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Green Sales and Marketing

The day finally came. It's been a lot of work. But now you've got a hot new "green" product or service you are ready to take to market. How do you do it? Marketing a "green" product or service isn't much different than marketing any other product or service. You identify potential customers by matching their needs with your product or service. The next step is to make contact with the customer and show them what have. At that point you have to convince the customer that what you have is what they really want. All that's left is to close the deal.

In the case of marketing a "green" product or service you have one advantage. Customers are looking for "green" solutions to their problems. There are a lot of potential customers who are going to be looking for you. This will save you a lot of time tracking down leads and cold calling. What you have to do is get the message about your service or product out there for people to find. Getting your message out will also catch the attention of potential customers who don't know you have the better idea.

How you get your message out there will depend on the market you want to reach. Are you looking at local customers and volume sales? Is your product or service so specialized you have to reach a wider audience?

If you are looking at a local market look for common media that everyone is familiar with. As a start you can forget the Yellow Pages, either online or the old print version. No one uses a phone book anymore. The online version isn't much better. The Yellow Pages is the reference of last resort for most people. You are much better off with a long-term listing in something like the Greensheet, both the print and online versions. Putting brief advertisements on local Craig's Lists is also a good way to go.

Everyone will tell you the Internet is your magic solution. It can be but only if used correctly. Everybody is marketing on the Internet. Too many people are listing their websites as "green." Information overload is a real pitfall. Your product or service can get lost in a very large crowed of browser hits. The keywords you use in setting up your webpage are going to be critical. Start with keywords for traditional products or services your business can replace. Follow that up with keywords for your "green" product or service. Knowledgeable customers will be using those terms for their searches. The right keywords will ensure that someone browsing for your product or service can find you quickly.

Last but not least is the tried and true method of personal contacts. If your past experience has been in a certain industry then you already have those contacts. Most likely your product or service also relates to that industry. Word of mouth is a powerful method of advertising. You can't buy the kind of advertising a satisfied customer will provide you for free.

* Personal branding
* Internet video production
* Blogging
* Inbound Lead generation
* Google Local listing
* E-commerce sites
* Social Marketing Strategies
* Bringing new products to market on the internet and retail channels
* Internet application development, web and mobile
* Analytics (making sure you can measure your success)
* Website Hosting