The Ultimate List Of Tips For Branding Green Businesses

Are you interested in starting an eco-friendly business? That is a smart move, because consumers are more concerned about the environment than ever. One recent poll found that 71% of Americans consider the environment when making a purchase. You are going to need to know how to brand your green business well.

How Green Businesses Can Grow their Brand

Whether you are a small business, a startup or an international corporation, sustainable branding is everything. If you live in a community where consumers are environmentally conscious, it is even more important. However, you need to get the message out about your green business.

It tells your customers who you are, what you represent, and, many cases, that you exist. Branding a green business involves a multitude of processes, from advertising and PR to customer service and reputation building.

Just our ultimate list of branding tips and ideas to help you build and develop your brand to expand your customer base, increase revenue, and grow your green business. Seventh Generation, Pantagia and a number of other brands have followed this message to distinguish themselves as green leaders in their industries.

Tell a Story

Green marketing, PR, and advertising all come down to telling a story. When it comes to your branding a business with a green mission, your brand’s story should come across – you want consumers to know who you are. Make clear your company name, logo, slogan, and messages convey this. You also want this story to make it obvious what you do – if you want people to buy your products or hire your services, they need to know what they are!

Don’t Overcomplicate Your Branding

Building a green brand is not easy. You need to make sure customers know why your brand has a sustainable message that it lives by.

In the context of all the tricks and techniques used by brands these days, it can be easy to go too far. Don’t fall into the trap of overcomplicating your message. Avoid overly long or complex slogans, or inaccessibly language and devices like wordplay. Keep things simple and powerful.

Always Come Back To The Customer

Continually keep your customer in mind when developing and implementing branding elements. Don’t get caught up in tactics and designs for their own sake if they are not suitable to your target market. At the beginning of your branding process, sit down and identify who your ideal customer is, and let this lead your branding strategy.

Be Targeted

When identifying your target customer, keep in mind that you do not need to appeal to everyone as a brand. With a few exceptions, most brands target a section of the population, and in many cases a very specific niche. Targeted, focused branding which appeals to a particular niche is, in general, much more effective than broad brush strokes which try to appeal to everyone.

Built Relationships

Building strong relationships with your customers is one of the best things you can do to grow your business and send a green message. Loyal customers are invaluable and support your business goals in so many ways. Through your branding, engage with your customers on a personal level: be friendly, be warm and show your brand’s personality (whatever that may be).

Be Interactive

Another effective way to build relationships with your customers is through interactions. This engages your customer base and makes them feel a part of your brand, rather than merely a spectator to it. Interactive marketing tactics can include polls, surveys, competitions, and much more. Trade shows also represent great opportunities for engaging with your customers in interactive ways: a good trade show builder will help you create a booth with interactive design features.

Ask For Feedback

Also in the category of building relationships with your customers and giving them a stake in your brand is asking them for feedback on your product or services. There are a variety of ways to do this – feedback forms, comment sections on your website, customer surveys, to name just a few. Furthermore, listening feedback is a great way to improve the way you do business!

Identify Your “Why”

Effective branding is all about communication who you are as a brand, and to do this you need to know who you are. In order to do this, identify your “why”: why do you do what you do? What problem are you trying to solve for your customers? Once you have identified this, make it a central part of your branding.

Do Market Research

Before releasing new branding elements, whether a logo, slogan or anything else, do some market research to see how consumers react to it. This doesn’t necessarily mean full scale testing with a professional firm, focus groups and so on. If you are a small business or startup you can simply reach out to previous customers, you network or even family and friends and ask for their feedback.

Conduct Competitor Analysis

Just because you are launching or re-launching a brand doesn’t mean you need to reinvent the wheel. Look at what your competitors are doing – particularly the successful ones – to work out what is working for them and what elements you may be apply to apply. You can also use this process to identify mistakes and weakness which are harming other brands, in order to avoid them.

Final Thoughts

Branding your green business may seem intimidating at first, but there are all kinds of steps to take to help your business thrive. Great branding and marketing are around the corner when you implement these tips.