environmental content

Jan

2022

Don’t Just Quote the King, Embody His Message: The Formula for Making an Impact

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led an entire era. What made him a powerful and effective communicator was that he educated, engaged, and motivated people into action. In fact, to this day, his words continue to ignite and spark new generations to action that continue to face oppression.

One significant difference between MLK’s era and today is that many more people are leading companies with the heart and power to drive an impact, both environmentally and socially. Inspired by impact investing, these companies higher on the social and environmental spectrum are investing in a cleaner, more equitable future. Whether that be educating on and implementing workplace diversity, helping reduce waste, proliferating renewable energy, cleaning up water supply, you name it. It’s not a winner-take-all capitalism game for future-proof businesses. Because of that, there are a lot of lessons that young environmental entrepreneurs can learn from MLK’s impactful strategies, emotional metaphors, academic writings, stories, and speeches.

Dr. King’s tactics can be effectively adopted by today’s disruptors, innovators, renewable energy knights, and organizations adopting solid social and sustainable initiatives. His approach could be used to introduce and motivate people to make better environmental choices which ultimately impact all members of our society. Dr. King understood the interconnectedness of everything – as he once said, “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Here’s how environmental companies can adopt the formula of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to improve their measurable impact on the planet.

Education

“A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit, in many instances, do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Education is a vital aspect of helping our society turn the corner on new, healthier initiatives. We cannot make an educated shift if we aren’t given the information and the tools necessary to do so. The lesson here from Dr. King is that if we are delivering a solution to one or more of the issues this world faces, we must incorporate education on the issue and the solution we’re presenting.

People are now accustomed to having answers at their fingertips. And if we aren’t providing an in-depth, relevant, and transparent explanation – our business and its offerings can be seen as mildly irrelevant – not part of the conversation. These conversations and educational efforts can be executed IRL, online, social media – perhaps the metaverse. Enlisting the power of engagement can be helpful when delivering our education. It’s what Dr. King did. Why wouldn’t we learn from what worked?

It is an especially important time for environmental companies and organizations to claim their role in society and accept a new level of social responsibility. When creating educational content, remember that your organization was created to make an impact. That means it also needs to improve how marketing is done and what it does for people – helpful, transparent, and educational is where we want to be.

Collaboration – supporting and leveraging other movements

MLK was fighting for social justice, but he also deeply understood the interrelated components of all movements and the importance of actively supporting many issues that ultimately shared the umbrella of injustice. Dr. King knew in order to achieve social justice; environmental justice must be achieved. Healthier living environments for every community and access to clean air, water, and soil all led back to racial equality and voter rights.

Dr. King leveraged and supported many movements and organizations in order to reach the overall goal of social justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized how many great movements of his time were linked. Environmental organizations and companies can realize this as well. Many movements could be stronger with collaboration and recognizing how interdependent they are.

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? This is the way our universe is structured; this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

For organizations solving environmental woes, let’s think about the movements or companies we can partner with to get more reach and grow our impact together. Without bastardizing a cause, how can we genuinely support our community on important and interrelated issues? How can we use our marketing dollars or combine our marketing dollars with others on education to shed light on significant problems we’re solving? Make an effort to collaborate and form deeper connections with our people and demonstrate our organization’s genuine desire to solve, educate, uplift, engage, inform, and create great and lasting changes in the world.

Political Engagement and Involvement

Dr. King spent much of his life meeting with politicians, leading marches, speaking, writing, and organizing political activism campaigns that were instrumental in the changes that occurred. Green companies are uniquely positioned to learn from King’s past and apply it to create a better future. Most organizations are involved to some degree in policy influencing, whether that be having a lobbying arm in the company, being part of an association that lobbies for a particular industry, or getting individuals to sign environmental petitions. We are amidst many environmental changes affecting our daily lives; while the old powers are trying to cling to their stagnant seats in the market, a shift is happening. Environmental brands are positioned to adopt with ferocity and approach political engagement tactics for the issues our green brand represents, just as Dr. King did.

Consumers are hungry for truth, transparency, and political action on the environmental issues they support. Environmental companies who wish to have long-term staying power in their industry will rally the support of community members and consumers and sway political agendas in a better direction. Dominant sectors like petrochemical, plastic, and non-renewable energy companies have used the power of lobbying for decades. Environmental companies might not have the same sizable budget necessary for a lobbying firm retainer; perhaps utilizing the same principles of lobbying firms and incorporating them into our content marketing strategy is the alternative action. Combining communication, education, and collaborations can help fuel political campaigns our community wants to support.

Storytelling and Engagement – Lead with a positive outcome

There was no doubt when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke; we knew he understood and deeply empathized with the people he spoke for. He painted a picture of the final step of success. He delivered an idea, a goal to attain – a dream. He lifted hope from a riverbed by drying it off and holding it up as a vision. In our communications, be like Dr. King – paint a picture of the promised land first and foremost. What does success look like for our people in particular? How will they know when they’ve reached the finish line? What hopes can actionable steps be drafted from?

From a world with cleaner water to communities with optimal health and excellent air quality, whatever our team and our company is solving, let’s be sure to paint the picture of success in our content.

Visibility – P.R./Advertising/Social Media Marketing

Dr. King was impressive with garnering media attention and capturing a nation, whether in print, radio or on television – the imagery and sound continue to live on. The brutality and horrors that occurred, and still do today, as everyday life for black people in the United States, he knew, had to be seen by everyone to make a difference and change minds. Dr. King made sure this was the case every chance he got. The media played a big part in the civil rights movement. Environmental companies can note Dr. King’s use of the media and press to activate imagery about the need for change.

