ecotourism

May

2020

Examples of Green Marketing: 7 Ways to Support Sustainability Seekers with Content

“Look for opportunity amongst adversity,” reads the 9th piece of advice from a Harvard Business Review article. In this way, we’re also looking for opportunities to help others switch gears, finish new projects, and re-pivot to meet demands. A great example of this is the social video platform Kuaishou which partnered with the Ministry of Education to launch a national online cloud classroom. These are the creative ways to support and educate those seeking sustainability.

Here are 7 digital actions an environmental business can leverage right now to build a more solid fountain for marketing and sales.

1 – Write a whitepaper on your eco product or service

Eco-focused CEOs are underrepresented when it comes to environmentally-focused white papers. Now is a great time to change this and increase the level of knowledge on various environmental solutions and why they were created and placed on the market. Blockchain startups have taken the white paper to be a standard. The Environmental Business Sector can learn more from this example. White papers are an excellent opportunity to spell out the background and functionality of your environmental solutions. Power Ledger gives an excellent example of how it’s done. See the Power Ledger Whitepaper.

2 – Build your library of eco case studies

A great educational tool can be case studies. Case studies help deliver on the proof of concept for environmental solutions. Case Studies guide B2B and B2C buyers to the successful outcomes they’re looking to achieve. A simple formula for drafting your case studies is to highlight the client via 1) the situation, 2) the impact, and 3) the outcome. Great case studies tell a story and can quickly help readers adopt the offered environmental solution. The frequent publishing of case studies also supports excellent SEO. FloWater serves as an excellent example of the use of case studies. FloWater highlights the impact made for improving wellness and quashing single-use plastic bottled water. Way to go, FloWater (and Lululemon)!

3 – Finish that book on sustainability the world has been waiting for

During significant change lies an opportunity for eco-founders to take their ideas and spread them while the world is open to new ways of living and working. Whether it be a reuse revolution or renewable energy education, environmental leaders deciding to pick up the pen is more a matter of opportunity, inspiration, and timing right now. Spending a couple of hours a day writing a book that supports the ecological movement forward could be an excellent trade for commute hours.

An example of a coupled must-read book and subsequent solution to our cradle-to-grave problem is Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by Michael Braungart and William McDonough and the Cradle to Cradle Certification Website.

4 – Develop that resources page on your website

If your team has always thought about developing resources housed in a helpful section of your website, it’s a great time to build your website resources page. Whether you offer calculators, checklists, or any collection of useful downloads or links, having one centralized place where this information is stored will vastly help your audience grab the info they need quickly. Even if your resources page is downloadable, readers can keep it with them and have quick access on their desktop; your brand will be top of mind each time a user finds its value.

An excellent example is a resource guide created by Youth and Environmental Europe for Uniting Youth for Ecotourism.

5 – Advocate and educate policymakers for a sustainable future

Think your voice doesn’t make a difference? Think again; as a sustainable business, your voice is critical because you represent the bridge for environmental policies and commerce. With more entrepreneurs taking charge of solving social and ecological issues with market solutions, the lobbying force for environmental issues supported by businesses is immense. A great example of that is the American Sustainable Business Council, which serves public policy interest for 250,000 responsible companies. As laws rapidly change, now is a great time to get involved with public policy to help guide those changes on the right course, whether through direct policy influencing or through a firm that assists with these efforts.

One shining star in the world of retail meets activism is Patagonia. From their homepage, you can see what is most important to the company in four simple menu options: Shop, Activism, Sports, and Stories.

When you dive a little deeper, you can see that Patagonia is working on issues that lead its target audience into education and action, showing its genuine interest in making the world better. Patagonia is working beyond making clothes. Highlighting Environmental justice issues like oil drilling in Los Angeles communities of color to a level of importance is not often seen in sustainable luxury brands. The environmental policy team at Patagonia understands that if we aren’t working together to protect each other and solve environmental problems together through political action, we won’t get very far.

Are you inspired to make environmental and political action a more significant part of your business? Get inspired by participating in Patagonia’s activism page. Contact our team to help strategize a plan tailored to the environmental issues your company wants to elevate, sway, and build a movement for.

6 – Develop your forward-thinking app

In light of recent circumstances, every business has had to adjust, revise, and pivot toward a new future. Undoubtedly, digital innovation for sustainable brands will be vital for future growth. The world could use more apps that help people make better choices, get easy-access education, and keep things moving for a healthier path.

