Green Marketing Tip #1

ELECTRONIC DELIVERY OF DIGITAL DOCUMENTS SAVES MONEY & REDUCES CARBON FOOTPRINT

The Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard “From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. … The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.”

Click play to view a teaser clip about Planned Obsolescence

 To view the entire video go to Story of Stuff website

This excellent video reinforced what we already knew – that green marketing is not only good for the planet, it’s good for the balance sheet too. By transitioning marketing materials like brochures, flyers, price lists, newsletters etc. from printed to digital versions (e.g. PDF), and using electronic delivery methods (email, Internet), we reduce our impact on the environment and save printing and distribution costs. Potential benefits of delivering digital documents electronically include:

Instant 24/7/365 Availability  Information always available to your customers and prospects - no waiting for snail mail to arrive!

Easy Multi-Versioning  Less costly to provide publications in multiple versions (e.g. multi-language, channel-specific, customer-specific, buying group, product group). Customizing your publications can further reduce costs and improve your marketing edge.

Interactive Clickable Content  Leads the reader to take specific actions that can be monitored and measured for continuous improvement of marketing efforts.

Higher Pass-along Readership  Higher potential for pass-along to buying team members using email or links. If the content is really good, could even go viral!

Easily Maintain Content Accuracy  Easy updating of electronic documents ensures information is always accurate and current. Faster time to market with new product introductions.

Improve Searchability Online  Today, nearly all B2B buyers are searching online for new products and vendors. Posting content online helps improve your company and product visibility to the search engines so you can engage prospects early in the buying process.

Lower Distribution Costs  Distribution costs eliminated or dramatically reduced, freeing-up resources for other marketing initatives.

Improve Visual Appeal  By hiring design experts to produce high quality visually stimulating collateral materials you can set your company apart without the associated cost of high-end printing.

Printable by User  User decides whether hard copy is required.

Reduces Physical Clutter  Electronic documents don’t require physical sorting or take up filing space, round file or otherwise!

Savings to the environment:

  • fewer trees turned into paper
  • less use of paper-making chemicals
  • less use of fuel to transport raw materials and finished goods
  • less printed material waste

Consider whether transitioning document production and distribution from hard copy to digital delivery makes sense for your business. We did. Click here to view an ePortfolio of our marketing services in PDF format (750 KB PDF).

Website Grader – Free SEO Tool

WEBSITE GRADING SERVICE FOR MEASURING MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS

For advice on how you can improve your website from a marketing perspective try Website Grader. Website Grader is a free website scanning service offered by HubSpot.

The grader is easy to use. Just type in a website URL and email address and the grader scans the site to measure its marketing effectiveness. A report of the finding are sent to you by email so you can either fix the problems yourself or hire someone to do the work.

Recently, we ran Website Grader on our site and we plan to run it regularly in the future to monitor our online presence.

Billing Boss – Free Invoicing Software

FREE ONLINE INVOICING PROGRAM FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
from the makers of SIMPLY ACCOUNTING

Sage, the company that makes Simply Accounting – a popular small business accounting software program, has created Billing Boss a free online invoicing tool for small businesses.

We tried out the beta version today and were quite impressed. In just a few minutes we had created our business profile, customized an invoice template with our logo and other information (taxes, currencies, types of payments accepted, etc.). Then we created a ficticious customer, generated an invoice, and were able to begin sending invoices in minutes (it will even generate a PDF on the fly) – view our test invoice here.

Billing Boss had more features than we were expecting from a free software program.  We also liked the interface which was intuitive, uncomplicated and easy to navigate.

If you need a program that will let you create, send, and track invoices for your small business, home-based business, or start-up, this is a great option. Why spend money if you don’t have to, especially if you are bootstrapping! Check out the video below, or go to  www.BillingBoss.com

MarketingProfs – Online Marketing Resource

The Internet is full of amazing resources, see one of our top favourites below.

MarketingProfs – this site offers valuable free content about every imaginable aspect of marketing including popular topics like; web marketing, blogging, marketing strategy, Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing, social media marketing.  They also have market research reports, numerous “How-to” instruction guides, marketing forums, webinars…the list is endless.  Basic membership is free and subscription provides access to premium content. We love this site!

Adding Video to Your Website

We loved the viral potential and creativity behind this clip promoting email marketing software from Vertical Response. Adding it to our blog was a snap using the link information supplied by YouTube.

Click play to watch Furious Alf & 2Fein rap about email marketing software for B2B direct mail marketers. Then sit back and imagine how you might use video to communicate on your website or blog.

Add Google Analytics in 60 Seconds

It’s easy to add Google Analytics to your website, and it’s free. By adding analytics you can view detailed statistical reports that provide insights on where site traffic comes from, which pages were visited and for how long, and many other aspects of site visitor behaviour.

View the clip below to see the Google Analytics interface and examples of reports and statistical information. This clip is primarily about using keywords to promote website traffic but clearly illustrates the value gained by tracking website statistics.

Bring Your Blog to Life with Photos!

Use images to add creativity to your website and posts.

Call me, baby

Photos add colour, interest, and creativity to your website and blog posts and are simple to add. We scrolled through the library of images at Flickr.com, to find this photo taken by photographer Casey Marshall. To see more of Casey’s photos click on the picture above.