Green public relations and content dissemination are about relationship building and content sharing around a collective effort to address environmental issues. Green PR builds an ecosystem around our social and environmental solutions. More than building a green face to maintain a positive image, Green PR seeks to align with community members and media to exponentially increase the impact and efficacy of campaigns, content, and agendas.

Takeaways from Dr. King

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. listened and genuinely connected people in a movement. Expanding our environmental impact and protecting the most vulnerable people from the worst catastrophes requires all hands on deck. In today’s world, it involves the action of environmental companies and organizations. We all can do more than quote Dr. King; we can take his strategy for real change and adapt the same formula for expanding our reach and impact on the world – people and our environment. For those that hate the idea of marketing but know it must be done, consider how our solutions in the world will benefit people the bigger our movement can be. To instill new ideas and solutions, we need more organizations on board to take action and:

Educate
Collaborate
Politically Activate
Create a vision of success
Be visibly doing it all

Don’t just quote the King, be one by working with our team to improve your measurable impact. As the first environmental content marketing company owned by women of color, A.R. Marketing House offers a unique perspective and expertise in combining environmental science and marketing tactics to drive sales and impact. Our team is dedicated to using our skills and passion for sustainability to help sustainable businesses achieve their goals. Take action and make an impact today with your content strategy.

If you need help developing content and building content marketing strategies, we can help. Contact us today.

Resources:

https://www.thesca.org/connect/blog/dr-king-civil-rights-and-environmental-justice

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/articles/martin-luther-king-progress-civil-rights-movement.html

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/purpose-education#fn1

Jan

2021

Content ROI — Calculating Success for Sustainable Brands

In this post, you will learn:

What Content ROI is for sustainable brands
The importance of calculating content ROI for sustainable brands
Why the new consumer environment requires content
10 specific areas where content shows success & positive ROIs
What to measure when calculating Sustainable Brand Content ROI
When to measure Environmental Content ROI
When Content ROI calculations fail

When leading people to more sustainable solutions, we’re quickly met with trust and credibility hurdles caused by decades of greenwashing and misleading advertising. The way our predecessors approached marketing efforts has now, thankfully, started to change, especially for companies higher on the “sustainability spectrum.”

The “No Content” approach of the past where relying solely on print and digital ads, mailers, telemarketing, PR, trade events, and in-person sales now means leaving money on the table. Especially post COVID-19, not having a pro-content marketing plan means missing the leadership boat for your brand.

The solution? High quality, reliable, well-researched, written and shared content that informs and engages your entire community — now that’s effective marketing. Here’s why. We know first hand that Sustainable Brand CMOs have their hands full. Between managing the production of quality content and getting the buy-in they need for larger content budgets, there’s just so much to juggle. Often, the big struggle is demonstrating the hard numbers and ROI to get the budget necessary to launch successful environmental content marketing efforts. Mainstream ROI calculations are measured with ads, campaigns, and punctuated efforts, yet measuring Environmental Content Marketing’s ROI is a bit different. It’s a wider net of variables that are often affected and is thus much more valuable than appears at first glance. When appropriately measured, we know that environmental content is not only effective but a highly efficient addition for long-term business and industry-leading growth. So, here are some proof-in-the-pudding ways that your team can demonstrate the benefits of and garner more effective budgets for environmental content marketing.

First stop. A better world is possible if…

Let’s take a step back for a moment and observe the opportunities around us. We all know that there is an equal and opposite reaction for every action, which is to say that silver linings can and do emerge from major crises. We often see major innovations due to punctuated events, and human viewpoints begin to advance, shift, and see personal pivots on health, politics, careers, and marketing tactics. Like when the U.K.’s National Health Service built a 4,000-bed hospital in just four days. This new pandemic is no different when it comes to rapid shifts in solutions, lifestyles, and how we choose to communicate with each other.

Post COVID, climate change, systematic racism, gender inequality, basic human and environmental rights are now on the table for transformation. Times are changing, and people are participating in that change, even if that looks a little curious and varied. What is clear is the urgency for implementing mass education and reeducation on environmental topics to make way for solutions.

Circumstances continue to change for environmental companies. People are seeking healthier, more sustainable options, and investors are looking to green their investment portfolios and put their dollars into positive action.

Times are changing swiftly, and how we communicate with our community is too. Digital courses and webinars are up, and online expos are on the rise; everything is moving to a core of online content that is supportive, educational, and mostly transformational. That includes transformation toward better solutions like renewable energy, zero waste, reforestation, sustainable food and farming, sustainable products and services that are higher on the Sustainability Spectrum. With new norms for communication also comes the rise in Environmental Content Marketing. However, organizational communication shifts require proof of concept and ROI.

So what does content marketing ROI look like for a sustainable brand? Let’s take a look.

What is content ROI for sustainable brands?

For average brands, Content Marketing ROI is a percentage that shows how much revenue you gained from content marketing in comparison to what you spent. For environmental companies, there’s a bit more to include in this equation. Your sustainable company has a bigger goal of improving the quality of life and cleaning up the planet. Usually, this means disrupting the status quo on solar energy, solar battery storage, eliminating single-use plastic, sustainable construction, and so on. Improving lives and cleaning up the planet means looking beyond single bottom line sales analytics. Quantifying your impact with content involves understanding how you minimize other assumed costs like public relations, lead generation, and yes, even lobbying, to name a few. For example, authority content helps elevate your brand as a leader, educational content can support political change, innovative webinars can spark even bigger innovations, inspirational content can catch the eye of the media, and all of these various types of content can open unexpected doors that level up your sustainable business. If that wasn’t enough, do you think you can’t create an additional revenue stream from your content? Think again. Once developed, funded, and nurtured appropriately, your content plan can not only be calculated for effective ROI but be the asset driving it.

