Sales & Marketing Playbook

How to use your philanthropic efforts to help tell the story of your business

Many Wheaton | Bekins agents are incredibly involved in their communities, offering up their time and equipment to deliver items for local nonprofits and making donations to their favorite charities. While business owners of course don’t want to be seen as “doing it for the likes” by posting every little thing on social media accounts, it is valid and authentic to tell the story of your business and brand by sharing some of those moments with your followers. Here is how your agency can tell its story by featuring your philanthropic efforts.

​

When you plan out your posts, create a strategy for tying posts back to your company mission statement.

They say, “When someone tells you who they are, believe them.” If you scroll back through your last year’s worth of social media posts, what have you told your audience about your business? At the beginning of your next planning session (whether the year or the quarter), lay out your company’s top three to five key message points, and map out upcoming posts to align with those message points.

​

For example, Wheaton | Bekins’ priorities are as follows:

​

• Customer satisfaction – Our First Priority has been and always will be the customer. We strive every day, in every way, to perform our service to the satisfaction of every customer.

• Fostering a strong, healthy network of agents and drivers – Our Second Priority is growth and increasing our volume of business by providing each customer with a superior service experience. We know that satisfied customers are more likely to be repeat customers and to share their positive experience with others.

• Providing a great work experience for our employees – Our Third Priority is making a reasonable profit from our operations. We do this by charging a realistic price for services and watching our costs, not by cutting corners. As a profitable company, Wheaton | Bekins will be able to continue to invest in state-of-the-art equipment. More importantly, we are able to pay our people a reasonable wage, salary or commission so they have the incentive to continue to serve our customers in the professional manner which they have the right to expect.

 

Our mission points for social posting, then, could be an emphasis on customer experience (Feedback Fridays), on recognizing our high performing agents and drivers (Agents and Drivers Of the Month), and on the experiences our employees enjoy because of their positions with our company (GKTW volunteering and holiday or seasonal parties).

​

Remember that by posting photos of your experiences and tagging the nonprofits, you’re helping increase those charitable organizations’ reach, which can garner more donations and more awareness by people who may be eligible to benefit from those nonprofits. If you keep in mind that benefit to both the nonprofit organization and its audience when you create your posts, you’ll sound genuine to your audience and escape any cringe in posting about your good deeds.

​

Center your posting on the nonprofit partner you support. Think of the charity as the hero of the story and your business as a guide helping the nonprofit achieve their goals. 

 

My business = the hero. Jaymie’s Moving & Storage spent this whole week donating our time and talent to Give Kids The World – we were happy to be able to do it!

​

Vs.

​

The nonprofit = the hero. Give Kids The World’s goal was to be able to increase the number of families they could host at a time, so 1,000 more children with critical illnesses could experience the magic of the Village each year. To make that possible, the nonprofit resort needed to demo 10 villas that housed two families each and build 5 condo buildings in the newly available space. Check out the difference from before our partners at Jaymie's Moving & Storage helped move furniture and fixtures out of the villas and after the volunteers delivered the items into the newly built condos!

​

Show your organization’s support for your philanthropic partners

There are a ton of ways to show support for the charities that are closest to your heart. From the van line’s end of things, we show our support for Give Kids The World through: