or millions of emails instantly and without using physical resources such as paper or ink.

Email Marketing is characterized by the speed of communications, precisely what customers demand: immediatism. Creating an email marketing campaign can take a few minutes. After clicking on the send button, the message will be sent instantly to all your subscribers.

Another feature of this tool is that it allows you to control and measure many variables easily, as you have real-time statistics.

Finally, Email Marketing is global, which means that you can run an email marketing campaign quickly, impacting customers from all over the world.

Corporate social responsibility is imperative for sustainable growth.