If you are a sustainable business or on your way to becoming one, you might be wondering how you can best market yourself to your audience. The good news is that the hardest part is over, because making green changes takes a serious amount of effort. Now all you have to do is let everyone know what a great job you’ve done. This blog has many tips to spark your creativity and get you feeling inspired. Every suggestion can be applied to almost any business across industries, so look and see if there’s one that appeals to you.
Shout About Your Achievement on Social Media
One of the best ways to share the steps you’re taking towards sustainability is on social media. This way your audience will know that you’re currently making progress, and it gives them the opportunity to comment with their support. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a commitment to being carbon neutral, a power purchase agreement, or a decision to use renewable energy. Let your customer base know so it can cheer you on.
Use Green Colours
While greenwashing is frowned upon, if you are actually a sustainable company, make sure you’re using green or other earthy tones in your branding. Colour association is a really powerful way to influence an audience, and it will allow new customers to instantly get a feel for who you are as soon as the audience lands on your website. As well as colours, think about using recycling symbols and logos on relevant products to make sure the message hits home.
Make the Most of Promotional Periods
If you have a sale going on or are struggling with ideas for how to make Black Friday that extra bit special, add a sustainable twist. Lots of businesses will plant trees for every sale during a specific period of time or offer to donate the profits of a specific product to environmental causes. If this doesn’t work for your budget, lower the amount and pledge a small number of trees if you hit a certain number of sales.
Have a Sustainability Section on Your Website
The best way to make sure that your customers know how sustainable you are is by having the details of all your green initiatives online. While social media shout-outs are great for raising awareness, eco-conscious consumers will want to know the whole story. Go into as much depth as possible when talking about how much of your energy is renewable and exactly where your packaging comes from. Try not to overexaggerate, as particularly savvy shoppers will eventually find out the truth anyway. If possible, pair this section on your site with some press releases or guest posts to really cement your credibility.
Go Paperless
Announcing your decision to go paperless can be a great way to market your commitment to sustainability. Encourage customers to sign up for your newsletter where you can go into a lot more detail about upcoming offers and products. It’s easier to reach a wider audience with e-mails than with leaflets and letters — you’ll even be able to save money on printing costs.