<description>It is hard to overestimate the importance of being an eco-conscious brand nowadays. How to achieve this? Discover more about the best sustainable practices and their examples that can become a part of your company’s life today</description>

Sustainable Marketing Practices for the Eco-conscious Brand

Nowadays the topics of environment and sustainability are constantly presented in our minds. Scientists have provided us with numerous data on how humans influence the world and what are the possible bad consequences for our Earth if we continue to live and work as usual.

No wonder so many people spend their time learning more about eco-friendly practices and introducing them into their lives. In addition, recent studies revealed that more than 80% of consumers think that companies should also be environmentally conscious and implement sustainable marketing strategies.

Moreover, many customers switch to those who do this and work in this direction. Therefore, so-called green marketing is helpful not only to the world around us but also to the brand itself to develop and thrive. Sustainable marketing examples are described further.

Sustainable and Green Marketing

Among modern marketing practices, we can highlight two main approaches:

• green marketing;
• sustainable marketing.

The first option is concerned with environmental issues, such as the utilization of renewable energy or green packaging, while the second is more general and includes education, promotion, and social impact. All this together allows the creation of a truly green brand.

Thus, if your company does not yet have any experience or only a little, it is better to start from the first steps toward a green approach. Subsequently, you will be able to create your strategy of sustainability but it requires understanding and determination of both your goals and abilities in this area.

Further on, we are going to explain some common and popular practices for the conversion of the marketing strategy toward sustainability. All of them work well as first steps in this direction and future development.

Make Your Marketing Campaigns Eco-Friendly

From where to start the implementation of these practices? The first step in this way is the digitalization of marketing communications.

Traditional marketing requires a lot of paper, electricity, and other similar materials, which increases the carbon footprint of the company. For instance, the electricity consumption of a usual sign per year is equal to the needs of a small house. Paper brochures and posters require paper. All this negatively affects the environment.

Therefore, switching to digital marketing significantly reduces carbon footprint and makes advertising environmentally friendly.

Furthermore, consider the materials that are utilized for marketing purposes. Options that can be recycled allow reducing waste and taking care of the environment. Also, think about the disposal of your wastes and their treatment.

The same concerns the usage of electricity and other resources that are required for work. For instance, one can use such resources as OneConvert.com to calculate energy consumption and other needs of the company. Then, one should evaluate all of them and select those that are eco-friendly.

Altogether, you should make sure of your practices inside the company before making efforts toward the popularization of eco trends. The more you do inside, the easier it’ll be to promote it amongst customers and even competitors.

Advertising as a Part of the Eco-Friendly Marketing

While you are implementing sustainable practices into your work, it’s high time to tell the world about it. Doing this is not only helpful for your advertising and promotion but also contributes to the education of the customers.

The most common ways to include green approaches are as follows:

• If you have certification from such organizations as Fair Trade or Energy Star and others, add this information to your advertising. This reveals your goals and makes your clients sure of your strategy.
• Add storytelling that emphasizes all the eco-initiatives that you have. Let your customers be behind the scenes and allow them to learn more about the company’s efforts.
• Make your advertising informative and provide explanations and opinions of experts. Thus, you will show the difference between old and new practices and substantiate the need for an eco approach.
• Encourage your customers to share their stories of your impact on their eco-consciousness. Such testimonials are one of the best ways to reveal the real results of your efforts.

Altogether, make green emphasis a usual part of your advertising and follow this strategy through all your communication channels. Add as much visualization as possible. It works well and such content stays in mind and motivates your clients to follow the presented green initiatives.

Add Incentives to your Eco-Friendly Business Practices

Why do we face the problem of introducing green and sustainable practices? One of the reasons is the absence of quick results. It’s challenging to explain to the customer that his or her efforts are good for the planet from the viewpoint of the distant future.

However, every company may create a positive attitude toward selecting eco-friendly products and decisions. For this, management can apply:

• special offers, sales, and promotions for those who would like to follow green strategy;
• unique loyalty programs with points offered for green purchases;
• different rewards like points or presents.

Thus, there are various ways to nudge your customers toward sustainability. The main idea is to utilize gamification for it and create an atmosphere that promotes eco-consciousness and the desire to become a part of it.

All such incentives are appreciated by clients who get their reward for the green approach now. This motivates them to continue to stick to these practices and also creates a better attitude to the brand that takes care of their feeling and emotions.

Altogether, make your campaign fun and interesting for all those willing to participate. This helps to grow the audience and at the same time save the planet.

Education as a Component of Your Marketing Strategy

As we have already mentioned many people are truly interested in this topic and try to make their own lives more environmentally friendly. Still, the corresponding education is still required and the companies should explain to the customers their choices and strategies.

This dimension may include:

• Emphasize the importance of reducing the carbon footprint and explain how to measure it.
• Provide more information about the need for waste reduction, energy conservation and pollution control. Take the measures taken by your company as an example and give more details to your clients.
• Reveal more data on the materials you use and also give explanations on the importance of the green approach while choosing them.
• Donate to eco-initiatives and support other companies and initiatives that are close to your direction.

Such steps provide your customers with more understanding and ideas. For those people who did not previously pay much attention to these issues, this is a great motivation.

Therefore, share the knowledge about green and sustainable practices as much as you can. The company may even organize special events devoted to this topic if it aligns with its strategy. Thus, the more you talk about these issues, the higher the response you can expect from the audience.

Partnership in Sustainable Marketing

Last but not least is your partnership with other companies and opinion leaders on the topic. We have already mentioned the importance of certification made by well-known companies in this area. If you already have it, do not hesitate to add this information to your advertising.

Then, search for cooperation that can highlight your goals and achievements. There is a way to launch your own project with others or become a participant in an already existing one. The main idea is to select those initiatives that are close to the aim and mission of your company.

For instance, there are programs for combating various types of pollution, reducing carbon footprint, providing conscious consumption of products, recycling, etc. It is a creative area that has no borders and limits except from your imagination.

In addition, you can start with the invitation of opinion leaders to your events or promote their opinions. They can become a part of your advertising and thus deliver their message to a wider audience.

Remember that you are not alone in this area and there are many other companies and individuals with similar goals. Therefore, combining your efforts is always beneficial and leads to quicker results.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, the company may incorporate these five strategies and search for others on the way to such marketing. On the whole, this is a philosophy in action. This means the company requires a strategy to follow and there is no one simple action that can transform your plan into a green version.

Therefore, select the instruments that you like the most and can implement and start from small projects. Step by step, you’ll do more than you may expect at the beginning. Such an approach helps the brand to develop and thrive and at the same time saves the planet. Thus, it is worth working in this direction, even if some time is needed to observe the results.