What marketing strategies do you implement for your green business? These days, green businesses are springing up everywhere, and it is becoming more challenging to stand out as a green business.
When Kermit the Frog said it wasn’t easy to be green, he might have been right. And as businesses are looking for ways to get more customers and stand out in the green industry; it is crucial to learn new and unique strategies.
Having a green business is heavily welcomed by consumers. Neilson’s Global Survey says 55 percent of global online consumers across 60 countries are willing to pay for products and services from corporations committed to positive social and environmental impact.
All of these, when added together, show how appealing the green business model is to business owners and their customers. Running this model, you have to include unique marketing strategies to help you stand out from the crowd. Which we’ll discuss, but before we get there, let’s look at the term greenwashing.
What is Greenwashing?
Greenwashing is when an organization, business, or workplace portrays a product or service as eco-friendly (green) to attract more consumers. Greenwashing issues are highly technical and worrisome; products can be misled as green to get consumers to buy them. Greenwashing could be very bad for business if found out. The blowback would be litigation and lawsuits and a loss of trust from the consumers.
So, in the green business, how do you stay away from greenwashing and create marketing strategies to keep your sustainable business aloft?
Have Genuine Green Products and Services.
If you want to keep a green business for a long time, you cannot afford to compromise. If you compromise and start with products or render services that are not green, to begin with, you might have to result in greenwashing. Greenwashing has severe consequences for a green business if the public finds out, so it is not a route to take. So, in a green company committed to making environmental changes, you cannot do anything contrary. This is the most crucial strategy in green business marketing. Only produce products or render services that are of genuine green design.
For example, the package in which your product gets delivered should not be branded as a green material if it is made from virgin paper and not recycled paper. This might seem like an oversight, but it could be a problem and is greenwashing. If you launch a fuel-efficient car, advertised with emissions under the specified rate, it should be as advertised and not contain conflict materials. If your product or service rendered is green from start to finish, you wouldn’t need to resort to greenwashing.
Position Your Business in The Green Sector.
Regularly talk about what your business represents. You just might make a list on some of the best green job boards. As a green business owner, you have to keep promoting how well your sustainable products can make that change. While you do this, you have to reflect this same sustainability in values. As a business, one cannot claim to be sustainable and still engage in practices that would cause harm to the environment. Does your company give one of the best green jobs? How seriously do you take your in-house recycling? All these things can be taken into account and improve your credibility with your consumers if they are done right.
If you are business with some partners to supply your products’ components, vet their processes, are they also living to the values you uphold? It is not easy to be green. You can use components that have been tested on animals or obtained using a labor force that has been underpaid or working in dehumanizing conditions.
Make statements and moves concerning the social issues you are concerned about as a business. Things like this might have political blowback, but it would draw your audience to you and give you the right kind of customers.
Prioritize Efficiency Over Pricing.
As a green business, you should prioritize how a product would be beneficial to the consumers and help them save money. You can promote products that allow consumers to participate in sustainability actively. This makes them aware that their choice is a long-term investment and not a short-term purchase. When manufacturing your goods, prioritize the product’s efficiency over the prices you are going to sell them.
For example, Tide Coldwater Clean is an effective stain remover, and it helps consumers save more on their energy bills. The stain remover is so effective that you wouldn’t need to wash your clothing in warm water to remove the stain. The company Tide mentioned that the amount of energy saved by using the stain remover would be enough to charge a phone for a lifetime.
Leverage Green Disposal.
An effective green business strategy would take every phase of the product’s cycle into account. From the production of the product to the disposal, it all has to be eco-friendly. Your product’s unsustainable disposal can be bad for your business’s image and can be pointed out to the public as a fault in the green business’s process.
In January 2016, Singapore’s National Environmental Agency (NEA) created two food recycling programs at two cooked food centers. Since food waste is a significant problem in the country and everywhere else, the country decided to put all other wasted food to good use. One of the food recycling machines processes the wasted food into the water with microbes, which is then used to clean the bin center. The other machine grinds up wasted food and microorganisms then takes it to where it is converted into a bio-fertilizer.
The younger generation, known as Gen. Z’ers, deeply cares about the issues surrounding them and their environment. 68% of them have confessed to having purchased an eco-friendly product in the last year. On the other hand, 73% of global millennials are willing to pay for sustainable products, all to help make the environment better and make a more significant impact on society.
Green business marketing: conclusion and further reading
With a market sitting at almost $3 trillion in goods and creating opportunities worth over $1 trillion. Green businesses are widespread and a fast-growing enterprise. These marketing strategies are useful for garnering more profits and establishing continued patronage in the long run. Asides from that, they also help to develop a green business as one that is trustworthy and doesn’t compromise.
Further reading:
Latest tips and advice for green businesses
Our fresh list of 100+ green business ideas
Check out our resources library.