Social marketing uses the tools and strategies of traditional marketing to change behavior not just for the benefit of the individual, but for society as a whole. A social marketing campaign uses many of same techniques used in selling a product, only in this case, the product being sold is an idea. The key distinction between social and commercial marketing is this: commercial marketing sells a behavior or lifestyle that benefits the marketer, while social marketing sells a behavior or lifestyle that benefits all. This benefit to the public is always the primary focus of a social marketing campaign. It’s not about competing against other products (this running shoe is better than that one), but rather about competing against undesirable ideas and actions (recycling will lead to less waste and a healthier planet).

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We see social marketing campaigns around us all the time: conserving water, preventing forest fires, floss your teeth every time you brush, not driving while intoxicated. We just witnessed a wide variety of social marketing in action during the pandemic such as communications telling us to wear masks or get vaccinated. And while ‘marketing’ is part of the term, social marketing is much more than advertising. It also utilizes education and engages community action.

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By social marketing, do you mean social media?

Yes and no. Social media is an effective tool that can be utilized in a social marketing campaign, but it’s just one of many. Because social marketing is trying to affect society as a whole, the use of social media will only be part of a fully realized campaign. Other forms of media must be utilized to reach wider demographics. An effective campaign will also use upstream efforts, such as working with policy makers, organizations, and community groups, to get the message out.

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What are the goals of social marketing?

Social marketing typically tries to persuade the public to do one of these four things:

• Accept a new behavior.
  
  • Example: get a vaccine
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• Reject a potential behavior.
  
  • Example: avoid using illegal drugs
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• Modify an existing behavior.
  
  • Example: eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day
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• Give up an old behavior.
  
  • Example: stop texting while driving
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Social marketing is about persuasion. The goal is to get a population to change their behavior by telling what’s possible. This can be accomplished by building understanding and empathy in the audience and helping them to become personally motivated by the benefits of the change you are asking them to make.

Using the 4 P’s in Social Marketing

A well-known way of describing marketing is through the “4 P’s”: product, price, place, and promotion. This can be a handy framework for thinking about the goals of social marketing:

• Product: in social marketing, your product is the behavior you are trying to change. In a campaign against smoking, the product you’re targeting isn’t the cigarette, it’s the act of smoking itself, and the outcomes it can lead to.
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• Price: this is the price of changing a behavior. In social marketing, we’re not just talking about a monetary cost, but also costs in terms of time, effort, and even mental energy for the consumer. We might make a recycling program free in our city, but the campaign also needs to consider such factors as the time and complexity of the sorting, and whether the pickup is convenient and often enough.
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• Place: this refers to the opportunities and access to the product, or in this case, to the resources that will affect change. In social marketing this can also be thought of in terms of removing barriers. In a vaccination campaign, it’s not only important to convey the value of getting the vaccine, but also to make the vaccine easy to find, schedule, and receive. The “place” here won’t just be the physical location, i.e. a wide variety of easy-to-reach locations, it will also be the hours that those sites are available, as well as the ease and ubiquity of the scheduling process. The less that your target audience needs to go out of their way to engage, the more likely they will be to do so.
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• Promotion: this is the advertising piece of the campaign, and the part that is most easily associated with traditional marketing. A good campaign will identify ways to engage its audience through all forms of media, but will also go beyond this by finding ways to reach people out in the community. Finding ways to spread your message through word of mouth is an important part of promotion, whether it can be through doctors or other trusted voices in the community, or through community groups. Symbols can be another key messaging tool: think of the red ribbon that has become synonymous with HIV awareness, or how pink has come to symbolize breast cancer awareness.
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How do I build a successful social marketing campaign?

One size doesn’t fit all

The first step to any campaign is to figure out what behavior you are trying to change. What is the most effective message? Often, there are two, if not more, sides to a targeted behavior. Is it about using your recycling service more, or throwing out less? And which messages will be most effective with your audience? There may be several different targeted groups within a campaign, and they each may need to be influenced in a different way. Audiences might be delineated by age, education, income, race, and each subset will likely require different and targeted methods of engagement.

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Research is an important tool in kicking off a successful social marketing campaign in order to identify and segment key audiences, identify barriers and motivators, and test messages.

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Change is hella hard, bro

A good strategy for thinking about these differences is to identify the barriers to change. Your audience is going to need some convincing to make this change, and you need to assess all the variables that will hold them back: what steps can be taken so that your message can be better received? Some of those barriers are physical, as mentioned above in relation to “place,” while others may be social or cultural.

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Keep in mind, too, that people will have different beliefs about your topic. In a vaccination campaign, for example, some people might believe that getting a vaccine is good, but that the risks aren’t great enough to bother; others might believe the vaccine itself is dangerous; still others might think the vaccine is a great idea, but they just don’t feel like they have time. An effective campaign will need to address all of these viewpoints.

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Time IS on your side

A key component of social marketing is a realistic assessment of the time it will take to change the behavior. Most people don’t change their ways overnight. And even if they come around to the new idea quickly, they may not act on it right away (or may not be able to act on it, due to barriers such as schedules, other household attitudes, etc.). Further, when people do try a different behavior, they will need reinforcement to keep doing it. Therefore, a social marketing strategy has to play the long game.

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Join the winning team

A critical way that social marketing can combat the myriad of barriers to change is through inclusion. It’s not just about conveying the benefits to the audience of starting this new behavior, it’s also about showing the audience what you and your partners are already doing to make this change easier for everyone to accomplish. Don’t just tell your audience what they need to do, tell them what you’ve done, and will do. That way they will feel like they are joining the effort, becoming part of team that’s already in action, rather than having to do this on their own.