Happy Earth Day everyone! I love celebrating a day that honors the place where we all live. In 2012 I celebrated Earth Day by sharing 12 ways to go green at work. My go green tips even got me featured on NBC San Diego. This year I attended the San Diego Earth Fair at one of my favorite places in San Diego, Balboa Park. The idea to write this post came to me while I was at the event.

There were tons of vendors and businesses showcasing their goods and services in hopes to attract new customers. Some vendors did a great job capturing the essence of creating a more sustainable environment on earth day and others were still producing a lot of waste with their marketing and promotional campaigns. My goal for this post is that everyone reading this will learn at least 1 go green tip they can implement into their marketing strategy which at the same time will help us keep our earth a wonderful place to live.

1. Go green promotional items– Many businesses have gotten really smart with their swag and rather than giving away useless tchotchke items they are giving out products that are actually useful. I recommend that if you are going to spend money on giveaways, spend a little extra on things that will be used over and over again so that your logo and business is constantly getting exposure. These items include reusable shopping bags and refillable water bottles. Not only are these things that will last, but they also encourage people to go green.

2.  Accept digital coupons– Rather than creating paper waste by requiring people to print out coupons for your business, accept digital coupons. You can do this by emailing coupons or having a link to them on your website, then encouraging people to redeem the discount you’re offering simply by showing it on their phone. More and more people are getting smart phones and at the same time, less people are buying printers. The easiest way to implement a digital coupon is to have a coupon code associated with the deal. This way when a customer comes in to redeem the digital coupon, all the employee has to do is type in the code. Having a code also helps cut down on any confusion as to what  “Foursquare Check in deal” is or a “Yelp Deal” is when the customer is redeeming your offer.

3. Make print material small and have a call to action– I was sad to see how much print materials was being passed out at the Earth Fair this year at Balboa Park. Brochures and flyers often go straight to the trash. Sometimes printing marketing material is still necessary. You may be an event and want to give out coupons or a discount code for your website, flyers to an upcoming event or business cards so people can connect with you again. My recommendations for cutting down on paper waste with print marketing material is to make it small and give an incentive to someone receiving the print material to connect with you online. Make sure to include your website and your social networks on all print material. When connecting people to your social media, include the icon of the network and the actual URL of your sites so people don’t have to search for your page. You can also encourage people to connect with you to receive a discount or promotion. Think, call to action to get your customers online every time you create a piece of print material.

4. Create digital content– Every time you create digital content, you reduce the need for print material. Have downloadable material on your website such as brochures, white papers and e-books. Even blog posts! Most digital content will take time to create but cost little to no money to produce (versus expensive printing costs) so not only are you helping the environment, you’re also saving money!

5. Create a photo op– The old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words works for this tip. People love looking at photos. They’re a digital souvenir so if you’re able to create a photo op that also captures your logo or something that represents your business, then you’re not only creating a marketing opportunity for your business, but you’re also creating memories for your customers. This can be done by having a photo booth that will email the photos taken in the booth, having your logo on a back drop where people are taking photos (think red carpet photos) or having something at your event worth taking a photo of. Check out the photo I took of the Raptor Institute’s booth at Balboa Park’s Earth Fair. This was definitely the most popular booth I saw with everyone waiting to take photos. The little owl you see there (common barn owl) is real and perching right in front of the organization’s logo/sign so the mobs of people who took photos of that owl, also captured the organization’s name and logo.

If you found any of these tips valuable, please share this post so more businesses know how to green their marketing! Also let me know in the comments if you have any other tips for going green either at work or while marketing your business.