Going Green, Environment, fighting Global warming are the new mantras of this century, of this decade, going green should be a mission for each one of us, in any industry or field. I believe that “Awareness creates Knowledge and Knowledge creates Change”, totally believe in a Green environment; practice green marketing and totally understand the needs as a green company needing to market its green products or services.
Going Green:
Green is not a fad and is not going away anytime soon. But your product or service will if it doesn’t stand out from the green clutter. It’s simple, but not easy.
The bottom line is that it’s not good enough anymore to just be green; you have to be GREAT. Great products have to deliver beyond expectation. Many business owners, think that using green methods to market a company might be too expensive, but it is actually the opposite as you will end up saving money on the long run.
Green product:
A green company should evaluate if their Green product is unique, or if their Green services exceptional, are they original. Businesses in general need to be positioned properly using their brand specially Green companies need to better package their branding and marketing efforts by creating and communicating their Unique Value Proposition or (UVP) properly to highlight how their products/ services:
- Do a better job than the next green business
- Does save money
- Is efficient with less ecological impact
Average consumers are starting to suffer from “green fatigue.” They can’t understand why they have to pay a lot more for ecologically friendly products or services.
Your green message need to be translated to help creating sales, by showcasing how your products/ services are not only crucial to the environment but to the fate of the population and their children and grand children.
It is important to realize that your customers involved in the green are not involved to the same degree but they rather coexist in different tints of green.
- Pale Green: They will buy Green products or apply Green principles only of it matches their budgets or their life styles- around 16% of the total US population
- Medium Green: They embrace the Green concepts only if it makes sense to their lifestyles and they can see immediate results. Effectiveness is key to their embracing green.
- Dark Green: The great believers in Green, they are green no matter what and no matter how much it can or will cost them – around 19% of the total US Population
The biggest portion that needs to be targeted and catered to is the “Medium Green” as they can easily be swayed to be advocates for Green. The older the age (55 and over) is the more they are inclined to buy Green products.
Look for Marketing companies or consultants that put your best Green foot forward educating people on how your products/ services are not only good for the environment but also good to their pockets and will save them money.
Full green marketing campaigns with media kits, multiple press releases, E-newsletters, e-brochures and regular brochures, website content, and electronic press kit can be launched paperless.
Going green should mean business sustainability as well as sustainability of natural resources. Some money saving marketing tips that also help preserve natural resources:
- Avoid as much as possible printing literature and save money by emailing PDFs or e-documents. PDFs and e-documents are easy to update, while 4-color printed sell sheets beside being expensive are outdated as soon as any information changes as phone numbers, prices, addresses, or new technology is to be considered.
- Use e-newsletters instead of a printed newsletter. These can also be stored on your website and can also helps your search engine optimization by allowing Google spiders to crawl your website for keywords and relative content. So not only you save money by not printing, transportation, storing and mailing your oriented materials but you also helped save the environment by reducing the carbon footprint in the planet. E-mailing your documents and newsletters require an opt-in mailing list not to be considered spam.
- Use Social Media Marketing to build your network and increase your mailing list eliminating the need for filing, sorting and cataloging business cards from networking meetings.
- Use your website as an online guide, create a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page on your website to decrease unnecessary phone calls and help with search engine results as well.
- Add your pamphlets, manuals as e-documents that are downloadable on your website.
- Create a follow-up form on your website, and ask your audience to opt-in to receive your news online periodically.
We (at our company) decided to be part of the green revolution to save our planets so we provide green alternatives for marketing materials including PDFs from the website or print on demand sales materials. We use 100% recycled paper products and special “green” inks that are ecologically safe.
Going Green should be each one of us mission in life, every little effort can help, not only better our lives but the lives of our children and grand children. We don’t own the planet we are merely leasing or using it, so we need to maintain it or make it better for future generations.
Cheers,
Sahar Andrade
www.saharconsulting.wordpress.com
