Over recent years, we’ve witnessed the rise of the green consumer. The first wave came in the early ’90s, with many environmentally sustainable products making their first debut into mass markets. But this green wave didn’t last: most green products under-performed, decreasing consumer motivation and increasing market frustration. Fast forward to a couple of decades later and here’s the green revolution again. But something has changed: green products are competitive in terms of performance, quality and price. Green is also hip now, and even consumers who traditionally weren’t concerned about the environment are making sustainable choices. Why now?

Download our new white paper Green Marketing, Ninja-Style! and learn why.

We will go over:

• The rise of the ethical stakeholder
• The value of the green market
• How green is an industry for both large and the small companies
• What makes a green brand
• How to craft an effective green message
• Green media and promotional materials
• How to promote a sustainable business without breaking your budget
• Tips on how to communicate your green values without being accused of greenwashing.

There’s never been a better time to go green: It’s an easy way for businesses looking to grow during the recession to save money and increase profits. Knowing how to market a business as eco-friendly is a must nowadays, and that’s why Kiwano Marketing and ACCION USA partnered to provide a free, online workshop to help small and medium business owners learn how to incorporate sustainability into their marketing programs. You can now see the recorded version of our webinar.

Download the Green Marketing Tips webinar.

By listening to this webinar, you will learn:

- What truly makes a green brand
- How to craft a personable green message
- How to prevent being accused of greenwashing
- The best ways to generate business from green consumers and businesses
- What green marketing strategies work for small businesses on a tight budget

We write regularly about green marketing and why it’s so relevant for companies nowadays. This time, the crew at Kiwano Marketing takes our insights one step further to share the top five tips on how to successfully market a green business.

1. Back up your claims.
Double-check your efforts when starting a green marketing strategy. Our advice is: don’t position yourself as a green business if you’re not walking the talk. Today’s consumers are savvy and inquisitive, and a false claim will seriously damage your brand – what people say about you. A company’s reputation is one of the most valuable assets an organization possesses. Bad publicity spreads quickly (it’s the most viral form of buzz there is), taking years to overcome.

2. Don’t position yourself as the green saviour.
Consumers are looking behind the label, and demand integrity from the companies where they make purchases. You should communicate your environmental and sustainability efforts – but don’t overdo it. Add a modest, sincere tone to your message and that will take you a long way. Consumers relate better with people than with organizations. Give your business a personal, honest image and you will generate positive word-of-mouth.

3. Engage the whole team and communicate your efforts internally.
This is one of the most important green marketing tips. You need internal support to be able to reflect your business green initiatives (consistent communications and continuity are musts for any successful marketing program). It is particularly important to engage your frontline employees: sales teams, the technical support department, and receptionists, in particular! Imagine how it would reflect on your company if your marketing department is promoting your environmental initiatives while the sales team is seen dumping dozens of still relevant brochures after a trade show.

4. Get your supply chain on board.
Engage your partners and vendors on your green marketing efforts. Communicate the pros of green marketing and provide incentives for a faster adoption. Focus on the new joint marketing opportunities you’ll be creating for your partners and suppliers – after all, if your supply chain is also becoming environmentally-sustainable, your suppliers will want to promote the new added-value and generate more business.

5. Don’t just focus on the green argument.
The green marketplace is quickly evolving and it’s not enough to focus your messaging on the green added-value of your products/services. You need to develop your product positioning so it’s a “no-brainer” for your clients to do business with you. This can take various forms, from communicating the quality of your product or service, focusing on the money your customers will be saving in the long term (and perhaps in the short term, depending where your product fits in the price scale), product innovation/design, etc. The goal is not to focus on the green argument uniquely; position your company as an organization that appeals to more than dark green customers.

About Kiwano Marketing
Kiwano Marketing provides green marketing services to small and medium businesses. Based in Vancouver, Kiwano designs affordable web and print marketing programs with high return on investment – generating more sales for your business while serving our local community. For more information, please visit www.kiwano.ca, call us directly at 604.628.0142 or just drop a comment below.

Kiwano would like to extend a special acknowledgement to the entire Marketwire team for their ongoing support.

This week, the topic of discussion for my mentorship group was sales. We discussed many ideas around the art of selling, but there was one that stood out in my mind. A common barrier in the presale process was that certain clients focused on telling us about their problems, instead of fully listening to our solutions. Others were only interested in the facts and benefits of our services; in other words, the hard numbers and measurable ROI.

My next ninja tip is: in order to sell, you first need to invest in your client.

This may seem like a backwards process to some- can small businesses really afford to sink so much time and energy into the presale process? Shouldn’t our end goal revolve around getting as many proposals out the door as possible?

To me, the number one advantage small businesses and entrepreneurs have over larger entities is our ability to listen to our audience. Whether it’s through social media, networking, or one-on-one meetings, I never take for granted that individuals have taken time out of their busy lives to stop and have a conversation with me.

So, the next time that ‘pesky’ client requests a face-to-face meeting, or wants you to forward yet another quote or financial statement, I challenge you to see this exchange as a positive investment of your time (and theirs). In asking for more information or telling you about their problems, what they’re really asking for is: will my investment be reciprocated? It’s up to you to show them that yes, their time is indeed valuable and worth every moment of yours.

Have more to say? Drop me a line or a comment below.

It seems 2009 was the green year of the decade. I see people getting more and more interested in the green marketing concept, and more articles than ever are coming up on how to “green” your business (inside and out). While some organizations are able to fully dive into green business strategies, most companies are still wrapping their heads around this concept, taking a step-by-step approach. This post is directed to these businesses.