Adding to the litany of content tracking metrics, below is a basic recipe of items to track for environmental content marketing ROI:

Engagement is key. How is your content engaging? Are you making a case for people to take action and make moves toward the goals you’ve set?
Making the Switch. How does your content guide more people to “make the switch” and adopt your solution?
Measurable Impacts. How does your content increase your measurable impact?
Partnerships. How has your content impacted the quality and outcomes of your strategic partnerships?
PR Opportunities. How often has your content attracted and improved the quality of your PR opportunities? Whether journalists reached out as a direct result of your content, used your content as a reference source, or as a source of help in telling your story, measuring your content’s impact is key for understanding the ROI or value this is bringing back to your company.

Why is it important to track content ROI for sustainable brands?

What we can measure, we can surely improve. Keeping track of profits while delivering critical education will help make careful, thoughtful measurements of your ROI. When more people adopt green brands and sustainable initiatives, it leads to bigger environmental impacts, a greater ROI for all. It’s a proportional relationship; the better your solution, the more you share and educate on it, the more people “make the switch,” and the better your impact on the planet. For this equation to play out to the best of its ability, people need the education to lead them to the answer, to lead them to your solution.

It’s essential to calculate content ROI because it’s a core driver of long-term sales conversions for sustainable brands. Therefore, tracking content ROI for the C-suite means showing proof that your marketing efforts are paying off. It’s also vital for learning where to pivot when necessary. It informs and validates the content topics, and it keeps teams in tune with the goals. Tracking content efforts will help you know if consumers, investors, vendors, supply chains, media contacts, advocates, and influencers are becoming more informed and sharing your content. It’s important to track content ROI as content is a force that strengthens many efforts in an organization.

Investing in content for the new consumer environment

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, people were beginning to take the environment and their health into consideration much more when making buying decisions. This interest in sustainability has since increased after COVID-19. Looking at a Deloitte Global Marketing Trends study of consumers and executives on how to understand better how consumers and executives are responding to these new consumer environments:

more than 25% of those who noticed brands acting in their own self-interest walked away from those brands
more than 70% agreed they valued digital solutions that deepened their connection with other people, and 63% believe they will rely on digital technologies more than they did before the pandemic, even well after it subsides
58% of respondents could recall at least one brand that quickly pivoted to better respond to their needs, and 82% said this led to them doing more business with the brand

We’re all seeking more sustainable products and services. C-suite executives are seeing significant declines in consumer confidence. People know what greenwashing is and are hesitant to trust brands claiming to be eco-friendly, eco-conscious, green, or sustainable. Environmentally-focused companies have double, maybe triple the work to prove they are viable environmental solutions worthy of trust.

If you are new to leveraging content for your environmental brand, knowing how to measure your content’s success means examining the myriad of ways content is valuable and brings successful outcomes. Here are the areas to look for content ROI success.

environmental content marketing

10 areas where environmental content marketing can yield a positive ROI

#1 Improved leads

It’s all about the quality. Quality content produces quality leads and buy-in. If you’re a B2B company, analyzing the people who are buying your products or services will mean finding out what your prospects’ pain points are and what environmental processes they need to understand better. Then your job is to create content that supports them in their buying process.

Here are some questions to ask for ensuring that you’re on the right track when developing content that improves quality lead generation.

For B2B clients, what content/education will help them get buy-in from their C-suite executives and decision-makers?
What do your solutions look like during a crisis, like a pandemic? Where can you demonstrate support in your content? How will your sustainable company be an asset to clients during this time?
What pain points are your sales team experiencing?
How does your team feel about your company? What does your staff already know, and what do they need to learn more about? What are they excited about most?
How much time do your sales leads have to consume information (minimal or do they have time to make digest longer content forms)?
What formats and platforms do your leads prefer getting information?

Every piece of content you create and disseminate will be more valuable with clear call-to-actions and engaging components. You can make your lead-generating content strategic when you know enough about your leads to educate and qualify them.

#2 Improved sales – measuring sales ROI from content can increase content budgets

Every piece of content will have a specific goal in order to measure the ROI from each content. The importance of not separating your marketing and sales team is paramount. The reason environmental content marketing is so powerful is that it is doing everything in its power to achieve your company’s goals through strategic communication efforts. A big part of those goals is sales. “There is no reason why sustainability cannot be profitable — as it is inherently valuable. Health, clean water, clean air are all quality of life necessities; therefore, sustainability must be recognized as profitable for it to be the norm and sustain its essential place in a functioning society.” Denise Anderson-Rivas Director of Environmental Education & Content at A.R. Environmental Content Marketing House.

Creating content that supports the sales process and team will involve tracking the content. Drawing out specific strategies in a diagram for each piece of content is a way to keep track of results. If a sales email is sent out, it will be beneficial to track the clicks and its many deals. Paying close attention to each page created will not only show how many leads were turned into sales, but it will also give you inside knowledge on what other types of helpful content to create to keep people engaged and repeat customers.

#3 Increased web traffic

Your website is the hub of your content. Every page has a goal and strategy to take people on the important educational journey to engage with and commit to your brand’s solution. The more helpful you are here, the bigger your ROI, the more traffic and conversions you get, the bigger content budgets you can garner. Your site is a place to keep updated with valuable content, lead people to sign-up, engage, and join the cause. Tracking how many visitors, how long people stay on your page, where they end up, where they’re clicking, where they’re signing up, where they’re commenting, where they’re referred from, and so on will allow you to know how well each piece of content on your website is performing. Your team will know what information you may want to add or alter and if you need to be more or less assertive with your call-to-action. Great website content will attract more people via stellar SEO, shared content, affiliate shares, and all of the channels your content is shared to.

