Go green with all of your marketing and advertising

Choosing ecologically friendly promotional products is a fantastic and easy way to start being green with your advertising and marketing. Here are some more ideas on how to keep the momentum going after your order arrives.

1. Choose recycled papers
Start with your next brochure or flyer, and when it's time to reprint your corporate identity kit (business cards, stationery, envelopes, etc.), make the switch for those as well. If you're doing it yourself, your local paper store should have several recycled paper choices. Or, if you're using an agency or design service, they'll likely have the inside scoop on all sorts of wonderful papers available through specialty suppliers.

2. Ask your printer about earth-friendly inks
More and more commercial printers are are switching from petroleum-based inks to soybean-based inks. Be sure to ask your printer if they've made the switch, or at least provide that option. Soy ink is not only itself more environmentally friendly, but it is also easier to recycle paper that has been printed with soy inks.

3. Refill your ink and toner cartridges instead of buying new
Although this tip is applicable to all types of general office printing, you are likely printing all sorts of things on your office printers that you will use to directly or indirectly promote your business. Letters to potential customers, to-go menus, and even invoices with your company logo on it all count towards promoting your business. You can give these a green touch by making sure your old cartridges stay out of the landfills for awhile.

4. Bump up electronic media in your marketing mix
There's no rocket science to this one. If it's appropriate for your market, utilizing more online and electronic media and strategies not only makes marketing sense, but it makes ecological sense. Simply switching your newsletter from print to email not only results in the obvious reduction of paper and ink usage, but eliminates the need for delivery vehicles to distribute your materials. This disassociates your newsletter from the consumption of petroleum products by delivery vehicles, which include mail trucks, freight trucks, and cargo jets, as well as the resulting emissions.

5. Host your web site and run your email services with a green ISP or web host
There are a number of web hosts and ISPs out there that are making many of the same efforts you may be considering in order to reduce the environmental impact of their business and their industry. In addition to reducing electricity by turning off unused office equipment and lights, many also purchase renewable energy credits which is the virtual equivalent of purchasing energy from renewable resources such as solar and wind. Ask your host or ISP what efforts they are making to reduce their environmental impact, and include environmental efforts when searching for a new host or ISP. Try a Google search for "green hosting."

Don't be bashful about telling your customers that you make efforts to reduce your business's environmental impact. Not only are many consumers already expecting it from you, you might just inspire them to do the same.