Deloitte recently released the top marketing trends for 2021. If one thing is for sure, it’s this—purpose is power. Consumers are searching to align themselves with companies that have a strong sense of mission and use social impact marketing. After the isolation, innovation fatigue, and hardship of the past year, research shows that people’s innate longings to build connections, on a personal and societal level, are at a high.

Take a look at these findings from Deloitte’s report:

• CEOs most often cite “impact on society, including income inequality, diversity, and the environment” as their most important success measure.

• Millennials and Generation Z (ages 6-40) are most likely to support companies that share their values and walk away from those that don’t hold themselves accountable.

• Purpose is the most popular trend that marketers should pay attention to this year.

• According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, which surveyed 34,000 individuals in 28 global markets, people see businesses as the most competent group to solve global issues, even more than nonprofits and governments.

This last bullet point gets me so excited. I have been saying for years that there is a marketplace sound going off in the world, meaning that God is calling people into the business realm to create a positive social impact for the Kingdom. With the data given above, it is even clearer that God is doing something. Whether they’re believers or not, people’s desires are being aligned to want the things of the Kingdom. And they’re willing to put their money behind it.

What Social Impact Marketing Means for You as a Businessperson

Use Mission-Focused Messaging

In order to have cohesion and integrity throughout an organization, businesses need to base their activities around a clear mission. In social impact marketing, your mission is your brand. Because current marketing trends are so focused on making a difference, this is a great time to emphasize your mission in your messaging.

Maintain Excellent Internal Communication

You may know your mission, but that does not mean your team does. Make sure that your staff is clear about what your goals and motivations for those goals are. It is much easier to generate employee enthusiasm and motivation when there is a cause for them to rally around. People want to be involved in something bigger than themselves. Regularly relay your mission to your team through meetings, team-building activities, and written communication.

Monitor Relevant KPIs

You can say that you are mission focused, but the data doesn’t lie. You need to have clear metrics that let you know whether or not your organization is really serving its mission and value proposition. At WealthBuilders, our mission is making sense of making money for making a difference. So, we record and review our key performance indicators weekly to ensure that we’re on track. (If you want to learn more about developing business systems, click here.)

Some KPIs relevant to our mission are website pageviews (they show how many people our educational content is reaching), how many Tricord investors we have, and the number of active partners we have that fund our nonprofit. When these numbers go down, we discuss why that might be the case. Then, we implement action steps to get back on mission. Note that these KPIs could be a relevant way to engage in social impact marketing. You can showcase statistics that reveal how your organization achieves its mission on your website or social media.

What Social Impact Marketing Means for You as a Consumer

Review Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and promote peace and prosperity by 2030. Out of these 17 goals, some of the ones that WealthBuilders and Tricord Global actively and directly try to meet are no poverty, decent work and economic growth, and industry, innovation, and infrastructure. You can view the complete list here. Though this is technically a secular list, I believe that many of these goals align with how God wants to facilitate the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth.

Be a Mindful Shopper

Once you are familiar with some of the sustainable development goals that businesses are working towards, make a note of the ones that really pull on your heartstrings. Consider your own values and give your business to companies that support them. Mindful shopping is a lot like voting—every time you spend a dollar, you cast a vote for that company. So, it’s important that they are abiding by good morals and practices. For instance, if your passion is environmental justice, you might not want to purchase items with excessive plastic packaging. Or, if you get stirred about ethical work, avoid stores that promote fast fashion (clothes that are produced rapidly in response to trends, often in exchange for good working conditions.) These are just a few ideas, but do your own research before buying!

Consider Social Impact Investing

Social Impact investments are investments created to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Many of the stocks in the S&P 500 have funds that do not go to ethical projects. Social impact investing is a way to be more intentional about where you put your money.

One of the ways our WealthBuilders team does this is through Tricord Global. The mission of Tricord Global is to provide microcredit (small loans) to the poor in developing nations, empowering them to move out of poverty and into productivity and prosperity.

Through this method, people get a hand-up— not a handout. They receive loans that they are responsible for paying back. So, this endows them with ownership, creative freedom, and a hands-on learning opportunity for how to build wealth. There are teams in place to instruct loan clients on how to steward their money, which creates a sustainable impact. And, the investors get a 4-8% return on their investment!

To learn more about the direction of business this year, I recommend checking out the Kingdom Business Summit June 16-18th. Myself, John Maxwell, Karen Conrad, and many more will be speaking about the intersection of faith and business! Click here to visit our events page and learn more.