#4 Improved onsite engagement

The goal is to continue building relationships and engagement leveraging your company’s website content. Measuring your customer relationship building’s success and how often people return and find value is critical to ensuring your content is keeping visitors increasingly engaged.

#5 Accelerated social media conversion

Look to your social media microcontent to see if your content is driving sales conversions. How are people engaging with your social content? Are they sharing it, commenting on it, going to your campaign pages, checking out, and converting? Getting creative with engagement on social media while delivering high-value content will create a feedback loop. The information you receive from engagement will also help develop even more valuable content that your community wants. Something as simple as creating content that answers people’s questions can add immense value and make your audience smarter.

#6 Stellar search engine optimization (SEO)

The more helpful your content, the higher you will rank on Google; it’s as simple as this fact. Yes, that means you can pay less for google ads or opt-out of paid google ads altogether and rank organically. Yes, quality content doesn’t need ads behind it; however, depending on your goals putting ad spend behind quality content will take it that much further. Making sure your content ranks well for your target keywords, appearing in answer boxes for relevant terms, making sure you have high domain authority, and getting inbound links are measures always to track. Everywhere content is housed will need SEO tracking and updating. The only way to focus on your SEO strategy, now and into the future, is always to create valuable, beneficial content.

#7 Next level exposure and topic authority

Stellar content helps build authority on a topic, making sure people view your company as a leader to source reliable information. Most often, this type of leadership content is educational. Educational content is often easily and quickly shared with friends and family, driving traffic to your website. This increase in reach provides the potential to generate leads and sales. Leadership content also paves the way to getting media coverage from respected outlets. You will quickly find that your content is adopted and mentioned in relevant radio and television shows. When tracking media mentions, note the important role your educational content played in building relationships with journalists and other media contacts. In turn, these efforts will get your brand in front of a wider audience. It’s very important not to skimp on quality content for this reason because these relationships and opportunities take time to build. Content is 20% of the battle; 80% will be the action of marketing your business and developing the relationships that come with the territory of leveraging quality content. Leveraging content for increased brand recognition and topic authority in your industry sparks countless possibilities to open.

#8 Better PR & journalist engagement

When journalists have interesting, helpful information on your brand, they more often than not write about it because, hey, you gave them a reason to! With environmental companies, you probably want more than a forced write up. You want to become eligible for awards, highlighted on new innovation lists, create new opportunities, collaborate with people in your industry. This creates new sections in publications, and new journalists need to understand what’s new, what’s the big deal, and how to talk about it.

#9 More quality partnerships for environmental companies

For environmental companies, partnerships often mean collaboration to raise awareness on a particular topic and often to highlight the breakthrough in your industry. Content plays into partnerships by acting as a magnet. The more compelling and educational the content you produce is, the more other brands will want to be a part of what your company is doing. Opening opportunities for co-branded content, co-branded products, event partnerships, partnerships for education, partnerships for environmental staff training, cost-sharing for advertising, and a host of other benefits – these partnerships for the planet are something we like to call the “supernova effect.”

People are all coming to terms with the fact that we cannot achieve sustainability or success in general without more people and companies collaborating. Brands coming together and educating on their zone of genius in a collaborative fashion pays off with:

More awareness for your respective companies
Wider distributive network
Overall cost savings
More opportunities for innovative ideas when everyone is a player at the table
Bigger opportunity to make a measurable impact on the planet and society

#10 Demonstrating your impact on the planet

Suppose you’re offering a sustainable solution for the planet. In that case, most likely, your ROI is directly tied to your impact on the planet. We live in a time of exasperated natural disasters, environmental pollution; we see the direct effects of climate change play out. While all of this is going on, it is being documented with smartphones – the people are now the environmental news beat. And they are (we are) rightfully concerned with our health and the environment and learning that the two are inextricably connected. We want to know which corporations are greenwashing and which are daring to do really great things for the planet and are acting as guardians of our health. That differentiation is usually accomplished with transparency. People want to see those receipts for your positive, measurable impact because talk is cheap. All eyes are on the sustainably innovative businesses and how they are contributing to a better future. The better information you provide, the more shareable your content will be, and the more people will engage with your organization. Hey, they may even take your educational info and make better decisions based on it. Now that’s what disrupts a stagnant market. Measuring your impact and sharing relevant content on it is one of the best plays you can make right now.

Every piece of content across various platforms will be measured differently, depending on your goals, metrics like increase in followers, conversions, how many people reacted, commented and shared your post. Whatever your goal is, you will benefit from measuring how well that content performed, then adjust and keep improving. Then you measure your impact and correlate this back to measuring the impact of your content. How many people did you help, minds did you sway, habits did you change for the better? Think of your content as an ecosystem, and measure the results by its impact on people, the planet, and profits.

What to measure when reporting ROI for sustainable brand content?

Each piece of content will have specific goals. The content will not only be helpful but create an action for the leads to take. This will all depend on your business goals. Although there are challenges to measuring content ROI, tracking all the places your content will end up, and the journey you want people to take will be where and what to report. With that, you can measure the impact actions and adapting your company’s solution will have on the planet. You will not only want to track leads and sales but all of your goals.

When do you measure environmental content ROI?

