The MarketingProfs Book Club is back with a book that does a lot of good for just causes… by outright stealing know-how from big brands (Robin Hood, anyone?). For those new to the MarketingProfs Book Club, welcome aboard (sign up here). As for those returning for another round, welcome back.

What's the book? Robin Hood Marketing by Katya Andresen. What's more? You might win one of 50 free copies. You want more still? Everyone gets a bonus just for reading this article.

In past book club segments we've covered social media, branding, and communications. Now we're turning to the world of nonprofit and cause-related marketing.

Which leads to the BIG question: How do you motivate people to give money, take action, or otherwise advance your worthy cause... amid so many competing causes?

The answer is marketing: savvy, sophisticated strategies just like the big guns use—even if you're operating on a shoestring budget.

Robin Hood Marketing shows you how to sell your mission as successfully as the great marketing minds of corporate America sell their products. Quite cleverly, Andresen created "The Robin Hood Rules"—which "steal" from the winning formulas that sell everything from socks, cigarettes, even mattresses—to show nonprofit marketers how to appeal to their audiences' (not their own) values and so get people to take notice.

Q&A with Katya Andresen

Q: What inspired you to write the book—what core message do you want for nonprofit marketers to receive from reading it?

A: I spent seven years living in developing countries, and the overwhelming human need I saw on a daily basis left me with an acute sense of how important it is to do good in this world, and to do it in a hurry.

The problem is, do-gooders—myself sometimes included, sadly—tend to become so consumed with our causes that we forget we need to be marketers, not just missionaries, in order to win hearts and minds. We spend too much time talking to ourselves, which is a waste of precious time.

I wrote the book because I think a great way to amplify our message and put social change on a fast track is with great marketing—and the for-profit world is a wonderful place to look for lessons. Enter Robin Hood.

Q: Can you give us some successful examples of causes that "stole" corporate savvy to great success?

A: My favorite will always be the one that opens the book—the giant smiling condom in Cambodia that turned me on to marketing with corporate savvy.

I was a jaded journalist then, but I knew a good story when I saw a nonprofit, Population Service International, doing such an excellent job marketing Number One condoms (including giant inflatable condoms!) that people WANTED to buy and use.

Instead of telling people they should fear AIDS and scolding them into changing their behavior, they sold the social change.

Another example is CARE's "I am Powerful" campaign, which takes the Nike approach of celebrating the strength of women and channels it into a desire to help empower other women—rather than sell shoes.

Q: What about cause-related marketers who are working on shoestring budgets...? How do they get their message to rise above the clutter of so many worthy causes?

A: I'm glad you asked that, because small budgets too often become an excuse for small thinking. The strength of our marketing need not be dictated by the size of our budget.

If you focus on connecting your cause to your audience's values—rather than telling people to value your cause—and reach people when they are in the best place, time, and state of mind to act, you will get more bang for your buck.

My mantra is, "concentrate and inundate" rather than "spray and pray"!