Eco-friendly marketing faces more challenges than ever. Not only does your strategy need to grab attention, but it needs to earn trust in an increasingly doubtful audience.
With greenwashing a major problem nowadays and more competition among sustainable brands than ever before, your business has to step outside the marketing box to earn customers’ dollars.
Since we specialize in recyclable, reusable, and compostable products for food and beverage businesses, we know first-hand how difficult it is to stand out amid similar claims of sustainability. Impactful eco-friendly marketing is more than using the right buzzwords – it’s a consistent effort across all elements of your business.
From dedicating yourself to sustainable products to providing a clear, accessible message in your packaging, we’re going to break down the working parts of an eco-friendly marketing campaign. These tips will go a long way in showing customers that you’re the real deal.
The Difference Between Green Marketing And Greenwashing
Where does genuinely green marketing end and greenwashing begin? Simply put, greenwashing is what happens when a brand’s actions don’t line up with its words.
In the book Greenwashing: Foundations and Emerging Research on Corporate Sustainability and Deceptive Communication by Agostino Vollero, the major issues facing green marketing is inconsistent messaging as well as the misinterpretation of responsibility.
The book explores how marketing from major brands has focused more on dominating environmentally-friendly discourse than providing practical solutions. The desire to stand out in a competitive market often overshadows the fundamental principles of eco-friendliness: ensuring a livable future for everyone.
Greenwashing is the natural result of businesses more concerned with maintaining a green image instead of putting their image into practice. As such, many customers today are growing increasingly suspicious of green marketing.
The Problems Faced By Eco-Friendly Marketing Today
Trust is earned. Nowhere is this saying more clear than eco-friendly marketing, an approach that’s starting to earn frustration due to vague messaging and marketing fatigue.
Customers Are Becoming Wary Of Green Marketing
The only way to address a problem is to face it outright. Customers today have grown wary of green marketing due to dishonest marketing campaigns, a problem that’s sadly only getting worse.
According to a 2021 European report, 42% of green claims were found to be exaggerated or outright false. Another 2023 report by Kantar found 52% of customers claiming they encountered false or misleading information about green initiatives by brands.
People Still Want Green Alternatives
With greenwashing a growing problem in a competitive industry, more customers today are looking for alternatives to supplement their lifestyle. According to a study by Statista, Western customers have become increasingly concerned about sustainability compared to years prior. France and Italy showed the biggest growth, followed closely by the United States.
The question isn’t whether or not customers want to put their dollar toward compostable, recyclable, and sustainable materials. The question is how you can ensure you’re doing your part to promote your brand to the right people with an honest message.
Eco-Friendly Marketing Needs To Remain Innovative
Eco-friendly marketing won’t connect with people by doing things ‘the way they’ve always been done’. From creatively branding a coffee shop to using different language around sustainability, innovation is how you stand out from the crowd.
We’ll tackle this conundrum with a few first-hand tips we’ve learned putting our sustainable philosophy into practice.
11 Eco-Friendly Marketing Tips To Build Trust In Your Brand
What are some of the most dependable ways to earn a customer’s trust? According to a PwC survey, responding to customer concerns and providing a reliable experience are some of the biggest deciding factors.
Sustainability is a pervasive customer concern, so let’s take a look at how you can respond to them sincerely and consistently.
1. Prioritize Show Over Tell
Remember when I mentioned greenwashing often crops up from an inconsistency in actions and words? There’s a saying that goes: show, don’t tell. An easy way to avoid mistrust from customers is to prioritize showing your green values throughout your marketing.
For example, a coffee shop that wants to show its commitment to deforestation could display their certification front and center in marketing materials. While a little bit of telling is fine in an informative blog post or video, the certificate is visual proof the shop is putting their money where their mouth is.
Compare this approach to a shop that simply tells customers they’re eco-friendly, but doesn’t back it up with any evidence of third-party oversight. As another saying goes: talk is cheap!
2. Get Repetitive With Eco-Friendly Awards, Accolades, Or Certifications
Speaking of certifications! An important aspect of green marketing is not being shy about any sustainable awards, accolades, or certifications your business gained.
Customers are flooded with marketing messages day in and day out, so don’t be afraid to get a little repetitive with your green messaging. Consider putting achievements on your packaging as well as your website and blog. Bring up your recent accolades in your email newsletter and your text alerts.
Never assume someone is familiar with the ins and outs of your sustainable business growth. Likewise, it never hurts to share a friendly reminder with those who are.
3. Celebrate The Green Developments Of Other Businesses
A common mistake in a green marketing strategy is focusing too much on your own business development and overlooking the growth of your peers. Sustainability is not a marketing tool: it’s a compassionate philosophy toward nurturing a better world.
When you uplift and support other businesses or organizations, you showcase you’re not interested in green marketing as just a way to make money. Of course, you can still multi-task and make sure to support businesses that line up with your own offerings for a win-win solution.
For example, a brewery with gluten-free beer options pairs nicely with a gluten-free meal delivery service that won an award for reducing carbon emissions during transportation. A coffee shop that sources compostable coffee cups could celebrate a local farmer’s market that only uses organic farming methods.
We have an example of our own! Your Brand Cafe not only provides businesses with recyclable and sustainable supplies, we also donate a portion of our sales to clean water projects. When it comes to green marketing, everyone should win.
4. Eco-Friendly Branding Works Best On Eco-Friendly Products
Say it again: show, don’t tell! If you want customers to believe in your eco-friendly messaging, use eco-friendly products that get the message across.
At Your Brand Cafe, we provide businesses with all kinds of solutions for reducing their carbon footprint and ensuring they can actually recycle their supplies. Our line-up includes recyclable coffee sleeves and carryout bags.