The short answer is constantly. However, the goal and the content format will be critical in knowing when to measure your environmental content ROI. If your goal is to attract leads starting with a blog article post, you will want to track after you start disseminating. Then the microcontent you create for social media, you will want to check weekly or monthly depending on your goal. As a point of comparison, ads are different to measure because they have a start date, but most importantly, they have an end date. On the other hand, content takes time to catch, be shared, and get ranked; it also does not have an end date.

Depending on your content and goals, there will be times you measure your content daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, and per decade. The older your content gets, the better metrics you will likely have. Of course, this is all dependent on the content quality, dissemination efforts, and strategy that went into it in the first place. Applying the 80/20 rule will be an essential part of your efforts, spending 80% of your time disseminating your quality content.

Where ROI for environmental content goes wrong

Measuring the ROI of content marketing takes a lot more creativity especially for sustainable companies. There are traditional tools to use like Google Analytics, email marketing metrics, social media analytics, CRMs, and full orchestra software reporting. Starting with some concrete goals and measuring your content results is a collaborative effort bringing everyone in your company to the table. How is every department seeing results from the content? What new content will support efforts for various roles in your company? Measuring your content will always result in a myriad of returns. It will keep your sales and marketing departments laser-focused on achieving your business goals, create ideas for business ideas and opportunities. Without measuring your content success, it will be hard to explain why content is important and to gain buy-in from decision-makers. It’s very exciting to measure all the opportunities from quality content; it’s encouraging and invokes creativity throughout the company.

However, there are pain points that prevent teams from measuring ROI accurately, and thus undervaluing it. Those factors include:

Lack of tools
Lake of time
Lake of training
Having vague goals/objectives

Where calculating ROI for Environmental Content goes wrong is not investing in the goal-setting, set-up, training, tracking, and evaluation of it. Each piece of content performs a duty for your business, and the outcome can be seen in many areas. It’s important not to miss the boat on analyzing these results to keep up the content momentum.

A new world means a time to teach, reach, and measure what you preach

With the acceleration of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) and sustainable initiatives, sustainable and purpose-driven solutions are gaining more attention. Now is the time for sustainable companies, organizations solving some of our biggest environmental problems to participate and take action for the world you wish to exist in. Create the content and deliver the message that will uplift your customers, partners, vendors, and staff out of crises and into the future where we can all thrive. Environmental, education-based content marketing will be worth it, and you can count on that. Still, it’s important to measure and deliver a well-rounded view of the ROI it will bring.

ENVIRONMENTAL MARKETING

Resources:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1050651919874105

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-a-crisis-teaches-us-about-innovation/

https://www.semrush.com/blog/measure-content-marketing-success/

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/6963_global-marketing-trends/DI_2021-Global-Marketing-Trends_US.pdf

Jan

2021

The Secret to Successful Environmental Content Marketing

Innovate, don’t imitate — how CEOs of Sustainable Brands can leverage tailored content & turn Green to Gold

Have you noticed the number of people concerned with the planet continues to grow exponentially? Even if they don’t completely understand what’s going on, they know something needs to be done. Research and public polling back this observation up — 90% of people from the U.S. believe the government should act on climate change by planting more trees. What’s more, 77% agree on prioritizing renewable energy technologies rather than increasing fossil fuel production.

So yeah, it’s official, people care. And while our world might feel chaotic and polarized right now, it’s great to know that a public shift is taking place. In my glass-half-full vision, we will continue on this path until we have course-corrected some of the most significant human-caused planetary problems – I mean, what are the other options, really? As you can imagine, there are many intersecting reasons why this shift has occurred. Some of those reasons include everyday people seeing extreme weather events in their backyard, witnessing high rates of cancer amongst friends and family members, the evolution of respiratory diseases like SARS-CoV-2 pushing human life to the brink, and environmental injustices where people in sacrifice zones pay the highest price for corporate profits — our lives. We’ve moved away from the debate on whether environmental issues are a “sexy” enough topic to cover. People want to talk about the facts, beyond doom and gloom — and from my experience, most people want to learn and do better, whatever that means and looks like for them.

The great thing is, so many innovative environmental entrepreneurs feel the same way, which is why we’re seeing a race for innovation to solve things like plastic pollution, water shortages, dirty energy, contaminated food supplies, and climate change. Yay, innovation. And folks are ready for no-brainer switches to more sustainable, responsible ways of being. The only set back is… Trust!

Years have been wasted on aggravating corporate greenwashing, which of course continues to this day. Well-intentioned people without a background to discern are led to believe there are redeeming qualities in things like “waste to energy via incineration” and “plastic recycling.” For the record, unfortunately, there is not. These “innovations” are more like bandaids to more significant issues requiring in-depth solutions. While greenwashers abound flashing 100% plastic recycling, many more genuine solutions to preventing plastic waste are being created. The only thing is… people need help differentiating, they need trusted information from our green leaders out there. Environmental Industry leaders can’t do things the way they’ve been done before – doing good deeds quietly. As corny as it sounds, we’ve got to walk hand in hand to the future, together, loudly praising and educating on enlightened solutions that go mainstream. That’s where Environmental Content Marketing comes in.

In this post, you will learn:

What Environmental Content Marketing is
Why sustainable brands need a tailored Content Marketing approach
The benefits for sustainable brands that use Content Marketing
A new take on the standard sales funnel adapted to Sustainable Brand Content Marketing
How your sustainable brand can develop a unique strategy
Producing quality information and environmental education to win & keep customers while growing your environmental impact
Personalization and relationship building for green brands

So, what exactly is Environmental Content Marketing?

