Marketing a Social Enterprise: What Non-Profit Leaders Need to Know
- Angie McLeod
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago

You know the non-profit world. You know how to market your organization to move your mission and vision forward. This is different than marketing a social enterprise.
Marketing a social enterprise requires balancing your mission with market. To succeed, non-profit leaders must showcase your organizations social, cultural, or environmental impact while attracting, serving, and retaining paying customers.
In this quick guide, we’re going to share our insights into successfully marketing a social enterprise.
Your Social Impact is Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
If you’ve been reading the blog series on social enterprise development, you’ve begun to bridge the difference between business and non-profit language. Every marketing plan “how-to guide” tells you to market your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
For non-profits running social enterprises, your USP is your social impact statement or the outcome that the social enterprise is working to achieve.
Here are two social impact USP examples. Tell us which you would support:
A coffee shop – ABC Coffee Café has friendly, positive quick service, not to mention GREAT coffee.
A coffee shop with a purpose – BCD Coffee Café: a supportive venue for youth to gain job skills, grow their confidence and self-esteem, and provide positive, friendly quick service along with an AMAZING cup of coffee.
The second one! The first one sounds like a for-profit business. The second one is about creating change (jobs for youth) while providing a service.
Know your customer, not just your community
As a non-profit your focus is on meeting needs specific to community segments, including youth at risk, seniors, families, new mothers, or parenting. The information you gather about this “group” of individuals informs your program development and marketing.
As a social enterprise manager, you need to know exactly who your individual customer is including their values, social / economic status, preferred marketing channels, purchase patterns, and more.
Promoting your impact statement to connect customers to your cause is important. Long-term sustainability is only achieved, though, when you know your customers preferences and use this knowledge to get them to buy your product/service.
Let’s stay with the coffee shop social enterprise example. Here are some questions to ask when creating a clear customer persona for your coffee shop:
Do they prefer fair trade coffee? Coffee roasted in-house?
What makes their favourite coffee shop special?
What kind of food are they looking for?
Why do they come?
How old are they?
Which groups spend the most money?
Where do they hang out online? In person?
What social media channels do they use?
When it comes to knowing the details of your target customer, you can never have enough information. Get as detailed as possible.
Gather this information during the market research phase planning. Consider going and hanging out in the various coffee shops (for-profit and non-profit). Make note of things like:
What’s the cafés charm?
Who are the customers? Paint a clear picture of who comes in.
How long do they stay? Is it a one-coffee visit or two coffees and a muffin?
What do they do while they are there? Are they hanging with friends or working on their computer?
Be observant. Write your observations down. This primary data is GOLD when it comes to defining and attracting your ideal customer. Support your observations with industry specific secondary data published by trade journals and sector reports.
Feeling confident? Approach the owners of non-competitive cafes and ask them targeted questions about their clientele and about business operations. You’d be amazed what established business owners will share to help a fellow entrepreneur learn.
Pricing: Finding the sweet spot between cost and impact
In every business finding just the right price is essential to long-term profitability. This is even more important in a social enterprise where there is a need to balance social impact and earning profits. Depending on your social impact statement and your selected business, you need to consider pricing carefully.
Price products too low, you decrease profitability. Price products too high, you restrict the customer base. Finding that sweet spot is essential.
That sweet spot for cost and impact depends on several cost factors:
Raw materials to create the product (i.e. coffee, syrups, and cream, etc.)
Staffing to deliver the product to the market (Baristas, bookkeepers, cleaners, etc.)
Marketing to draw people into the café (advertising, website, social media, etc.)
Operational costs required to keep the café open (hydro, gas, rent, supplies, etc.)
Equipment / Technical requirements to operate the café (Expresso machine, coffee machine, computer, payment system, etc.)
As a Social Entrepreneur, have a firm understanding of these costs and ensure a percentage of each is included in the cost of single cup of coffee! Seem extreme? It’s not.
Knowing your cost of goods sold (what it costs to deliver that cup of coffee), adding a desired profit margin, and selling it at that price, is the difference between success and failure, especially for a social enterprise.
