The habits of environmental consciousness in our home lives—separating recyclables, conserving water and purchasing and using energy-efficient lightbulbs, appliances and windows—have become second nature to us. Anything we can do as individuals in our day-to-day activities to help conserve, protect and maintain our environment is now embraced by society.
But what happens to this “green” state of mind as business professionals? Many companies in the North Bay have made gains toward becoming more eco-friendly and are very conscious of their carbon footprints; they’ve established policies and changed corporate procedures in an effort to reduce their negative impact on the environment. While companies have made some progress toward becoming more environmentally conscious, most still aren’t quite sure what they can do to achieve their greener vision across every department and business function.
There’s no simple solution for implementing corporate green initiatives. Cultural changes, corporate mandates and changes in company policy and procedure can require vast resources. But there’s something companies can do to begin affecting change today. Start with one department that can have a large impact both on the success of your business and the environment—and that can make the greatest difference in the shortest amount of time: the marketing department. The marketing department has the ability, even with reduced budgets and limited resources, to reduce waste and increase efficiency in its day-to-day operations.
Marketers can significantly support their company’s green initiatives by following metric-driven marketing practices. The concept isn’t new: Control waste and improve marketing effectiveness by becoming more efficient in targeted delivery of your message. But, like going green, achieving this level of effectiveness isn’t easy. It’s a commitment and requires an investment in best practices, processes and technology. Today’s marketing technologies, such as integrated marketing platforms with the ability to analyze customer and prospect data and to design and execute campaigns with pinpoint precision, enable marketers to achieve personalized, relevant communications with customers and to avoid wasteful initiatives.
This ability to analyze customer and prospect data in such a way is known as “marketing automation.” While this concept is relatively new to the mainstream, metric-driven marketing practices are becoming more easily available with the progression of technology. Technology tools like TFC’s MarketingPlatform help marketers increase the effectiveness of their programs and, at the same time, become green by minimizing the volume of printed and stored material and the destruction of obsolete collateral. Leveraging these highly effective marketing practices lets marketers think strategically about program and bottom-line benefits, while applying subsequent benefits to the greater good of the environment.
Tips to Help Marketers Go Green
Following are some of the tips you can find in TFC’s “Ten Tips to Help Marketers Go Green.”
Keep lists clean. Undeliverable mail is a huge waste that’s easily avoided. Keep lists maintained with NCOA (National Change of Address) and ZIP code correction routines. In addition, run your database against mail preference files. This will help you target better and waste less.
Review formats. Take time to review your direct mail and printed marketing pieces. Alternative sizes and formats not only save paper, but can also save postage.
Drive response to your website. Using a personalized URL as the primary response mechanism for your direct marketing campaigns will reduce return form and return envelope production. The net effect is reduced paper use, reduced costs and faster service to your customer.
Question general mass mailings. Personalized marketing messaging will increase response rates more than generalized pieces relying on volume. Personalized messaging also eliminates “mailbox clutter” and reduces waste.
Know your customers. Maintaining customer profiles that include preferred channel interaction lets you communicate with your prospects and customers in the manner they prefer. This saves time, money and eliminates waste.
Stop paper workflow. Proof and edit using PDF files or other proofing software to eliminate hard copy proofing whenever possible.
Purchase recycled paper. Use a paper stock that contains partial recycled paper. At least some percentage of recycled paper is better than none. Most paper companies offer some percentage of cotton fibers in their paper.
Be smart about packaging. Product packaging provides great opportunities to reduce your company’s impact on our environment. Plastic clamshell packaging can be replaced with paper board and PET plastic (PVC plastic isn’t as recyclable). Package sizes are important as well. Right-fit products in boxes can reduce pallet counts and, ultimately, truckloads, which reduces fuel use and exhaust emissions.
These tips not only help reduce the amount of waste in our environment, but also help marketers with more efficient ways to do their job. Going green isn’t easy; it’s a commitment. Position and execute your marketing communications responsibly and reduce waste now.
Adam Hill is sales and marketing coordinator for TFC Inc. For more green marketing ideas, contact him at ahill@tfcinc.com. For your copy of TFC’s Top Ten Tips, please visit http://www.tfcinc.com/GoGreen/.
