Going green will save you some long green (and the planet, too)

No question, everyone seems to be climbing on the “green” bandwagon …and mostly for the very best of altruistic reasons:  to leave the planet a bit better – or at least no worse – than they found it.  In fact, we blogged about this awhile back.

At least in marketing, though, there’s another great reason for greenness:  it’s actually cheaper! …and who’s opposed to saving money in the current economy?  The offline-to-online shift is underway already (and well documented), but the twin reasons of green power and bang for the buck are only going to add fuel to the fire.

Consider… you can replace:

• Direct mail with email – which is vastly cheaper, since email’s cost is barely greater than zero
• Tradeshows with webinars and video demos – the cost of these web-based vehicles is much less than developing and executing a tradeshow presence …and since no one gets on a plane, it introduces no CO2 into the stratosphere
• Print advertising with pay per click (PPC) – you may chafe a bit at $50 or so per click, but each one of those is an interested lead;  whereas you can very easily blow $20K on a print ad campaign that may end up being seen by no one with a current need for your widget
• Stacks of hard-copy literature with self-service .pdfs on your website – see “email” above, re’ comparing virtually nothing to something

And all of the above substitutions earn your company green points as well;  talk about a win/win!  Oh, and let’s not forget that your results/ROI trackability also goes up by an order of magnitude or so, too.

Your prospects may thank you, too
Considering just the direct mail / email case, Chris Lovejoy points out in his piece “Going Green: Moving Printed Newsletters, Statements, and Promotions to Email” that your B2B prospects may be much happier with email, too:

• they can save your electronic pieces for easy reference and retrieve them later, without cluttering their offices in the process
• they can easily share your information electronically with a colleague or friend
• they can immediately respond to offers or seek further information with simple clicks, without having to wait through another mail cycle
• they’re likely to see a more customized, personally-relevant piece

For those making the change, Chris’ article also includes a helpful step-by-step guide for shifting from print mail to email.

Summing up:  you can save money, earn green points and have a happier prospect by speeding up your move from offline to online marketing;  so what’s not to like?!  Your Web marketing consultants will be happy to help you work through any kinks.