Giving before you get is the key to cause marketing

RCS Influencer Wendy Marvin says to give before you expect anything in return.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with RCS Influencer Wendy Marvin. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Hello, everybody. I'm Alex Tolle here with rooferscoffeeshop.com, and I am here for the November influencer topic with my good friend Wendy. How are you, Wendy?

Wendy Marvin: I'm good, Alex. How are you?

Alex Tolle: Good. So happy to see your face.

Wendy Marvin: Thanks for having me. Love to talk with you.

Alex Tolle: Of course. So our November influencer question is, "What are you doing around cause marketing and how has that enhanced your company brand reputation?"

Wendy Marvin: Yeah, so I feel really passionate about this one. And it's kind of funny, although I'm really prickly at the word cause marketing because I feel like a lot of times when people who are new to this look at this, they really go into it transactionally. And what's been the most successful for us over the years, and we're 18 years in business, so we've kind of beat the odds a little bit, but has been giving before you expect anything in return. And that's hard because you feel like you're not reaping anything from it or you're in need of leads to be able to do things and you're looking for it. And I don't think that... to think of cause marketing as a short-term gain. I think it's a long-term investment that can then turn around and really benefit your company. Perfect example, just recently we donated, for the second year in a row now, a dog house. We're making them out of scrap material that we bring off the roof.

Alex Tolle: That's amazing.

Wendy Marvin: So half a sheet of plywood is left or whatever. The Humane Society of Southwest Washington is a really good, big organization. Their events that they have have like 750 people, so it's a good opportunity to get your name out. But we've just donated, and we've just shown up and been around and tried to help where we could. And this year we've booked three jobs off of it.

Alex Tolle: Wow.

Wendy Marvin: Yeah, And people just say, "I see you out there doing good, and I want to work with you rather than work with somebody else." But it takes some time.

Alex Tolle: Definitely, yeah.

Wendy Marvin: And I think that's the challenge of it.

Alex Tolle: I love that. That's such a good use of that scrap materials, those smaller projects that can make a huge difference to someone's life or someone's dog's life and keep them... You live in the rainy part of the country, so keeping the dogs out of the rain. I love that. That's awesome.

Wendy Marvin: Yeah. Yeah. And it's just a cute idea. Again, thinking outside the box. You wouldn't connect roofing with Humane Society typically, right?

Alex Tolle: Yeah.

Wendy Marvin: Because it's just a weird... seems like a weird industry. But what you have to remember, I think, more than anything is just that we're a business owner and how do we connect to other business owners? And another example of tying that in is then so now we have negotiated relationships with people who dog sit who are willing to give us discounts that we give our customers when we do a tear-off and it's really loud. And if they have a high risk dog, we give them a discount. They can go have their dog taken to the little doggy daycare for the day.

Alex Tolle: Wow.

Wendy Marvin: And everybody wins. The company gets a new opportunity to show their business to maybe a person they wouldn't see before. And we're helping out our customer not feel as stressed during kind of a stressful event like we do.

Alex Tolle: I love that. That's so awesome. I never would've even thought to make that connection with the Humane Society and the dogs. And for a lot of dogs, I'm sure getting the roof torn off is the scariest thing ever.

Wendy Marvin: Yeah. Terrifying.

Alex Tolle: So being able to go take them to doggy daycare is probably a huge relief off the homeowner, so that's amazing.

Wendy Marvin: Yeah. So the suggestion I think is just find something that you like. Find something you're passionate about. I love animals, and so that's an easy fit for us. Find something you're passionate about, and just go get involved. Donate your time. Try to do what you can to help out. And it may not happen immediately, but it will eventually come back to you. And I think that's it. Don't think of it as a transactional "I'm going to give, and I'm going to get immediately." Just go be a good person, and it will. It will benefit you a million times over.

Alex Tolle: Agreed. I think just being a good person in general will benefit you long term.

Wendy Marvin: I wish karma worked a little faster sometimes.

Alex Tolle: Right. Well, Wendy, thank you so much for answering the November influencer topic and we will see you on the next one.

Wendy Marvin: Thanks, Alex. Take care. See ya.

Outro: Bye.