Environmental Content Marketing is a broader marketing strategy for environmental companies significantly higher on the sustainability spectrum. Environmental marketing supports business growth, aids in mission building increases measurable impacts on the planet. A key differentiator for Environmental Content Marketing is that it is people-focused, helpful, and not greenwashed.
Environmental Content Marketing, sometimes also called Green Content Marketing, is a type of content marketing that includes environmental education and awareness as an integral part of a marketing strategy. It aims to raise the environmental literacy rates of consumers, constituents, business-to-business professionals, and decision-makers about environmental issues through content creation, dissemination, and engagement. That way, more of us are making educated, solid decisions on important topics, like climate change and plastic waste. These highly valuable strategies motivate economic recovery and are a political necessity that consumers are demanding.
In this post, you will learn:
- What environmental content marketing is
- Who environmental content marketing is for
- What environmental content marketing looks and feels like
- The impact of environmental content marketing on society, laws, and government policy
- The outcomes of environmental content marketing
- How does environmental content marketing work with Environmental PR?
Who is environmental content marketing for?
Environmental content marketing is for public and private sector organizations and leaders who are genuinely working to solve environmental issues such as the following: waste, climate change, energy, water, pollution, deforestation, food, health, and farming.
Decades of greenwashing and misleading advertising require educating and reeducating everyone in our communities. This includes consumers, employees, executives, vendors, and everyone interacting with your solution. If your company is solving issues that put pressure on the climate, then environmental content marketing is the approach. B2B, B2C companies, and really everyone in the world benefit from environmental marketing.
Organizations can span across a spectrum of sustainability from the best environmental solutions to the worst greenwashed disasters. It’s important to understand where your solution sits on this spectrum and to make adjustments to improve your environmental impact constantly. A great opportunity exists for companies who help B2B and B2C consumers understand this spectrum. Creating educational content that is unbiased and guides consumers to more sustainable choices is one of the best ways to align with those wanting to make a better impact with purchases they’re going to make anyway. There is currently no one comprehensive, mainstream solution for consumers to use for guidance on the best, low-impact products. Environmental marketing starts where your company sits on the sustainability spectrum and creates marketing strategies that are transparent and relevant to your customers and target personas.
What environmental content marketing looks like
Quizzes, riddles, and fun facts like the “who gives a crap” post on deforestation by way of educating on the platypus, bring people closer to understanding an environmental topic.
Environmental content is about integrating green issues, educating, and explaining green problems and outcomes so target audiences can walk away with knowledge on a particular green topic. Consumers want authentic information, and simply put, they want answers to the questions they have which aren’t being addressed online. Simultaneously, there is a disconnect between science and delivering academic information to the masses in a coherent, accessible way. The breakdown from science to public knowledge is the juncture where edu-marketing and environmental content strategies come into play. The premise is that to connect people with the backed-by-science information they are looking for, environmental companies are in a unique position to use their marketing dollars to do just that. In the same vein as filling a gap in the consumer market with a green product, environmental educational content fills a market gap of knowledge.
The benefits of leading a solutions-based marketing strategy with environmental content education include:
- Reducing overall confusion about your environmental solution and the problem you’re solving in the first place
- Educating on your product and creating tools to help people judge your solution against the competition on a sustainability spectrum
- Increasing team and lead buy-in
- Improving sales team knowledge on the environmental aspects your company solves
- Honing the best message to engage people on the environmental issues you solve
- Dramatically increase brand awareness and engagement on your solution
- Positioning your solution as a leader of the pack
- Cultivating an atmosphere of truth-telling around issues your solution is solving
- Leading as a consumer advocate for reducing the environmental issues your company solves
Green Public Relations
Green Public Relations & Environmental content dissemination looks like relationship building and content sharing around a collective effort to address environmental issues. Green PR builds an ecosystem around your environmental solution. More than creating a green face to maintain a positive image, Green PR seeks to align with other community members and media to exponentially increase the impact and efficacy of campaigns, content, and environmental agendas.
Marketing sustainable products
Marketing sustainable products, services, and initiatives look much different from marketing for traditional products and services. Historically, before the environmental movement gained prominence in the 1960s, most brands and products had one bottom line, revenue. More people are currently becoming more aware of companies’ damaging outcomes that have been deteriorating natural resources and leading to people demanding companies to create better solutions.
However, brands with a sustainability mission often don’t wish to sell only to the green consumer. Ideally, green businesses would offer their products and services to a broader market and not be boxed into a green market where only green consumers exist. Targeting green consumers is not a winning solution either, as many factors cause cognitive dissonance in green consumers. It is no longer enough to settle for a subset of the population to market ecological solutions to. For increased market share and to make a more significant impact on environmental issues, it’s going to take all hands on deck. This means leveraging the people waiting in the wings for more transparent, sustainable brands and purpose-driven marketing that looks more like education and engagement-focused strategies. Purpose-driven marketing done right takes more research and investment into educational content development tailored to an audience and requires increased creativity and skill.
There are many challenges for each group of stakeholders along the path to success. The goals are collaborative, and they are based on a triple bottom line model of people, planet, and profits.
