Research carried out by Nielsen revealed that “products with sustainability claims, generally outperform the growth rate of total products in their respective categories.”
To put this into perspective, in 2018 chocolate sales grew by 4.5%, while sustainable chocolate sales grew by 16%. In the same research, trends show more people tend to spend their money on green businesses. Great news for your sustainable brand! However, this means there’s competition to win these customers.
Competition isn’t just for the newbies. Established brands are creating sustainable alternatives as well. Get ahead of competitors, win life-long customers, and promote conscious entrepreneurship by accelerating your marketing game.
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Online marketing is the Green Way of Doing things
A sustainable brand’s main focus is to do everything with an eco-friendly hat on. Conventional advertising such as billboards, newspapers, and leaflets are not only a waste of resources but also a waste of time and money spent getting your brand in front of irrelevant audiences.
So, here are some great methods of how to effectively market your sustainable brand.
1. Making your Consumers the Hero in your Brands Tone of Voice
Instead of just telling your customers about how your product is sustainable (which is still a factor to promote), show your customers how they are having a positive effect on the world by purchasing from you. Make your content about your customers as we all know how nice it is to be made to feel special! Footwear company Toms provide great examples of engaging with their customers. Addressing their audience as ‘You’ and ‘Your’, makes the content personal to the user. Providing stats like the example below explains that buying from them has a positive knock-on effect.
2. Design your Campaigns around issues
As a society, we are faced with a multitude of problems in our day to day lives. If you’re able to link your products to how they can help with certain issues, this will only strengthen the need for your product or services. This will persuade customers to make a purchase and commit to a cause.
Video content is a great tool for this. If the product or service is for a worthy cause, users will feel they’re making an impact by not only purchasing but, by sharing engaging and thought-provoking content with their audiences.
3. Target the Right Demographic
With all of the free analytics services available on social media platforms, getting your sustainable product in front of the relevant audience shouldn’t be a difficulty. Trend analysis of search engines like Google and social media platforms can provide you with data that will allow you to target specific audiences.
Facebook Groups are another method to get in front of the right audiences. Although it may be time-consuming sifting through groups and applying for access, there are no costs involved. Search for Green Businesses, Sustainable Brands, etc, and get posting useful information that links to your products or services.
Once you’ve built an audience of loyal followers, keep them engaged and entertained with content that is meaningful and valuable to their time. Sustainable has the upper hand when it comes to quoting facts and figures as there is so much information available that can back your cause.
4. Use SEO to your advantage
SEO will help bring in relevant customers. Having the correct keywords in place, will draw in the website visitors who are searching for your niche products and services. Keeping on top of your web pages content and including long-tail keywords will help rank your site better on search engines. Use tools like Keyword Planner and Google Analytics to keep track of your site’s SEO.
5. Partner with Influencers who share the same vision
Influencers are still an effective way to promote your brand. Their followers look up to them as credible sources when it comes to choosing which products to use. As strong as your brand’s message may be, influencers interact with their followers every day, making them more receptible to their messages. Their followers already trust the influencers they follow, therefore your business is already going to be view in a good light.
6. Stay true to your Brand
Make sure your message is consistent across every channel. Creating a branding guidelines document can help with this, especially if you’re looking to seek help externally. Use language that your audience can understand when you tell your story. You’re the expert on your sustainable brand, it’s the audience who needs educating and convincing.
A quick way to lose followers and customers is to change your brand’s direction without careful consideration. Recently Oatly (a Swedish oat milk company), sold a stake in the company to a consortium that includes Blackstone, a powerful private equity firm headed by Trump donor Stephen Schwartzman, which left a sour taste in the mouth of its followers.
Marketing for sustainable brands can be exciting. The industry is constantly growing as people are becoming more conscious of issues around the World. Using the best digital marketing practices will help reach your audience. If you need any help with effectively marketing your sustainable brand, get in touch.