Let’s start with a definition. Full disclosure, there is no standard definition of “Environmental Marketing,” let alone “Environmental Content Marketing,” so we’ve developed a working definition from our vantage point on the curve, and it goes like this:

Green Content Marketing is a type of content marketing that includes environmental education and awareness as an integral part of a marketing strategy aimed to raise environmental literacy of consumers, constituents, business to business professionals, and decision-makers about environmental issues through content creation, dissemination, and engagement; not greenwashing.

Do Sustainable Brands need a tailored Environmental Content Marketing Strategy?

Mostly Yes, but a little No.

The yes part. To steer clear of unintentional greenwashing it is best to adopt a tailored approach to content marketing for green brands. Here’s the deal, most people feel like they’ve heard it all before — that’s your enemy, a ‘been there, done that’ attitude toward most sustainable solutions. Damn those decades of greenwashing. Marketing agencies, PR agencies, website developers, and most if not all types of agencies have painted environmental products and services with the same set of brushstrokes. Banking off of a tried and true delivery method of making people feel better, happier about their new green choice – be it real or not. But we’ve come further than baseless claims and feel good campaigns. While making people feel good is nice – your claims must be based on truth, or well, that’s not very nice at all. Your brand will reflect the falsehood once customers scratch beneath the surface. But the great thing here is that you don’t have to be perfect; you just have to be transparent and plan toward achieving greater sustainability milestones with your product or service – “we’re working on that” clause but you have to mean it.

The no part. When it comes to educating on the environmental topic you are solving, people want you to stick to the facts, the science, the studies. So you can be a little more general when educating on, for example, water contamination – all the ways that water becomes contaminated and ways to filter it. There shouldn’t be fluctuation if you’re sticking to the truth. In this sense, you don’t need tailored content per say because you can share facts and stats, studies, science-based infographics. Here’s where you want to adhere to agreed upon science for the topic you’re helping people learn more about. Your job here is to make information understandable and accessible. Like with digestible facts & stats that put realities and hopes into action, like the example below.

Now for more on the yes (tailored content) part.

Why does a tailored strategy matter for Sustainable Brands?

Let’s use an example here. If you’re selling non-sustainable shoes, really your biggest concerns are appealing to emotions, aesthetics, and particular feelings depending on who your brand of shoes are made for. Ultimately you’re pitching based on what owning those shoes will feel like to the wearer, not a calculable impact on the environment. A sustainable shoe brand has this opportunity to do that and much more if they want to convert people to a new way of wearing shoes. To help people “make the switch” from unsustainable shoes to sustainable shoes, they have to connect with one major thing, their why! And to connect with the why for sustainable brands means reeducation through tailored content. What does it mean to wear shoes? What can I expect from an aspirational shoe brand? What’s so bad about non-sustainable shoes anyway? If a sustainable shoe brand solely appeals to their customer on a coolness factor, that will eventually fade. Not to mention, a sustainable shoe brand won’t shine if they don’t grab the opportunity to be different and stand out, rather than market the same way as a non sustainable brand. To harness lifelong customers engaged in a brand’s mission means to bring them into a more in-depth understanding — educate on the shoe industry, compare brands, longevity, the sustainability of materials, fairness and treatment of workers, the distance of travel from factory to foot. These are all tailored topics for the sustainable shoe brand to rise to the occasion. So how will this shoe brand go about telling the stories and delivering education on these topics?

Developing a tailored content marketing strategy will require a creative approach. Often this is where a specialized agency can be outsourced to determine what that unique approach will be. Content Marketing is a long-term commitment. While the use of various content formats might vary depending on needs, the overall strategy will need to embody the brand makeup and take customers on the journey to a better life, even if that means a better life for your feet and the planet.

Maybe your sustainable brand is unsure what would best serve customers in the education and relationship-building process – you don’t want to alienate anyone, right? Experimentation and social surveys are a great way to uncover what customers want to learn about, how each customer wants to be engaged, and how they can get involved with your impact-driven brand in a way they feel fits them best.

Benefits for Sustainable Brands that produce tailored, educational content

Build awareness for your brand as a leader, teacher, and change maker
Teach the topics people need to understand for change and buy-in
An opportunity to deliver transparency in a unique way
Connect through the most effective, relevant content formats and platforms
Grow a committed following that promotes your brand’s environmental solution
Support sales and B2B efforts more effectively and intuitively
Supports B2C customers along their learning and buying journeys
Placing ads on content vs. products reduces ad spend and is seen as helpful rather than salesy
Supports social media organically
Open up PR opportunities organically
Attract like-minded partners to join your cause
Improved SEO

How is Content Marketing different for Sustainable Brands?

While ROI is the name of the game for any company or organization, a sustainable brand’s measurable impact is inextricably tied to this ROI. For sustainable brands that have embedded their success into their impact on the planet, there’s no escaping that education through content marketing will aid on this mission. Helping customers “switch over” and convert their friends and family to, for example, toxic-free laundry practices, reusable coffee pods, investing in solar panels, etc. For sustainable brands that have a B2B market, it also takes education to help B2B buyers update their supply chains and truly understand your solution’s entire lifecycle and how your solution will help their company’s triple bottom line, or ESG (environmental, social, governance) goals.

Based on the premise of a typical sales funnel, we’ve created an Environmental Content Marketing funnel that gives context to each stage in relation to the advancement of an environmental solution. Starting from the top of the funnel:

Stage 1 involves reeducation, which is the awareness stage. Hey! Teach people something new, right? That’s the idea here, to get people to think of concepts related to your solutions in ways they’ve never thought about before. Here’s where the reframing and new metaphors come in, take the topic, and rework how people think of it, whether through metaphors or using a new language. Linguist George Lakoff calls this “framing,” and you can learn more about it in Framing: 6 Lessons for Marketing Teams of Sustainable Brands.