A fantastic app that helps keep environmental reporting organized and up to speed is Wildnote, created by Kristen Hazard.

7 – Engage your Team with tailored training on sustainability

While your team may work a little differently these days, sustainability initiatives are forging ahead. The most important topic on the mind of sustainability directors is how to support employees in their journey toward environmental literacy.

Sustainability Executives asked, and the A.R. Marketing House Team listened. We are currently developing a helpful resource to assist employees on their sustainable journey to support the successful accomplishment of sustainability initiatives. If you’d like to stay updated on the best way to engage employees to support sustainability initiatives. Sign up here!

If your eco-business is ready to take action and flex your digital content muscle, we’re here to help. Growing your sustainable brand’s online presence through creative, helpful, environmental content is a move for solidifying a long-term hold. While there are many forms to explore, starting with a strategy and education on your website is vital. Connect with our team, and we’ll make your content journey exciting and effective.

Apr

2017

Earth Day Data Dashboards

An Opportunity to Learn the Impact of Data Dashboards on Educational Marketing

Do you know how a Data Dashboard can push your Environmental Educational Marketing efforts to the next level? We do! In honor of Earth Day, we are sharing some of our favorite earth-centric Data Dashboards that you can take note from, model after, and create your own to do things like promote species conservation, educate on sustainable development, or build content for travelers that buy ecotourist packages.

What are data dashboards?

Data dashboards are a way to visualize key data in a way that numbers and statistics alone cannot convey to a general audience. Commonly, data dashboards are used for making business decisions and modeling data in a way that allows decision makers to visualize the information they need to know in order to make data-based educated decisions. Often these business dashboards display KPI (key perform indicators) and key data points across company departments that drive business decisions. Taking this same methodology and applying it to important worldwide topics and issues like the health of the planet, particular species, ecosystems as well as environmental and sustainable development can help educate and market on important efforts.

In honor of Earth Day, I would like to spotlight some great earth-centric data dashboards created by different designers who showcase their creativity in an inspirational way that you can learn from and begin developing your own online interactive tools for your audience.

Raise Awareness, Raise Funding

Raising awareness and education for a species, cause, or non-profit effort. Educational facilities, aquariums, an animal rescue center, or any related entity can use similar efforts to this beautifully built dashboard by Jonni Walker exploring Hawk Migration. In this Data Dashboard of the Swainson’s Hawk you can see the use of map interactivity, video, and well-displayed visuals and data. The chart is click-able and highlighting the migration journey of the Swainson’s Hawk through the Americas. By creating tools like this, you can up the interactivity factor of your content while raising awareness of a particular cause or species. You can even add an interactive component to your dashboard soliciting donations or data collection participation to continue the research and support efforts of your program.

Environmental and Sustainable Development

Urban Forests are a key value to city dwellers and large green spaces promote the sequestration and natural breakdown of common hazardous urban pollutants like ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Displaying these key-to-health urban forests and developing an educational program for citizens can allow City Planners and Eco-Development businesses alike to garner the support of residents and investors to opt-in to sustainable development. Using these interactive tools, companies can expand their innovations to inspire a wider audience to live better, be wiser, and invest intelligently in our cities, energy usage, and our homes. It would be interesting to see these innovative Prefab Sustainable Homes Companies like Hive Modular, Living Homes and IdeaBox drive educational efforts like Urban Reforestation to drive their combined efforts of education and sales to develop healthier cities and homes.

In this example Urban Forest of NYC Authors Ann Jackson and Josh Jackson have developed a hover over map that shows tree species locations as well as a bubble chart that updates carbon sequestration data.

Digitizing Your Ecotourism Content & Promoting Conservation Efforts

Ecotourism is a huge and growing sector of the Travel Industry. With growth in this more educationally driven travel cohort, more and more ecotourism companies are upping their educational game and turning to data dashboards for teaching ecotourists subjects in more interactive and clever ways. This data dashboard, Endangered Safari by RJ Andrews shows very interactively, the population stability as well as the endangered status of African mammals. This is a perfect example of using digital educational tools that travelers can pull up on their smart devices while taking a tour and learn as they journey along on their ecotravels during and after their trip. It is also content that will be highly shared amongst educational institutions, museums, and special interests groups related to the conservation efforts of your travel agency.

We hope you have learned a little bit more about how Data Dashboards can be used to help educate and market your environmentally focused efforts. If you need help Managing your Data Dashboard Projects, contact us. We’re always happy to geek out with your content and grow your efforts!

