Green marketing is a strategy that uses inbound and outbound marketing messages that focus on your company’s sustainability. It’s about showing the world who you are, what you’re doing, and most importantly, why it matters.
And when it’s done right, it can be helpful for your brand activation and give you an edge over competitors.
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Here are 5 strategies to help you jump-start your green marketing efforts.
1. Create a Powerful Green Marketing Message
There’s a fine line between a compelling, brand-strengthening message and shameless self-promotion.
A green marketing message that resonates is less about “what we do” and more about the societal impact of what you’re doing. A powerful way to do this is through “sustainability storytelling.”
It’s also best to convey your sustainability initiatives in a measurable and meaningful way that demonstrates your greater purpose.
2. Avoid Greenwashing (Your Customers Will See Right Through It)
Greenwashing is when a company deceitfully markets itself as environmentally friendly, often without implementing any green business practices in reality. It’s a scheme used to pull in consumers who prefer to buy from environmentally conscious brands, and it’s become so rampant over the years that it’s prompted the need for increased regulation.
How to avoid it
Most greenwashing involves exploiting marketing messages by using “green” statements that are vague, irrelevant, or false.
You can see the potential issues here. Civil legal action, for starters. Not to mention mistrust and confusion among both prospective and existing customers.
So before you jump on the green marketing bandwagon, brush up on the current government regulations on sustainability claims.
3. Link Sustainability to Your Organizational Identity
It’s not enough to talk. A committed green manufacturing company should align its brand ethos with a purpose-driven mission.
Adding something to your mission statement or putting a blurb on your website worked in the 90’s. Today, crafting a sustainability marketing strategy starts with defining a clear purpose. Start by thinking about sustainability in terms of a “reversed” equation: how can you be a mission with a company – not a company with a mission?
4. Establish a Green Supply Chain
In the age of accountability and environmental whistle-blowing, responsible sourcing is a hot-button issue.
There’s more and more pressure for manufacturers to establish supply chain partners who implement sustainable practices.
5. Know That Modesty Won’t Do You Any Favors
You should avoid greenwashing, but don’t forget about the problem at the opposite end of the spectrum: green blushing.
Green Blushing is when you don’t say enough about your green practices.Assuming your audience doesn’t care or share the same values about sustainability effort. Believing a corporate statement about sustainability is sufficient. Avoiding active communications out of fear of potential negative consequences
For green manufacturers, failing to promote your efforts tells your customers that you’re disengaged and non-committal.
Modesty can cripple your green marketing efforts. It wastes a key messaging opportunity, especially when you’re being compared to your competitors.
Summing It Up
Sustainability is a key component of your business strategy. Now’s the time to acknowledge that same sustainability in your marketing efforts. An effective green marketing strategy starts with a powerful, honest message. It survives with transparency. And it thrives with the courage to share your story with the people who are waiting to hear it.