Stage 2 is typically called the consideration stage; for sustainable brands, this looks more like transparency, social proof, and everything you have to lay out on the table to build trust. If there’s an aspect of your product or service that might stir up confusion or isn’t quite as green as you’d like, here’s where you can come clean and discuss it rather than tucking it away like a nasty little greenwasher, eh? You’ll build trust with your followers for calling out the things you’re working to improve.

Stage 3 is the a-ha moment for your new customers. They’ve “made the switch” and see your offering as a solution.

Stage 4 is the proof that you’ve done your job educating, and they see your solution as long-term, something they can’t turn back from now.

Stage 5 is the “why doesn’t everyone know this” stage. At this point, you’ve successfully guided your customers along the knowledge journey to take action, and they can’t believe others are not doing the same. Now is the time to give them the tools to make an impact on the lives of their business partners, friends, and family. Here is where your ROI and measurable impact become exponentially powerful by helping your customers take promotional action, i.e., becoming the teachers.

Looking at the sales funnel in this context, you can start to ask, just how is your community supported along each stage of the journey toward a better life and planet?

Environmental Content Marketing is not only about a campaign, it’s a commitment that deserves its own Mission Statement (yep!)

While all marketing strategies have their place, content marketing is not a one and done marketing model. Unlike PR campaigns, ad campaigns, product promos, etc., that are produced once and the benefits are acutely measured and analyzed for success, content marketing is more like an asset that you can continually draw from. Campaigns can be supported by content, but your environmental content strategy will continue to support your efforts even if it shifts in format over time. Whereas once an ad has completed its deadline, stellar content can continue to draw traffic, shares, and awareness for years to come, as long as you continue to strategically disseminate and promote the content, keeping it fresh and relevant.

The commitment for sustainable brands is really in the educational and entertainment aspects. Emphasis on the educational, there are wild myths that still exist around environmental topics. Here are just a few:

The damage is done; there’s nothing we can do
Nature and ecosystems are “out there” and not relevant to me
Plastic is recyclable, so I don’t need to stop using it
Climate change isn’t real, it’s naturally occurring, and there’s nothing we should do

There are so many other myths, and in all fairness, as science is continually evolving, it’s our job as educators and problem solvers to deliver updates on these topics. The fact remains, there’s still so much knowledge sharing to do if we’re to course-correct toward zero-waste, renewable energy, clean equitable water access, sustainable food, and reforestation.

Education can’t just be for customers; we need all hands on deck where content marketing is concerned. When the level of environmental literacy is lifted in your particular sector, you will have knowledgeable, confident stakeholders, employees, c-suite executives, investors, and partners. Knowing not just how to change but also why a change is needed helps solidify those learning moments and make the learning curve a bit easier.

Now time for that Environmental Content Mission Statement. Having a mission statement for your content will tie in the most critical aspects of your team’s content creation for your brand’s community. The winning formula looks something like this:

[Name of Company/Organization] is dedicated to delivering [types of content] on the topics of [list content pillars] to achieve [goals for your customers].

To see this example in context, here is the A.R. Environmental Content Marketing House content mission statement:

A.R. Environmental Content Marketing House will consistently produce content for CEOs and CMOs of environmental companies on environmental content marketing topics to help grow their business, accomplish their mission, and increase their measurable impact on the planet.

Overcoming pain points and barriers

It’s easy to say, “Yah, I love content; let’s get some blogs and videos going – what eco topics do we want to cover?” But having a passion for content and delivering a winning strategy that covers all bases while elevating your eco brand to the next level are two different approaches. Especially with environmental topics, there are some hurdles to cross. Por ejemplo (that’s Spanish for “for example” ):

It’s not always easy for everyone to readily understand the science, or the need for your environmental solution, and that’s okay. The sad reality is whether your product or service is B2B, B2C, solving water issues, taking climate action, or tackling waste, most people have not received the environmental education necessary to make a sound, un-greenwashed decision. They need reliable, fact-based information delivered to them in comprehensive ways to move forward to incorporate genuine sustainability.

Everything is connected, which is why including a multidisciplinary approach when discussing environmental topics in your content is powerful. To properly discuss, for example, the plastic crisis, tie in multiple issues that affect its current state like fossil fuels, photodegradation, the endocrine system, oceanic food chain. Leave the doom and gloom behind; taking a multidisciplinary fact-based approach to explaining topics respects your customers’ intelligence and helps them understand how systems are related.

Focusing on the right kind of engagement. Engagement is all about participating in a dialogue that your community wants to have. So you put your ears to the online forums and social media conversations to see what questions are being asked. Search what misperceptions are being spread, and start creating content around these complex topics by simplifying them and facilitating conversations across your channels.

Preaching to the sustainable choir. Love the choir; they’re great but don’t stop at preaching to people who are already believers; your brand likely needs new leads and nudges over those on the fence. Delve into your buyer personas, make sure they’re not too narrow, and craft strategies that reach beyond the heavy believers. They’re going to want more proof, more science, more effort from your content team. And you’re going to give it to them because that’s how you’ll make an impact while increasing your growth.

How do you create a unique Environmental Content Marketing strategy?

There are many steps to take in developing a unique strategy, enough to write an entire eBook on (hint drop succeeded) — when it comes to sustainable brands, here are a few factors to consider. Remember, you’ll want to dive into these questions while thinking of how you would connect and deliver content that addresses these questions’ answers in unique, compelling ways.