Knowing exactly what it costs to serve up a cup of coffee (or build a product) is the first step in determining what to charge. Next, consider where you want to sit in the marketplace – are you providing a premium coffee experience (Starbucks), or is about moving people through quickly (McDonalds)? Compare this with what competitors in the marketplace are charging to determine if what you are proposing is realistic?
Remember that what you are offering – whether it is a cup of coffee or a wellness program – your product offers greater “heart” value due to your social impact mandate. Consider how you build this value into your price as well. Is a coffee with “heart” worth $0.10 more or $0.75 more to your target customer?
Once you have a range in mind, test your options (ask customers or run a “introductory offer” for new coffee concoctions) until you land on that sweet spot that meets the customers price point and your profitability goals.
Invest in marketing expertise
When it comes to marketing, most non-profits do it off the side of their desk. There is rarely a staff member who is 100% dedicated to your organization’s communication and marketing. Not to mention, the staff member doing the marketing is may not be trained in marketing and communications; thus leaving a vital skills gap in your team. In a social enterprise, hiring a marketing coordinator is important – even part-time, fractional, or on a contract basis.
A Marketing Coordinator can craft a marketing plan that promotes the social enterprise to the target customers on media channels that they use, whether traditional or digital. In fact, if the social enterprise marketing plan is well-researched and written, the Marketing Coordinator simply needs to refine the messaging, target the right audience, and ensure that the right people respond.
A good Marketing Coordinator will do A/B testing of messages and media channels to know which one is most effective. They will create marketing collateral that raises awareness, builds rapport, and engages community members in events and activities that drive the social enterprises impact. They will continually refine the marketing until it is effective and impactful, thus growing the success of the social enterprise.
HIP would be happy to recommend a marketing expert who can support your marketing efforts. Contact Angie at HIP for her personalized recommendations.
Marketing with Intention
Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, but it must be consistent and intentional. You need to know what your goal is and ensure that all marketing strategies reflect that goal.
As a social enterprise, consider establishing a style guide that defines key messages, brand elements, colours, fonts, appropriate use of language (informal, conversational style or witty and funny), plain language, and more branding details. Establish this early to ensure that your social enterprise brand is easily recognizable.
There are templates available online to help you craft this brand style guide or if you have a marketing coordinator or consultant, they can help you refine your ideas. If not, start with Canva’s article 50 brand style guides for inspiration (plus free templates) is a good place to start.
Here are some key areas to ensure consistency and intent:
Establish a Brand (logo, font, colours, personality) that reflects the key elements of the social enterprise and sets it apart from competitors.
Assess and select those media channels where your target customers are. Prioritize these for posting information, events, announcements, etc.
Build community by inviting people to follow your social media channels and give them an incentive to stay engaged. Incentives could include free resources, special VIP perks at your non-profit events, or simply a prize donated by a community sponsor (think weekend at a cabin, a grocery gift card bought with credit card points, an evening out donated by a local restaurant, etc.). Find creative ways to creative incentives that don't cost your donors and sponsors huge amounts of money. :)
Host or sponsor low-cost community events and network with business owners, or customer groups.
Develop customer loyalty strategies such as customer coffee cards (buy 10 get one free) or referral incentives for those who refer someone to your social enterprise.
Craft a strong digital marketing strategy with SEO friendly website and content, social media posts, and email campaigns.
Remember the goal is consistency and intention with your marketing.
Measure impact alongside sales
Every social enterprise requires that the non-profit track output (numbers) and outcome (change) KPIs alongside sales generated. When you are defining your KPIs for a social enterprise consider things like:
Lives improved
Jobs created
Social gains
Revenues earned
Profits reinvested
Your social enterprise creates real change, so capture it.
Gather data, collect stories, and share them widely (something your marketing coordinator can help with). These powerful narratives inspire your community to see how every purchase fuels meaningful impact.
Effective marketing will transform a social enterprise from a promising idea into a sustainable engine for impact. By combining clear branding, intentional strategies, and powerful impact stories, non-profits can build trust, grow revenue, and strengthen their mission.
Every purchase from your social enterprise is more than a transaction. It’s an investment in change.
Ready to brainstorm marketing ideas for your social enterprise? Book a free 30-minute Get Curious! Discovery Session with HIP Strategic. Together, we can come up with some creative and impactful ideas to market your social enterprise and raise awareness of your non-profit.
Comments