Remember on two previous posts we talked about sustainable marketing  and how your stationery was killing the environment? And by the way costing you more money too!

In the most recent post we talked about the way stationery is printed affects the environment. Now I want to talk about how you can market more sustainably and save money at the same time! Hurrah!

What Can You Do For Marketing Sustainability?

There are a number of routes to sustainability success. These include the following:

• Using PDF for brochures, reports and pitches
• Using webinars to impart information to clients, suppliers, teams, prospects ...
• Making more use of integrated (and targeted) email
• Using cleaned mailing lists
• Cleaning in-house mailing lists
• Using environmentally friendly materials, such as papers and ink
• Use e-billing for accounts to clients
• Encourage clients with environmentally friendly solutions
• Using vendors that use sustainable methods to produce artwork, printed material, web sites, video and advertising.

Any of these not only use more sustainable marketing they also save money too.

Let me use a couple of them to explain how they help sustainable marketing.

Using PDF For Brochures

Using PDF format for brochures means clients can quickly change their brochure to reflect what they’ve discussed with their prospect. The prospect gets it via email as soon as it’s completed and drives the whole buying process much more quickly.

Orienting the brochure to the prospect gives the relationship more impact. The prospect sees the agency understands their unique situation. It’s also easier for the prospect to send the brochure around their organisation for discussion.

There are other ways to get even more buy in with a PDF brochure but I’ll leave that to your imagination.

And the net result a massive saving in printing costs and much more flexibility in use.

e-Billing Is Better

In November 2006 British Telecom moved to e-billing for its customers. 160,000 customers decided to get rid of paper bills. That meant:

1. an obvious reduction in the special paper, ink, chemicals and power used to produce the bills
2. removing the weight of the bills themselves from post offices and Royal Mail transport costs across the country.

Other institutions, such as The Halifax, have also moved to e-statements. And of course Internet banks such as Egg and Smile already had the e-statements in place for their customers.

Agencies can join in the e-billing opportunity by creating invoices and orders electronically. Thus cutting out print, ink and paper costs.

All my own consultancy and coaching bills are produced and sent electronically. It makes life easier for everyone and saves a fortune in special paper and filing.

In summary it takes investigation to discover different ways of operating that mean that marketing is made more sustainable.

As always, the bottom line remains important. And it’s only by ensuring that the benefits of moving to a sustainable way of marketing are highlighted and shown to agency and client staff will they be taken up with any enthusiasm.