How can you start implementing green marketing tactics on your workplace today?

1. Reduce your printing habits.
We live on a digital era and printing is rarely a necessity. Printed documents tend to find their way to a drawer, where they linger until they’re soon forgotten. Digital back-up solutions are very reliable nowadays and can fit every budget. I particularly like online-based systems, which provide simple, hassle-free interfaces – rendering the process of backing up your documents easy and intuitive.

2. Print on both sides of the paper.
This practice will save you 50% on both resources and money. A great way to guarantee you always print using the two sides of the paper is to configure your printing preferences, so this option is automatically selected.

3. Use recycled, post-consumer paper and vegetable or soy-based ink when printing.
There are many types of eco-friendly paper you can use, from treeless materials to 100% post-consumer paper. Read our green printing post on this topic. Although it was difficult to find eco-friendly ink until very recently, businesses – even small businesses – are now able to have their own vegetable or soy ink in their office.

4. Go digital when possible (and relevant).
This point goes hand-in-hand with our first tip. This is particularly true for trade shows: do you really need to print all those brochures? We find trade show materials just end up in the bottom of a goodies’ bag, which gets discarded as soon as the attendee gets home. We suggest our clients to print sample brochures to show at events, and then follow-up with the potential client by email, attaching the digital version of the brochure. This practice not only allows for a more personalized, relevant and effective relationship, but it produces less waste while saving you substantial money on the printing process.

5. Shy away from ineffective marketing programs.
This one may sound too obvious, but you’d be surprised how many companies still invest considerable money and resources in programs that simply don’t work. Critically look at your marketing strategy, identify what campaigns are not generating the expecting results and brainstorm how you can redirect that investment to programs with a smaller footprint – and better results.

6. Reduce product packaging.
Two years ago, when I was still working for a software company, I got a phone call from a very angry customer. Our product was sold at retail stores inside a double-CD case, although what was inside was only a code that enabled customers to go to our website and directly download our product. Yes, you guessed: the angry customer was simply revolted that she bought a relatively big package, just to find a piece of paper with a code, typed using afont size 12. Result: we reduced our product packaging to one-fifth of the original size, saving a considerable sum of money – and materials that would directly go to waste. If you must use packaging, assess how much you need it to make it effective, and opt for recyclable and/or recycled materials.

7. Use alternative sources of energy.
This step might take more investment in terms of time to implement. North America is blessed to have so several alternative energy providers nowadays. You can implement this on different levels, from simply switching to a server powered by wind or solar energy to fully source your entire energy spending to a sustainable energy provider.

8. Offset what you can’t reduce.
You’re probably aware of all the negative publicity carbon offsetting received a couple years ago. This was because some organizations used carbon offsetting as a “get out of jail free” card. This is not what we’re recommending. Our suggestion is to only recur to carbon offset providers when you’re done everything possible (for your budget) to reduce your carbon emissions. We’ve outlined the pros & cons of carbon offsetting, and identified the most reliable providers on the market on our blog post Offset The Carbon Emissions Of Your Marketing Program.

For further reading, we recommend:

5 Tips On How To Successfully Market Your Green Business
Green Marketing: A Sound Business Strategy
Avoiding The Greenwash: Best Practices For Small Businesses

For over six months now, we’ve been writing about green marketing and why it is so relevant for companies nowadays. Today I’d like to take our blog one step further, and share with you the top 5 tips on how to successfully market your green business.

1. Back up your claims.

Double-check your efforts when starting a green marketing strategy. Our advice is don’t position yourself as a green business if you’re not walking the talk. Today’s consumers are savvy and inquisitive, and a false claim will seriously damage your brand. A company’s reputation is one of the most valuable assets an organization possesses. Bad publicity spreads quickly (it’s the most viral form of buzz there is), taking years to overcome.

2. Don’t position yourself as the green saviour.

Consumers are looking behind the label, and demand integrity from the companies they buy from. You should communicate your environmental and sustainability efforts – but don’t overdo it. Add a modest, sincere tone to your message and you’ll go a long way. Consumers relate better with people than with organizations. Give your business a personal, honest image and you will generate positive word-of-mouth.

3. Engage the whole team and communicate your efforts internally.

This is one of the most important green marketing tips. You need internal support to be able to reflect your business green initiatives (consistent communications and continuity are a must for any successful marketing program). It is particularly important to engage your front-of-line employees: sales teams, the technical support department, even phone operators! Imagine how it would reflect on your company if your marketing department is promoting your environmental initiatives while the sales team is seen to dump dozens of (still relevant) brochures after a trade show.

4. Get your supply chain on board.

Engage your partners and vendors on your green marketing efforts. Communicate the pros of green marketing and give incentives out for a faster adoption. Focus on the new joint marketing opportunities you’ll be creating for your partners and suppliers – after all, if your supply chain is also becoming environmentally-sustainable, your suppliers will want to promote the new added-value and generate more business.

5. Don’t just focus on the green argument.

The green marketplace is quickly evolving and it’s not enough to focus your messaging on the green added-value of your products/services. You need to develop your product positioning so it’s a “no-brainer” for your clients to do business with you. This can take various forms, from communicating the quality of your product or service, focusing on the money your customers will be saving in the long term (and perhaps in the short term, depending where your product fits in the price scale), product innovation/design, etc. The goal is not to focus on the green argument uniquely; position your company as an organization that appeals to more than dark green customers.

Do you have any green marketing tips you’d like to share? Use the comments box below.

Related blog posts:

Green Marketing: A Sound Business Strategy

The Argument For Green Marketing

How To Sell Green Marketing To Your Boss