How To Advertise Your Green Business
Like all entrepreneurs, those in the eco-sphere need to spend their ad dollars wisely. While big advertisers can afford to make big mistakes, small advertisers can only afford to make small ones. Green entrepreneurs can ruin their business without a carefully thought out campaign.
And so, as I mentioned in this post, Recession Proof Your Green Business, before you even consider embarking on an advertising campaign, you need:
….to ensure that you have a strong unique positioning and are promoting that differentiation at every opportunity.
This first step, which many small businesses skip, is critical to launching an effective advertising campaign,and is important for long term success as well. A few other tips for that are particularly important for ecopreneurs were noted in an recent article in Newsday, Small business: Avoiding advertising mistakes
1. Selling features, rather than benefits: You need to tell your target audience how your product or service will make life easier. “No one cares that the lawn mower you are advertising is 6 horsepower,” Preiser says. “They do care that the more powerful engine cuts mowing time by 40 percent.”
2. Undercapitalizing your ad campaign: Set a realistic ad budget. If you’re expecting to pay for your advertising campaign with the returns from sales generated by that campaign, you are doomed to fail, Preiser notes.
3. Trying to say too much in one ad: This is especially a problem for small businesses, because they often use small-space advertising, explains Larry Oakner, senior brand director at CoreBrand, a brand consulting firm in Manhattan. Instead, try promoting different products or services in different ads.
Wherever you decide to advertise, make sure you promote your green benefit, not only as opposed to non-green brands, but also compared to the benefits offered by your direct competition in the eco sphere. Start thinking like a traditional, non-green business early and watch your company grow as eco-brands become mainstream
Image Credit: Frankieroberto at Flickr under Creative Commons License
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Thanks for the information. I think your right on when it comes to eco / green product development. If we stick to low cost advertising and manage our advertising creatively, the we will see greater sales later when Green becomes the way of the future!