Should You Make Your Business Marketing More Eco-Friendly?

If you run a business, it’s a good idea to make it an eco-friendly one. After all, that’s a good move for the environment, making the planet you call home a more pleasant and sustainable place to live. But on top of that is the fact that more and more consumers are becoming aware of environmental issues, and they specifically look for eco-friendly businesses to buy from. In other words, if you’re not doing all you can to be a greener business, you’ll miss out to those who are. The good news is there are many areas of your business that you can make more eco-friendly, your marketing is definitely one of them.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how to make your marketing more Eco-friendly and the practical steps you need to take to make it happen. Read on to find out more. 

Go Digital To Make Your Marketing More Eco-Friendly

One simple way to be more eco-friendly when it comes to your marketing is to go digital, and shift from traditional print marketing to using digital channels a lot more – perhaps exclusively. If you can focus your marketing on the online space, like social media, email campaigns, content marketing, and general online advertisements, you’ll find you still get the engagement you’re looking for (perhaps more, since so many people spend a lot of their time online) without having to cause any damage to the environment. 

If you’re going to go down the digital route, make sure you optimize your content so it actually works for you and your potential customers – the last thing you’ll want is to change all your marketing to digital only to find it turns people off because your images take too long to load or your SEO isn’t working properly. 

As a bonus, if you can find a green web hosting service, that’s one more step towards being sustainable – make a mention of that in your marketing and social media posts and it’s bound to be of interest to your customers. 

Use Sustainable Print Practices 

Not all businesses are going to be able to go completely digital, and even if they can, it’s still going to be a long process – there’s a lot to do, a lot to change, and there’s a cost involved as well. That’s why it’s better to do it slowly, and in the meantime (or if you can’t go digital at all, as we’ve said), you can make sure you invest in sustainable print practices – if you have to print things, making that printing eco-friendly is a good move. 

So how can you be more sustainable when you’re printing marketing materials? Using recycled paper is a great place to start, and although in the past this wasn’t always the best quality, today it’s much better – and better for the planet too. You can also opt for soy-based or vegetable-based inks; they’re not so well-known, but they’re out there and you can make a positive impact if you use them. 

If you want to reduce your negative impact on the planet, choosing print-on-demand services is a great idea – you’ll only print what you need, which means less energy use and materials used in the printing process, and it also means less waste when you’ve finished with what you’re doing, so it’s positive all round. 

Eco-Friendly Promotional Products

We’ve mentioned a number of times how going digital is a wise choice, but there are times when a physical item is definitely needed, and in those cases, you need to look for eco-friendly products – your customers will really appreciate the effort you’re putting in if you can switch across to those items rather than the single-use ones you might have had before. 

One thing that springs to mind right away is bags. Do you offer plastic bags to your customers for their purchases? If so, no matter how practical it might be, it’s not very green, and it might even put people off buying from you. It would be far better – and great for your marketing at the same time – to offer something like custom drawstring bags with your name and logo on that. Not only are these bags much more eco-friendly because they can be used over and over again, but if they’ve got your details on them, you’ll have some extra free advertising anytime anyone uses one. 

If you usually have other promotional products like pens or clothing, for example, make sure they’re all made of sustainable or recyclable materials, like bamboo or cotton, because these alternatives are a lot more eco-friendly than the usual materials these types of promotional items are made of. 

Reduce Event Waste

Some businesses host events of all kinds, and while these can be great ways to make some money and attract more customers, they can also create a lot of waste, and that’s not what you want when it comes to your marketing – it’s the opposite, in fact. 

So it makes sense to find ways to reduce event waste if that’s the route your marketing tends to take. Could you switch from in-person to virtual events, for example? In that way, there wouldn’t be any waste at all, and you’ll instantly be a lot more eco-friendly when it comes to your marketing. 

If you have to have in-person events, investing in the use of digital tickets and choosing venues that are known for their green credentials is a wise thing to do – and while you’re doing that, throw in some recycling bins so your guests can be green as well. 

Sustainable Packaging

If your marketing strategy includes sending out physical products and promotional items, take the next step and start to use sustainable packaging – use eco-friendly materials like recycled cardboard, biodegradable plastics, or perhaps compostable packaging (if the packaging type happens to relate to your business, that’s even better). 

You also need to think about how to minimize your packaging waste, so always use as little as possible while still keeping whatever it is you’re sending completely protected – not only are you going to reduce waste, but as a business bonus, shipping costs will be lower too, and that’s fantastic when it comes to your profits.