3 Things you must do to make your Green Marketing believable

Sometimes in the business world we forget that our customers are actually very smart.

When we forget this fact it becomes very easy to simply slap a "Go Green" tagline on our product and push it out in the market.

If you are trying to appeal to a consumer that places value on sustainablitiy and environmental issues when making purchasing decisions, you must be conscious that this type of customer will compare and evaluate your goods and services more deeply than the average person.

In every social circle, there is one or two people who are looked upon as the "greeny's". Their opinions and comments about the products and services they buy carry a great deal of influence with their friends and family.

This person can be a strong advocate of your product if it meets their criteria of "Green". 10-20 or 30 influencers such as this in a market who champion your brand can be the catalyst that sends sales through the roof.

But first, you have to convice the influencers that your product is one they can belive in.

How do you do that?

Be open and honest about the steps your business takes to operate more sustainably. If you're doing something with a high eco-benefit, let the market know, but make sure you give people the facts.

Eco conscious consumers are a very sceptical bunch. They are very aware of "green washing" and they won't be made fools by incomplete or false claims.

So now, how do you make sure your facts are believable, but more importantly - True?

1. Audit your self -

Where are you right now?

What are the processes, consumption rate, ingredients of your product, energy usage or delivery methods you now operate with and what impact do these things have on the environment.

By knowing where you stand right now, you can assess the key areas for improvement and highlight any practices that may be counter productive.

This step can also be a great way to save money as well. Many times, the inefficiencies that have a negative effect on the environment have a similar effect on your costs.

Example:

This can be as simple as assessing you use too much printer paper. You look at your recent office supplies invoices and see that your office consumes on average 10 boxes of paper per month.

Now you know.

2. Track your progress -

Once you've audited your business and you have a clear idea of where you are at, you need to implement a method to track the variables you intend to correct.

Using our paper usage example, you decide to cut down on the amount of paper waste by cutting back on the need to print and maximizing the space used on each sheet of paper used.

By encouraging employees to read memos on their computers, reloading used paper and using the back side for non-client bound printing and using blank space on printed sheets as note paper, you see that you now use only 5 boxes per month.

3. Quantify your results -

Now you simply put a value on the efficiencies you've created.

Eco conscious consumers want to see numbers - hard data. So give it to them.

5 boxes of paper down from 10 boxes is a 50% reduction in paper usage.

Now you can accurately tell your customers on your website, in your marketing materials or on your packaging what your company has accomplished.

"At XYZ company we have implemented a new Paper Saver Program. Our efforts have reduced our paper consumption by 50% in the past month".

These 3 simple steps can be repeated for various aspects of your business.

The results can mean huge savings from an operations standpoint and provide numerous examples for your "Green Marketing Efforts".