Using Green Marketing to Grow Your Company
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Green marketing is an increasingly popular technique to reach today’s consumers. Here are some tips on how to capitalize on "going green" in your company.
- Make Sure You’re Really Green
Consumers are wary of "greenwashing," or false claims of eco-friendiness by businesses that want to jump on the green marketing bandwagon. Before you think about touting how green your business is, make sure that what you say can be backed up by facts.
- Analyze Your Products and Services for Green Marketing
Next, take a good look at what products and services you have to offer the consumer. What is it about what you have to offer that qualifies it as “green”? Are you marketing sustainable, renewable material, such as recycled content lumber or building materials? That’s certainly green. Do you sell organic foods packaged in recycled content containers? Do you source your food locally, reducing the carbon footprint caused by trucking long distances? These practices are also green. Do you offer consulting services on how businesses can become greener? Ditto, this is also green.
- Construct Green Marketing Messages
Once you have a list of what qualifies your products and/or services as green, you’ll be able to construct the appropriate messages to market them. Highlight each in such a way that the consumer appreciates the benefits without reason to suspect that your claims are overblown. Subtle messages, carefully written, will be enough to get your point across. Absolutely never say that your business is green if it is not. Consumers will spot the greenwashing right away and you’ll lose them.
- Use Green Marketing Appropriately
Consider where you’ll use your green marketing. One option is to post information on your website, where you can explain in detail how your business utilizes energy-efficient practices, cuts down pollution, conserves water, reduces its carbon footprint, etc. If you have a newsletter, you might include a column on your company's environmentally-friendly practices. Look into a permission-based email to your customers where you can also add subtle messages about your green initiatives. Also think about brochures, flyers, business cards, advertisements and packaging. Consider creating or altering a slogan, and possibly even your logo, to reflect your company's greenness.
- Get Everyone In Your Company Involved
Multiply the effectiveness of your green marketing efforts by enlisting the participation of all your employees. Offer incentives for suggestions that help promote your green business. Have contests where various departments compete to see how much they can reduce your carbon footprint, whether by using recycled-content, reusing materials or using soy-based inks, or by engaging in other energy-efficient and green practices.