Environmental content marketing, while not only selling your product or service, is also having the consumers and everyone watching walking away with knowledge they didn’t know about. It’s explaining that with their purchase, this is what they will get. Especially for environmental companies, this is even more effective when there’s a collaborative effort. Green advertising is different from traditional, meaning the content is not just trying to convince you to buy; it’s educating, it’s personal.
Examples of what Environmental Content Marketing looks like
This Brita® water filter commercial tells the story of using a filter and leaving single-use plastic bottled water behind. Environmental advertising would add an educational component to the ad, having the viewers walking away with education and a personal story.
Environmental content marketing ultimately educates. Telling a story in bite-sized infographics efficiently reaches large numbers of people. When posted to social platforms, it is a way to educate on your solution. Without any ads behind an educational post, we’ve seen engagement higher than posts with campaigns. People are ready to learn, and they want to make healthier choices; they want to be educated and are willing to compensate for that value. That’s why we help companies educate on waste, with a simple content add-on, 365 Waste Stats & Facts | A.R. Environmental Content Marketing House.
There’s much education to be done. Unfortunately, there are very few environmental science students who want to get into marketing. That doesn’t mean it’s not out there. This is the reason A.R. exists as a specialized boutique firm. There’s an intense need for environmental content marketing and a multidisciplinary approach to sustainable companies. Educational seminars, webinars, courses are a way to educate and uplift the industry you are in. This means collaborating with educators, stores, brands, and the many solutions that aren’t yet as loud as their not-so-sustainable competitors. This type of content spreads messages; it can be used for so many different content types and can be a source of income for your company, hence supporting business growth.
Businesses often forget about educating their staff, employees, vendors, investors, and board members on the environmental issues they solve. When everyone is educated and onboard, your employees serve as enthusiastic educators, almost a walking billboard, which is organic edu-marketing. They are often invested and get their friends, family members, and community members to join in on the mission.
The more context provided around your company’s solutions creates natural influencers, and people feel good.
What environmental content marketing feels like
- It doesn’t always feel like marketing
- #1 it is Consumer/Constituent/People/Planet-focused
- Honest
- Backed by science
- Trustworthy
- Shareable
- Important to know
Environmental content marketing makes people feel good because they feel supported, educated, and not greenwashed. This creates lifelong environmentalists and customers for better brands.
The impact of Environmental Content Marketing on society, laws, and government policy
Two major outcomes of Environmental Content Marketing are:
- It can be used to educate policymakers and constituents
- It can be a replacement for high-priced lobbyists
The implementation of sustainable measures goes beyond market demands. Sustainable lobbying firms like The Sustainable Business Council are popping up to partner with sustainable brands to implement change where it is needed politically. In the context of green businesses today, involvement in policy and government agendas is crucial to leading the way on your sustainable solution. Direct and indirect lobbying requires education, needs educational content delivered for lobbyists to share during policy hearings or to your community members. This requires strategic, well-researched, audience-ready educational content.
Environmental companies who wish to have long-term staying power in their industry will need to rally support from community members and consumers and sway political agendas in a better direction. Dominant sectors like petrochemical, plastic, and pharmaceutical companies have used the power of lobbying for decades. Newer environmental companies might not have the sizable budget necessary for a lobbying firm retainer can utilize the same principles and lobbying firms and incorporate them into their marketing strategy. Our 3-pronged approach is ideal for the most effective way to grow your message, offering, and brand while promoting an agenda that aligns with what people want; contact us for support | A.R. Environmental Content Marketing House.
The outcomes of environmental content marketing
Through teaching, research, fact-based information, environmental content marketing means developing a strategic plan for education on topics around your solution and its more significant environmental impacts. The goal is to create a smarter, more engaged population that will buy, spread your message, know-how, and vote on to develop real advanced environmental solutions.
How does Environmental Content Marketing work with Environmental PR?
Environmental PR creates new ways to use influencers, partnerships, fuels business growth, and takes everyone at the table collaborating. Supporting journalists with environmental education helps increase your brand’s value because you get to help explain complex topics to people who will share them more. Yes, it takes a bit more effort and expertise than a product that doesn’t need any explaining, but it also offers an opportunity that otherwise isn’t there. Ads in magazines look and feel different with educational components. Creative press releases that tell a story help journalists take readers on a journey by making coherent, compelling stories. Influencers learn more, and when they know, more they can get excited about their new knowledge and share more than a snappy image or video. Collaboration is critical for sustainable companies to uplift movements, make bigger measurable impacts, and grow communities.
Want to learn more about Environmental Content Marketing? Send your questions to info@armarketinghouse.com, and we’ll publish the answers for you.
Resources:
2020: The Future of Environmental Marketing SlideShare
How to Increase Your Brand’s Measurable Environmental Impact with Education
Do Consumers REALLY Care about the Environment?
Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims; Final Rule
An Introduction To Green Marketing
$1 Trillion Market Share for Companies That Educate on Sustainability
Environmental Marketing Strategy and its Implementation in Forest Industries