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Green Marketing - The Proof is in the Profit

Written by: Laura L. Briere

Article Overview: This article covers some specific ideas on how to infuse green principles into your marketing strategies.

Green Marketing - The Proof is in the Profit

The whole point of marketing is to make more money. That’s it. And it’s a beautiful thing. You need to drive traffic to your business to actually GET business. However - this doesn’t mean you need to spend a lot of money (misconception #1), or you need to have a ton of physical tools (misconception #2) to be incredibly effective. To that end, here’s some great tips as a follow up to my last blog post with the video of me talking to the North Central Regional Chamber of Commerce. They’re easy and profitable nuggets - so take notes! ;)
Here are some standard ideas with some fantastic green (and $green$ - saving) alternatives:

1. Instead of printing your newsletter, have an e-newsletter.

no postage, no gasoline expenditure in USPS delivery, no printing, less layout, confirmed subscription list, less work, more chance of being shared, more opportunities to shorten the length and increase frequency (always a great thing in marketing), the recipients can keep it without resenting the desk real-estate it occupies

2. Instead of writing letters to your clients informing them of change, issue genuinely interesting press releases via email to them AND the media

no postage, no gasoline expenditure in USPS delivery, no printing, likelihood that you may get more business as a result of your newsflash, chance of positive press, someone else does the work

3. Instead of setting up physical meetings, set up web meetings

no driving, saves travel time, allows you to illustrate your points online, allows you to demonstrate your skill in real-time with BOTH parties being in their own home-turf, shows that you live in the digital age

4. Instead of providing physical proposals, email them.

no postage, no gasoline expenditure in USPS delivery, no printing, no paper waste, the reader can choose how big they’d like to read it, they can save it, they have less likelihood of losing it,

5. Instead of having paper brochures, have PDF brochures available on the home page of your web site.

no printing, no postage, no worry about envelopes, if someone wants to print it out, the onus is on them and so is the bill!

…and what are you going to do with all that extra money? How about some more PR? How’s your web site - is IT paying YOU? Maybe its time to invest in driving traffic to your web site with a kickin’ internet marketing and advertising campaign? Maybe your brand could use a boost?

By the way, that’s just a small sampling of alternatives to the mainstream and ways to reinvest the savings.

Related Articles
  Beware greenwashing your business
  How to Sell Green & Increase Sales
  Consumers Abandon Green to Save Money
  Trains going green
  Green School Census

Article Tags: beautiful thing, chamber of commerce, email, gasoline, home turf, likelihood, misconception, nuggets, paper brochures, pdf brochures, physical meetings, physical tools, proposals, real time, regional chamber, subscription list, travel time, usps, web meetings, writing letters



Related Forum Posts
Re: 10 ideas to make you money in 2010 - I think Education would be hard to break into. Baby Boomers, Life Support and Trading Down, however, seem like good markets. As for Green technology goes, I don't think the business has to be entirely based on Green ideologies, but rather a business that embrace Green philosophies and use that as a marketing tool.
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Which kind of industries are you interested in? - Ecological or E-business or Investment or Finance or Management or Non-Profit or Retailer or others.
Re: Let’s talk about the ways of marketing your products, servic - I agree with some of the others who responded it depends on what your selling... but to answer your questions here are some of the methods I use. Forum Marketing Yahoo Answers (I need to use more of) SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Bum Marketing or Article marketing P-P-C (Pay Per Click) Marketing Online Directories Hope this helps.
More Profit Women! - I really enjoyed the stories of Lisa Shepherd and Julie Mitchell - More Profit women CEOs would be great!


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