Since sustainability is a vital issue for many green roofing business owners, many companies are looking to explore sustainable practices at this time. When you look into the urban landscape, green roofs are transforming the landscape of today. They also give the home and construction industry as a whole a much-needed breath of fresh air.
Are you looking to grow your green roofing business? One useful approach is to utilize sustainable marketing to achieve this.
What is Sustainable Marketing?
Sustainable marketing succeeds in its tactics both as a product to buy into and as a product marketing strategy. The idea of responsibility is now a shared value, with many companies challenging potential customers to put their money where their values lie. If you have ever spent just a bit more on a product simply because you knew it was entirely recycled or was locally sourced, you have participated in sustainable marketing.
While the public becomes more fascinated in purchasing products and services that are more beneficial for the planet than previous incarnations, some factors prevent them from doing so. Studies show that these factors include lack of information, inconsistencies in trust, and confusion. However, the great news is that there are five ways to turn those factors around and grow your business with these sustainable marketing tips.
Pinpoint Your Marketing
It’s important to remember that sustainability does not mean the same thing to everyone in different parts of the country and the world. For example, in North America, sustainability is linked in meaning to recycling, while in Europe and the Middle East, the definition harkens to fair pricing. In other parts of the world, sustainability is linked to the environment and alternative sources of energy.
This difference in wording brings us to the issue of making sure you specify what sustainability means to your audience and you. Make sure that you localize what your audience’s local perception of where sustainability might fit, and tailor your messaging to that.
What works the best for you as a brand will, of course, vary. A great term in the green industry is “conscious,” which is a label that brands like clothing company H&M use for their line of sustainable clothing. Words like this, along with “eco,” conveys a feeling of environmental focus, but are broad enough to suit whatever needs they need to mold.
Flaunt Your Certification
Customers indeed continue to shy away from eco-friendly companies due to the extra costs on their end. However, market research has also concluded that when there’s a lack of sound information and trust, it also makes it easy for consumers to skip brands over. People don’t have the time to research themselves, and they’re looking for confidence in their consumer experience.
Is your roofing business Greencircle Certified? Have you participated in GAF’s Certifed Green Roofer Program™? Certifications are vital to share with your audience on your website and social media channels so you may share what they mean and inspire trust for the future.
Strive for Transparency
Consumers who are going to be interested in your brand’s ideals are also compelled by transparency in a company. This transparency might include materials you use in your roofing business, the number of recycled materials you utilize, and where your building materials are sourced from.
Though indeed not a roofing company, one fashion company offers a comprehensive breakdown of their supply chain that any brand can take notes from. Clothing brand Everlane breaks down each item for sale on its website by its cost composition while linking them to images and a description of the factory. In this way, the company truly lives up to its “radical transparency” tagline.
Companies can now get their companies listed in apps for consumers to let them know information not provided on labels. Apps like SmartLabel reveal product sources, third-party certifications, social compliance, sustainability programs, and sourcing practices.
Humanize Your Work Setting
Transparency feels real to consumers when they get a peek behind-the-scenes of your company. This view can be of how you get the job done, the people you work with, and environments where work has occurred. While it’s great to offer live demonstrations at trade shows, videos are great for daily viewing.
Research shows that giving consumers a peek behind the company offers many benefits. This peek has the ability to increase customer satisfaction, trust, and ultimately, lead to more sales with prospective clients. In addition, trust is built when a human face is put onto a product that individuals spend their hard-earned money on.
Communicate Specific Benefits of Sustainability
You must help your customers understand the incredible benefits of green roofing by tying the profits into their everyday lives. You might explain the energy savings on a green roof can translate into significant savings for customers in the long run despite the short term cost increase.
Building your marketing plan around how you communicate the benefits will help you educate consumers while increasing your revenues. One of the tactics we use is talking about the environmental impact on our social media marketing campaigns.
Roofing contractors can also express the benefits of sustainable materials in concrete terms, such as the amount of waste avoided or the number of carbon emissions saved. Another way you might demonstrate positive features of sustainability is to showcase new products created from recycled materials.
Overview
All of these tips could help your green roofing business achieve more value through sustainable marketing initiatives. Think about partnering with departments beyond marketing and sustainability, including sourcing, operations, and new product development teams, while also including outside partners such as certification agencies. Building trust with your clients that you’re doing everything you can for the environment will educate them on your sustainability efforts.