Eco Marketing 101- Include Your URL!

This should really be titled “21^st Century Marketing 101”, since this seems an obvious point, include your web site URL on all of your marketing communications vehicles including package, flyers, outdoor (billboards) and, of course, print ads.

Yet, a survey found that 70% of Print Campaigns Ignore the Multi-Channel Reality, and do not include a URL. This seems counter-intuitive in this age of digital reach. It ignores the reality that between 50 and 70% of consumers, depending on the category, research products online. This is true even of ordinary grocery items which half of consumers than go on to purchase OFFLINE.

So even if your product is one which consumers rarely purchase online, the need for access to your web site remains.

While this is surely important for traditional businesses, it’s even more true for green businesses. Why? Because as the green market has reached a Tipping point and consumers are bombarded by green claims – they’re looking for validation of your eco friendly claims.

There’s only so much you can out in a print ad or on your package. With more and more products claiming certification, the value of that certification is in question. Not everyone, particularly newer green consumers, is familiar with how rigorous the requirements are for, say, the Forest Stewardship Council certification. A link to their site, and a discussion of why it’s better than say, an internal company certification is a powerful way to differentiate your product.

Eco friendly products too, often have a more complicated story to tell. While traditionally products are marketed to meet a consumer need. That is, all of the marketing materials focus around the way (benefits of) the product in question helps the consumer perform a certain task (meets their needs).

Green products frequently also need to define how the product helps the planet…which now, with the proliferation of green products is…get this… often the secondary story. There simply isn’t enough room or the right format in which to describe all of these product benefits. Yes, in a print ad, traditionally used for long involved stories, there is quite a bit of room, but, a well designed web page with alternate paths to obtain specific information is makes it much easier for the consumer to locate the information most important to him…or more frequently her.

So, it’s important both to always include your URL on all of your marketing materials and…ensure that when consumers find your site, navigation is both easy and designed so that consumers can easily find answers to the questions they want to ask.

That, of course is another story or perhaps another post…designing a web site that quickly allows consumers to navigate to the questions THEY have about green products…not the ones you think they should ask.