What is your unique solution? What sets it apart from other solutions? Why is it superior, and what are the big selling points? How are you saving the planet? What proof can you show? When you think of the answers to these questions, consider the creative ways you can express these features, how would you describe them, how would you represent them without words?

Who are your target personas? Do not start your Environmental Content journey without knowing precisely who you are trying to reach. When exploring your buyer personas, make them as real as possible. Give your buyer personas names, talk to them in real life, and learn what they care about and their values. Beyond the usual demographics, which may or may not be helpful (they might just be stereotypes) — talk directly to people who embody your mission and brand. Learn where they hang out online and offline, and find out about those key points that had them make “the switch” to your brand or solution. Rinse and repeat until you have about 5 personas. You don’t need much more than 5 core personas; if you have more, you may find that they overlap in very subtle, unimportant ways. Spend more time intimately getting to know the 5, rather than creating 15.

Producing quality environmental content

Now that your strategy is locked and loaded, you’ve narrowed down your personas, you have a tailored approach with some content pillars and an environmental content mission statement, it’s time to set up your content management system and get to creating—some pointers before getting started.

Take your unique strategy and make stellar content. Don’t settle for cheap, poorly researched written blogs, blasé downloadables, or half-cooked content ideas. Aim high on the quality of your content whether you have an in-house team or you get outsourced help, use a brand editorial and content style guide and make sure all content creators know your content mission statement intimately before creating content.

Invest in your content as an asset for your brand that will continue to deliver and grow. Some companies like Disney are built on content as assets. That’s because they’re high quality and have a high value. The mindset of investing in the content will garner more ROI and impact your brand in the long run.

Measure your Environmental Content and understand your long-term ROI. Quality content might cost a little more upfront but pays hands-down for getting the best ROI. On the other hand, lower budget content or content lacking a strategy may actually hurt your brand, and you could risk losing customers if they find your content to be subpar, as it reflects your products and services.

Going beyond – environmental content personalization builds relationships

The experiences that you give your customers are the imprints that will stick with them. When it comes to environmental education, you want to make sure customer voices are heard, their questions thoroughly and honestly answered – you know, kind of like a bff. You want to have the right content and the right CRM software in place so that each customer feels like you’re speaking directly to them across the channels they prefer. Weaving environmental content into communications is an ongoing process. Never stop the conversation, and never stop making an impact.

Denise Anderson-Rivas is the Director of Environmental Education & Co-founder at A.R. Environmental Content Marketing House. Denise helps clients successfully merge the mutual needs of Environmental Content Marketing and Environmental Education. Powered by her multi-disciplined background in science, business, marketing, and natural resource conservation, she is committed to raising the level of Environmental Literacy for all, improving quality of life and decision making on sustainability and environmental justice topics.

Jun

2018

This is How you do Environmental Content — Honoring 5 Gyres on World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day takes place every June 8th to recognize that there is one global ocean that connects us all. On this day, global citizens work to prevent plastic pollution and encourage solutions for a healthy ocean.

The Non-Profit Organization, 5 Gyres is a purveyor of ocean health, educational content, and empowerment for change.

“Our mission is to empower action against the global health crisis of plastic pollution through science, education, and adventure.” – 5 Gyres

They have taken their mission to the max and created a multidimensional platform with content that supports the following:

1) Education on the harms of plastics to animal (including humans) health and the ocean.

2) Collaboration with other environmental organizations, research entities, and retail businesses.

3) Introduction to and sales of #plasticfree products via their #plasticfree shopping guide.

4) Making policy involvement easy for visitors with quick links to take political action against (polystyrene, plastic microbeads, plastic straws, etc.).

You can see the results of their efforts via the 5 Gyres History in Numbers. For example, the politically powerful community of 5 Gyres was able to put enough pressure on 16 major personal care product companies to remove microbeads from their product lines, including Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, and The Body Shop. And in another instance of action, 5 Gyres was able to divert ~ 16 billion microbeads from oceans and lakes because of their #beadfree campaign pledge.

Co-founders Anna Cummins and Marcus Eriksen have merged their respective experience in Environmental Science Non-Profit and Marine Research to develop the amazing platform that is 5 Gyres. With a Ph.D. in Science Education and Research, Marcus is now launching Leap Lab a science center working to build the modern city that addresses ecology, food and water cultivation, waste, community building, and clean energy. We look forward to seeing how Leap Lab dispels barriers to mass adoption of sustainable modern cities.

5 Gyres is the perfect example of how we can all be doing better, as in building communities with educational content that influence policies. Collectively contributing to the movement toward outlawing environmentally damaging products and practices that have been proven by the scientific boards and researchers around the world is key, and 5 Gyres embodies this collaboration with their contributing partners:

As a content marketer with an environmental science background, it is my opinion that there needs to be this trifecta of empowerment for better solutions to take on the market. We cannot live in a black and white landscape of hyper-environmentalism that in its quest for perfectionism alienates consumerism and market needs. We are a consumer society, but the hopeful part is that we consume media as well and in this, we are capable of consuming educational content that is strategically marketed.

In order to proliferate positive change and mass adoption of sustainable thought processes, as well as products, we need the same trifecta of:

1) Research/Data

2) Market solutions/political action/lobbying (that replace detrimental products like plastics, petrochemicals, petrol, pharmaceuticals, etc.)

3) Educational content and programs that empower people and forces governments toward solutions.

On this World Oceans Day, we want to thank 5 Gyres for breaking ground on a potent model that incorporates this trifecta for effecting positive change for our world’s oceans, this day and all year long.

Consider a donation to 5 Gyres, a sincerely dynamic Non-Profit!

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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