I heard from my friend Paul Colligan this morning.  If you don’t know Paul, you are missing out. Follow Colligan on Twitter and listen to what he says. The man is a genius at marketing.

Paul told me about a video on YouTube. At first glance, it didn’t seem like much. A young woman with a new product and a cause. Since I got the link from Paul, I knew it would be worth a minute.. IT WAS.

The Best iPad Cases

The video is Daniella Armijo from Cause For a Cause, selling a handmade case for your iPad.

I don’t use a case for my iPad, but I do love a good story.. and I was sold by what Daniela told us.

Case For A Cause exists to help women from this area escape from a life of abuse – whether domestic abuse, forced prostitution or human trafficking.  Every penny of the profits goes back to help these women develop and sustain a better quality of life. All artisans are paid a fair wage to make each case, and the Issyk Kul Development Center is provided valuable funds to help their work of intervention, counseling, job training, and other programs to help these women gain hope and the possibility of a better future for themselves and their children.

Now she really had my attention. A handmade product, each unique in design and what a story to share every time you go anywhere with your iPad.

Smart marketing.

While I’m wondering which of the color combinations would work best for me, Daniella went on to explain more about the women the project and company are helping.

This is not some simple “send some money so you won’t feel guilty” pitch, the Case for a Cause web site has details which Daniella summarized in the video.

  • All profits are sent to the center
  • Participants are rescued from some horrible situations
  • Women are trained to be self sufficient

Here’s Where You Can Learn Something

The video doesn’t stop with a plea for help, a sales pitch for the product or the way overused “help us get the word out” appeal. Daniella explains a promotion that is

  1. Easy to do
  2. Specific in explaining the details of how this will help
  3. Incentivized

How can you resist? Watch the video now.. and I’ll add a couple more ideas to create a win/win for you

I’ve placed the video here, but you want to open it up on YouTube when you’ve read the rest of this post.

Action Steps to Follow Today

I’ve already done some of these and a few of the other tactics I used every day to share good stuff and build relationships online. I am share a few obvious steps that I’d like to do as a minimum:

  1. Watch the YouTube Video on it’s page
  2. Make sure you are signed in to YouTube and click on the LIKE button
  3. If you’re YouTube account is set up right, this will send a Twitter and Facebook post. If not, make sure you share it in at least two places.
  4. Very important. Daniella is asking for comments. Follow here instructions in the video to win the prize, or just because it is the right thing to do
  5. Consider a blog post, a Facebook video share, or Tumblr with this video and idea. Just like I did here. You can tell your own story, give another shout out to Case for a Cause and give your community something to talk about besides “buy my stuff”

The publicity value of doing good is great for any business. Naturally, in this age of transparency, people will know if you are doing it just to look good, but I know you aren’t like that. You will be authentic in sharing your feelings about the issue, the people involved, the women being helped and the cool new case. You’ll be doing good and looking good.

Speaking of looking good. Did you order one of those cases?