Digital Marketing for Sustainability

How to Make Eco-Friendly Choices for Your Business? 

Sustainability has become an important consideration for businesses. Consumers are now more environmentally conscious, and environmental consciousness has become Gen Z's key concern.

Due to this, digital marketing for sustainability isn't an option for businesses anymore. In fact, it is a responsible yet smart move to attract more consumers, especially from Gen Z. Digital marketing for sustainability involves using eco-friendly practices and solutions to drive business growth and benefit your environment.  

Get to know more about digital marketing for sustainability. 

Digital marketing for sustainability refers to practices that integrate environmental values and problems into your digital marketing strategy. Simply put, the practice involves promoting businesses, services, and products with minimized negative environmental effects.  

The practice translates into putting the long-term welfare of the environment first while achieving the immediate goals of the business. You can adapt digital marketing for sustainability to demonstrate your commitment to green business practices. The practice will ultimately help you to create a positive brand image.

Why should you include sustainability in your digital marketing practices?  

Sustainable digital marketing has become an efficient way for businesses to promote your company’s eco-friendly aspects. It is natural for businesses to use all possible aspects to promote their services and stand out. Sustainable marketing has become another popular strategy for companies to mark their exclusiveness. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is becoming a common brand value.   

However, are you still on the fence about why you consider digital marketing for sustainability? Then, there are the reasons you must consider this.  

So, here we go: 

Enter into New Markets 

About 8 out of 10 shoppers worldwide prefer buying from businesses practicing sustainable advertising. As sustainability has become a top concern of consumers, you can enter new markets by embracing sustainability in digital marketing. 

Enhanced Brand Reputation and Image  

Implementing sustainable digital marketing practices can improve business credibility. It will also help you attract more conscious consumers who support eco-friendliness to your business. Fortunately, your commitment to sustainable digital marketing can let you stand out among competitors.  

Improved Cost Savings  

Sustainable digital marketing practices can help you save more in the long run. You can accomplish operational efficiencies by optimizing resource consumption and energy usage and considering waste reduction strategies. The practice will also help you to cut down on extra costs.  

Increase the Longevity of your Business

Your business’ longevity depends upon how you connect with your potential audience. You can achieve this through providing solutions to their needs and shared values. Sustainability has become the most popular trend for businesses to value their consumers. Considering digital marketing for sustainability can help you build a loyal consumer base for your business.  

In short, digital marketing for sustainability is much more than just a good social cause. It can help your business to stand out and attract more consumers more effectively.  

Strategies to Embrace Sustainability in Digital Marketing  

About 76% of digital marketers in the United States believe the digital marketing industry should do more to decrease carbon emissions.  

If you also want to play your role in protecting the environment, then here are the key strategies that digital marketers should consider for sustainability.  

So, here we go: 

Clean up your Customer Database  

Cleaning your customer database is linked to various benefits. 

• Cleaning duplicate data  
• Validation on sign-up forms  
• Removing inactive consumers  

These practices help ensure efficient processing, quick reporting, and accurate analysis. From a sustainable marketing perspective, avoiding sending emails to dead and old accounts is always important.  

In addition, cleaning up your customer database can have a positive impact on our planet. Avoiding access to data in your database is like reducing waste in your home. Remove unnecessary customer information, outdated records, and duplicate accounts, as these need storage on the server. The excess storage requirements will use more energy.  

However, removing unneeded records and decluttering your customer database will reduce carbon emissions.  

Shrink your Images 

Images are arguably the biggest carbon emission sources in the digital landscape. It can become complacent easily. So, you should always shrink your image files to maintain size but reduce storage needs. The practice will require fewer bytes when each consumer downloads these images.  

Different types of tools exist that can help you shrink your images without sacrificing their quality.  

In addition, infographics and videos are also less energy efficient. Therefore, marketers should use these only when they are most impactful.  

Above all, search engines typically prefer a properly coded website with the right balance of images and other visual data. Search engines currently provide added accessibility to their consumers.  

At the same time, email campaigns with heavy images are also regarded as spam because these take longer to load. So, you must make up 35% of your email body with text. Moreover, lower-resolution images should always be used to help with deliverability.  

Reduce quantity and increase quality wherever possible  

Reducing quantity is key to practicing sustainability in digital marketing. People at present believe that "less is more." The concept is real in the case of sustainable digital marketing. With every communication, you typically only have a few seconds to capture your potential consumer’s attention.  

So, you must provide engaging and relevant content to capture a quality lead quickly through your digital marketing strategies.  

Finding yourself in a situation where you send numerous push notifications and social posts or fill emails with brims is the right time to step back. Instead, focus on creating less impactful content that can let you reach your digital marketing goals by doing less.  

Key Principles of Digital Marketing for Sustainability  

Considering the context of the practice you are tapping into is imperative here. Of course, defining your business’ sustainability goals is key here. However, considering key principles of digital marketing for sustainability is imperative here to measure and celebrate your progress: 

• Always remember that environmental concerns are large. Therefore, you should tackle these in a larger time frame. We all understand that a quick change is impossible for a sustainable digital marketing approach. So, having a long-term plan is important here.  
• Telling your consumer that sustainability is an important aspect of your business is easier. However, what about the other aspects of your business? The plan requires consistency in your approach and a gradual transformation of your digital marketing strategy to embrace sustainability.  
• Integrate your sustainability strategy across your business completely. Research how your competitors are embracing sustainable digital marketing concepts. The practice will help you adapt their best sustainable digital marketing strategies. You can also find the gaps to bridge in their strategies. The practice will ultimately help you make the most of your digital marketing for sustainability strategies.  

Track your Sustainability  

Staying focused on digital marketing for sustainability can be difficult when considering various other objectives. Every business has goals related to revenue generation and engagement. However, it is time to track your commitment and progress toward sustainability.  

Create measurable goals per different points and make sustainability a KPI to track and push over time.  

Our earth is most important to us; therefore, we should do our bit to keep it protected and beautiful for the coming generations. Consider using digital marketing for sustainability to benefit your business and the planet.  

Resource:

How to Market Your Business Online Using Regular Reviews