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Apr

2017

Ecotourism: Marketing to the Environmental Traveler

Vacations have long been known as a time for retreat and relaxation. Today, many environmental concerns are encouraging people to immerse themselves into new settings to make a big difference in the world with their traveling dollars via sustainable travel, ecotourism.

Ecotourism: Environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, to enjoy and appreciate the physical and accompanying cultural features (both past and present) that promote conservation, have a low visitor footprint and provide socio-economic benefits to local people. (IUCN)

Whether you are thinking of offering ecotourism services or growing your already established travel company, we have some tips to help you boost your marketing efforts to promote your ecotourism company.

Burgeoning Ecotourism Market

Rules of ecotourism engagement:

Set by the International Ecotourism Society

Minimize the impact of visiting the location (i.e., the use of roads)
Build respect and awareness for the environment and cultural practices
Ensure that tourism provides positive experiences for both the visitors and the hosts
Provide direct financial aid for conservation
Provide jobs, financial assistance, empowerment and other benefits for local peoples
Raise the traveler’s awareness of the host country’s political, environmental and social climate

Learn from the Leaders

Although there are numerous ways to market your travel business successfully, what are people in ecotourism doing? Let’s take lessons from a remarkable ecotourism marketing leader: Journey Beyond Travel (JBT). The JBT team focuses on creating connections and providing content for the consumer at all stages of their ecotourism vacation buying journey.

The JBT team is comprised of former Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff that are eager to educate and transform the lives of people traveling to Morocco. They provide meaningful content through their blogs, eBooks, videos, online events, and social media. Their site serves as a platform for community building through a forum aimed at connecting “alumni travelers.” But it doesn’t stop there. A portion of the proceeds from each trip goes towards supporting foundations that benefit local Moroccans, including a Fair Trade Program in Morocco, High Atlas Foundation, Education for All, and the Village of Khemlia. This creates life-long connections and benefits far beyond the actual trip.

4 Major Things Niche Travel Agencies are Doing to Become Established Ecotourism Leaders

1.Starting the Conversation

Travel blogs have increasingly played a significant role in where people have decided to travel. Travel bloggers discuss their trips, experience, advice, and open the door to new ideas and adventures for their followers. People seek travel blogs to get a better grasp of what to expect on their vacations. The JBT team does a great job at this! Their blogs are comprised of content that supports a Moroccan trip including things to see, things to eat, things to know and why you should visit. With your knowledge and experience, you could be setting the bar high and developing the trust of your customers before you even meet them by hiring a team of bloggers dedicated to starting the conversation around the trips that your travel agency offers.

2. Sharing Their Ideas on Pinterest

Pinterest is another key platform for reaching prospective eco-travelers. People use Pinterest to map out vacation ideas and learn what to expect. The JBT team is active on Pinterest with 25 boards. Their Pinterest page drives vacation searches for anyone considering a trip to Morocco. Pinterest helps JBT to leverage education with and market their visual message. Join the conversation. Or better yet, start your own discussion, harness your existing ideas, and share why your eco-travel services are such a value to people considering an enlightened vacation.

3. Building a Community Based on a Love for Ecotourism

Community building is an excellent marketing tool for most businesses, especially when it comes to travel, and exponentially so with eco-travel. We can learn from the JBT team about the power of establishing and nurturing a community platform for future travelers, current travelers, and former travelers. By creating a travel forum, the JBT team inspires a feeling of unity, establishes trust, and allows for an opportunity to maintain a connection and offer future travel packages. Building a forum will give your audience a platform where they can share, suggest, advise each other while also giving you an opportunity to listen to your previous travelers and make future marketing decisions based on the information you gather. The people on your forum are your biggest promoters, they’ve booked, they’ve enjoyed, and now they are sharing amazing memories, videos, and pictures.

4. Creating a Unique Content Strategy

You already know what makes your company great, but does your audience? Like JBT, develop a content strategy that sets you, your travel destination, and your team apart! What is your team’s background? Why are you so passionate about eco-tourism? Did you stumble upon an “ah-ha!” moment of your own? JBT creates e-books, articles, videos, brochures, newsletters and so much more. They know they’re amazing at their specialty and are utilizing multiple channels to make sure their audience has access to them.

Need Help?

We’re a team of environmental professionals and educators who believe in a sustainable future for traveling. Just like you, we understand the power of effective marketing. We offer educational content marketing and specialize in environmental education. For more information on creating an effective marketing strategy for your unique company, contact us below!

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