However, another way to go easier on the environment is to provide customers with items that last a long time, such as reusable stadium cups or high-quality cotton t-shirts. One way or another, it’s never been easier to double down on what makes your store green.
5. Content Marketing Is Key For Nurturing Trust
Content marketing remains one of the most reliable ways to help customers feel connected to your business. Statista revealed nearly 60% of marketing and media leaders stated content marketing is key to retain and expand customer bases.
One of the reasons content marketing continues to hit high notes with buyers is how it gradually and unobtrusively shares your business values. With marketing fatigue at an all-time high, customers enjoy gradually learning about your business on their own time.
From informative videos to free email newsletters, content marketing’s foundation of trust and green marketing’s need for more trust go hand-in-hand.
6. The More Specific Your Green Marketing, The Better
Green marketing phrases can sometimes start blurring together with similar platitudes like ‘social responsibility’ and ‘eco-friendliness’. The goal isn’t to avoid these words – if they’re accurate, they’re accurate! – but try to get as specific as possible so people fully understand what you offer.
While anyone can simply state their product is sustainable, it’s another thing to break down how your product makes the world a better place. For example, we’ve gone into great detail about the differences of compostable plastic and PET plastic cups. PET plastic cups integrate seamlessly into recycling systems to be reused, while compostable plastic needs composting facilities.
We offer two alternatives so you can choose a supply that lines up precisely with your eco-friendly goals. Our store offers RPET cups made out of post consumer recycled plastic, a perfect option for any brand who wants to emphasize reusing old materials.
We also offer a PLA cup, a green alternative to plastic made out of sugarcane or cornstarch. All options come with our bold, beautiful customization and flexible ordering options.
Ask yourself how you can break down complex sustainability topics into accessible language or bite-sized content. Customers will definitely appreciate the effort.
7. Encouraging Social Behavior Helps Boost Action
Pay it forward! According to a 2015 study by Science Direct, letting people know others are making eco-friendly shopping decisions increased the chances of a sustainable purchase by 65%.
As such, put a critical eye on your green marketing strategy and how well it encourages your customers to take social action. You could create more social media posts inspiring people to leave comments or share the post where their friends could see. You could also ask them to share their recent eco-friendly purchase with their co-workers or family.
There’s no right or wrong way to inspire people to talk about their eco-friendly purchases – just better or worse. Since so much of sustainability is rooted in a personal sense of right and wrong, people are usually happy to spread the word and just need a helpful reminder.
8. Take Accountability When You Make Mistakes
This part of the list doesn’t sound fun, but it’s crucial for creating a sincere green marketing strategy. When you make a mistake – not if – you need to take accountability and own up to your mistakes.
That mistake could take on many forms, such as forgetting to mention an important detail about a green certificate or not realizing your products were not fully compostable. According to a recent study, 25% of customers have a zero-tolerance policy for businesses that knowingly engage in environmentally harmful behavior.
When you’re up front about any mistakes you’ve made as a business, you make it clear that you’re not trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. A sincere public statement and consistent brand messaging can go a long way to show customers how much you care.
9. Ask Customers What They Want To See From Your Brand
Sometimes you have no idea what would make customers happy until you ask them. Consider reaching out to your current customer base with a survey and see what they think you could improve in your green marketing strategy.
This survey can come with extra incentive, such as a discount on an item in your store or first dibs on a new product launch. Make sure your questions are simple to avoid potential bias and to encourage them to share their thoughts honestly. Even better, offer two versions of a survey – one with yes or no questions and one with a box for them to type in extra thoughts.
10. Make Up The Cost Difference With Benefits
Sometimes you have to change your financial model to accommodate your green marketing strategy. According to Statista, the biggest barrier to customers switching to a greener lifestyle is the cost. Whether it’s spending a little more for organic produce or increasing your spending on sustainable equipment, a potential side-effect is customers leaving for low-cost alternatives.
As such, a proactive green marketing strategy should focus on making up the cost difference with benefits. Everything from your copywriting to your content writing should make it clear as to the impact a customer’s purchase makes on the world around them. Follow the tips from the previous sections of this list to make customers eager, not hesitant, to buy.
This tip could look like directly addressing a cost increase in your emails newsletter, blog, or social media. It can also look like plainly stating your commitment to your green values in your website’s About Page or in a press release.
11. Collaborate With Green Brands That Share Your Values
Your business collaborations do double work. Not only can other businesses help you grow, but you can also connect with like-minded customers through another brand’s customer base.
Your Brand Cafe is a one-stop shop for eco-friendly products for cafes, breweries, pizza shops, and more. We’re proud to offer a flexible line-up of cafe accessories, merch lines, and customizable packaging options to help businesses carve out an identity in a competitive landscape.
We also provide consultation to help upgrade or change your current supplies, such as helping you scale ordering options or managing limited storage space. A portion of all our sales also go to clean water initiatives that ensure marginalized populations have regular access to a safe water supply.
Stock Up On Recyclable, Sustainable Products For Your Business
There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ green marketing strategy. There will always be room for improvement when it comes to putting your money where your mouth is – that’s the beauty of a sustainable philosophy. There is always a kinder and smarter way to do business.
We’re always looking to continue upping our game when it comes to providing businesses with compostable and recyclable materials. Our line-up contains a diverse range of cups, bowls, boxes, lids, sleeves, and more to help you reduce waste and connect with eco-friendly customers.
We want you to be happy with making the switch, so we offer free sample packs so you can see what your branding looks like in person. Contact us today to put together a custom pack and create a green business customers can believe in.
Ashe Samuels
Ashley (Ashe) Samuels is a business writer and marketing strategist in the food and beverage industry with a focus in coffee, tea, and alcohol. She has nearly a decade of experience helping brands launch products, build awareness, and craft marketing strategies. She's passionate about sustainability, wellness, and leaving the coffee industry a better place.