Succeeding in sustainability marketing requires today’s B2B marketers to understand how best they can help their customers to achieve their sustainability goals.
Today’s customers, irrespective of B2B or B2C, are increasingly becoming conscious of their
product usage. With the preservation of the environment becoming a priority, customers are focused on incorporating products that do not contribute to the carbon footprint but instead empower them to contribute towards sustainability.
In fact, as per a 2020 report from Capgemini, titled “Consumer Products and Retail: How sustainability fundamentally changing consumer preferences,” over 79% of the customers are changing their purchasing habits depending on the social or environmental impact of the product. This is leading to B2B marketers rushing to capitalize on this opportunity with sustainability messaging
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But, leveraging the messaging of sustainability for their own benefits and customers is not an easy feat to achieve. If the B2B marketers end up making their sustainability messages wrong or, even worse, lying about them can hurt their relationship with customers. This could also prevent them from tapping into new opportunities that could have contributed to the long-term goals of the organization. Hence, they need to design a strategy framework that enables them to create correct sustainability marketing messages while also gaining trust and confidence from their customers.
Empower the customers to be in charge
When B2B marketers spread their message about their sustainability businesses, they need to ensure that they are not boasting about the sustainability efforts of the organization. Instead, they should help their customers in their journey towards sustainability. B2B marketers should ensure that their sustainability marketing efforts help them become more environmentally friendly and ethical choices in their daily lives.
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B2B marketers ensure that they craft their message in a way that their customers will know how they are changing their job.
Create the messages around strong facts and proofs
Most B2B marketers are tempted to refine the story of their environmental impact with exaggerated statements. However, crafting sustainability messages by playing around with facts and statistics does everyone a disservice. On top of that, with today’s regulators only straining the policies, most B2B marketers are increasingly likely to end up paying a hefty price in terms of monetary and reputation damage. Therefore, B2B marketers should ensure that their messaging is factually accurate. They should connect with their sustainability stakeholders to understand the reality of their supply chain impact.
Apologies whenever necessary
In their endeavor towards sustainability marketing, most B2B organizations may end up making mistakes. Instead of arguing about it or making the people or organizations lay accusations about the sustainability issue, B2B organizations should immediately and publicly apologize without any reservation. They should describe how they will address the issue going forward and stop making the same mistakes.
Advancing towards the future
As customers become more aware and conscious about the environment, they will continue to seek products and services that will help them with their sustainability efforts. For B2B marketers, while this allows them to capitalize on short-terms from sustainability-led marketing, measuring their success purely on immediate revenue would be a disservice to everyone involved. Instead, they should ensure that they will continue to prioritize sustainability and incorporate it into their marketing efforts.
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