Eco-friendly businesses and non-profits are growing at a rapid rate, and Earth Day provides a unique marketing opportunity for relevant brands to connect with their customers through shared values and beliefs.

Earth Day is a global event that over 1 billion people participate in every year. It’s a 47 year old concern that has gained traction in recent years and for a good reason, you won’t believe the environmental impact of 24 hours on Earth.

The reason Earth Day is so important for eco-friendly businesses is because it focuses on driving individual behavioral change and building consumer support for a green economy. Those two things work together to create a powerful incentive for todays consumers to reward environmentally friendly businesses.

If you are a company that supports green practices then you’ll be able to promote your brand effectively on Earth Day. Hey, you deserve it!

Don’t see it as taking advantage of a holiday to make more sales, rather see it as an opportunity to align your business with the same environmentally and ethically conscious initiatives that Earth Day promotes.

Spark consumer curiosity by giving them free stuff

If you work for a Home & Garden business you know that the two main reasons consumers visit your store is for the products and the knowledge.

Creating an educational campaign that shares the benefits as well as the steps of eco-friendly projects is a great way to connect to your environmentally-curious consumers.

It doesn’t hurt that Earth Day lands smack-dab in the middle of Spring when people are already actively seeking information on DIY projects for around the home. By leveraging consumer curiosity you can then incite action and reinforce why participation is valuable to them and to the environment.

Here is an effective way to invite your consumers to take part in environmentally conscious projects.

• Identify DIY projects that promote your eco-friendly products or services
• Create an educational digital download that provides consumers with valuable information and easy to follow steps for eco-friendly DIY projects
• Promote the benefits of those DIY projects in a visually engaging way.
  • Consider creating a landing page that displays the positive environmental-impacts of the DIY projects and a visual representation of the benefits with every new download.
• Once the consumers enter their email and receive the free download, don’t end the conversation there! Create incentives within the digital download, like hashtag or photo contests so that consumers can continue to participate in the conversation by sharing their projects after completing them.

Engage online consumers and create powerful influencers

Most marketers already know that video is the most effective form of influencer content to drive sales. But do you know why?

According to gen.Video’s latest research study, The Influence of Influencers, more than 75% of participating respondents believe video is more ‘enjoyable, relevant, believable and credible’ than other types of influencer content.“-more than 75% of participating respondents believe video is more ‘enjoyable, relevant, believable and credible’ than other types of influencer content.”

In other words, video is important.

So, how can eco-friendly, environmentally conscious brands use video campaigns to align themselves with the core values of Earth Day?

Simple, create a video contest that addresses an environmental issue related to your brand’s products or services, and then pose a question for your consumers to cater their video submissions to. Consumers love user-generated content so much, in fact, that 85 percent of users are more influenced by UGC than any other form of marketing.

If your palms start to sweat at the thought of creating a video contest, just take a deep breathe and head over here, where you can find tons more information on creating these types of campaigns.

If you really want to get crazy with this idea you should consider hosting a live video contest on Earth Day. Implement a prize or giveaway to create an incentive for your consumers to share exactly how they are making the world a better place with the products or services you also support.

Target the environmentally and ethically conscious customer and show them you care

Eco-friendly start-up’s should use Earth Day to emphasize the ethical stance of their brand on being environmentally conscious and to promote their community involvement and local support.

Local is quite an important word here, as a start-up you should be very active in your participation with the local community and in promoting other local eco-friendly programs. You want to show your audience (not just tell) that your brand actively practices what you preach by sharing your involvement in eco-friendly initiatives.

When a small business fails to meet the expectations of the community around it, that community will penalize the business through their purchase behavior. Carolyn Fortuna 

A great way to show consumers that your brand truly behaves in an ethically conscious and socially responsible way is to share it with them… live. Allow them to participate with live social media campaigns that you run during your involvement in local community events.

For example, Timberland is a very environmentally conscious company (you know, the infamous yellow boots) and they care about sharing those values with their consumers. In order show their consumers exactly how they are protecting the outdoors they created a landing page that displays what they are doing and why they are doing it.

Consider implementing a landing page with your brands live participation in local community events. Invite consumers to share their experiences with your products or services and become part of the Earth Day conversation.

Don’t worry about blurring the lines between offline action and online content, share your active stance on environmental awareness and let them get behind the scenes through photo and live video content.

Conclusion

If you are an environmentally-conscious brand who wants to promote the importance of Earth Day this year, make sure you share your love for the environment with your consumers by creating a compelling and engaging campaign. If you don’t know where to start you can always head over to Woobox where a free account allows you to make as many giveaways, quizzes, or any promotion for that matter. Happy Earth Day from the team here at Woobox!