You’ve Started Your Environmentally-Friendly Business. Now it’s Time to Increase Sales! Here are 5 Sustainable Ways.
So you’ve started an environmentally-friendly business. Congratulations! But beyond your immediate social circle, how are you going to find customers who care equally about the environment and will support your business with a purchase? As eco-friendly businesses operate in quite the niche market, increasing sales for your business might be a bit tricky.
To help you along, here are five actionable tips and tricks you can use to help boost your revenue.
1. Market on Social Media
A big qualm about local advertising methods—handing out fliers or coupons, paying for space in the local newspaper, or renting billboard space—is that these physical advertising mediums inevitably produce waste.
Instead, focus on your social media campaign, which will draw in customers without wasting paper and ink.
And of course, marketing on social media is just a smart idea in general for eco-friendly businesses: younger generations like Millennials and Gen Zers are more environmentally conscious than their predecessors, and just so happen to be the main demographic of many social media platforms. The more eco-friendly people you can reach, the more will be attracted to your business!
Be sure to boost your exposure by using keywords such as “eco-friendly,” “green consumerism,” and “reuseable” in your posts and hashtags.
2. Use Reusable Packaging – and Brand It
Our next tip is to use versatile packaging that customers can take home and use in other situations. Beyond simple reusable bags, this could also mean things like reusable cups or handkerchief wrappings for products – whatever suits your business model the most. These help your business convey its eco-friendly message, and improve your brand authenticity in the eyes of customers.
On this reusable packaging, print your company name and logo. Whenever customers use the bags and other goodies in other situations, they’ll immediately be reminded of your company, and might think to come again. Plus, if they’re out and about town with a unique reusable product, they might draw the eyes and questioning inquiries from other potential customers!
3. Start a Referral Campaign
Suppose you’ve met the natural limits of your advertising campaign. In that case, you can find and reach more elusive customers by starting a referral campaign, which is a form of grassroots advertising. This relies on your current loyal customers to persuade their friends, family, and network to purchase.
In a referral campaign, you offer small rewards—maybe a 10% discount or a free goodie—to existing customers and any new friends they bring to your business.
After all, your current customers know their friends’ and families’ needs and preferences in great detail, and will know better than any sales rep who might be interested in what you have to offer. Once their friend has their foot in the door, you can reach out to them and nurture them into a loyal customer.
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4. Qualify Your Leads
On a more logistical note, one way you can increase your sales is by prioritizing your inbound potential customers and prioritizing the ones who are most likely to make a purchase. This process is called lead qualification.
Not all potential customers are created equal – one who follows you on social media, for example, is a bit more likely to make a purchase than someone who’s never heard of your business in the first place. Though any potential customer is called a lead, one who you’ve determined is qualified to make a purchase is called a prospect. Finally, if they show interest in your business, they’re called an opportunity.
Naturally, then, opportunities are more likely to purchase than prospects, who are more likely to purchase than regular ol’ leads. That’s why it’s important to map out the stages of your sales funnel, and identify at what point a lead is qualified into a prospect, and at what point a prospect becomes a sales opportunity.
With this knowledge on hand, you and your employees prioritize potential customers, and close a few sure sales before trying your luck on more tenuous leads.
5. Partner With Other Eco-Friendly Groups
Our last tip is to partner with other eco-friendly companies and share customers and advice. Just like you, other eco-friendly companies might be looking for more potential customers of their own. By partnering together, you can each widen your net and nudge customers in the other’s direction.
One way to do this is by hosting guest posts or interviews on social media, which will expose you to customers from the other’s follower base. Alternatively, you might choose to partner with an eco-friendly company that offers a product or service complementary to your own.
For example, if you sell furniture sourced from sustainable foresting, you could partner with your local recycling and hauling service, and refer their services to any customers who need to get rid of their old furniture when they buy your own. In return, the hauling service would recommend you to any of their own customers who are recycling furniture and need a replacement.
Usually, companies will be happy to agree to a quid pro quo such as this. And by introducing your customers to other eco-friendly products and services, they’ll be one step closer to leading an environmentally friendly, zero-waste life.
Conclusion
Increasing sales figures can be difficult for any company – and even more so for green companies that often need to charge higher prices for quality goods. But with these five tips, you’ll be sure to find and convert more customers than ever before. All that’s left is to sit back and watch your business bloom!
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Warm regards,
P.S. Don’t forget to see what you can do to help slow climate change – click here (it’s free)
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