Section Two: Strategic Best Practices
Transparency
Look no further than the U.K., Japan and the broader European Union to see where the U.S. sustainability market is headed from a marketing perspective. Consumers in those markets have become incredibly well-educated on green and sustainability topics, they are increasingly wary of green claims by brands, and they are quick to punish brands that either over-promise or under-deliver. What's more, regulatory groups are clamping down on what they consider to be deceptive advertising practices, including U.S.-based brands advertising in these more green-advanced markets.
What does this have to do with your green web strategy? There is nothing more important than your credibility, which in part comes from the transparency of your message, your intentions and your claims. Anything that even smells of spin-doctoring or "greenwashing" can be quickly dismissed by your target audience, or worse. The last thing you want is for your new website to become the target of overseas regulatory agencies, negative bloggers and more.
How do you achieve transparency? Be authentic. Back up every claim. Demonstrate the results of what you said you'd do to begin with. Give updates -- good and not so good -- on your overall sustainability efforts. Talk about the challenges of going green. Not every initiative is instantly successful, so talk about what you're struggling with as much as what you're succeeding with. Demonstrating both sides of the story is a great way to prove your authenticity and transparency.
Interactivity
This has become almost table-stakes for websites everywhere, but it is even more important when promoting your sustainability and green initiatives online. Start with the transparency best practices mentioned above and create a two-way communication channel with your intended audience. Let them react to what you're saying, what you're claiming, and where you're innovating. Ask for their feedback and actively include audience questions in your copy. Take their responses -- good, bad and ugly -- seriously, and respond back with your opinions and updates on what you've done.
Interactivity is critical in creating deeper relationships with your audience and more meaningful impressions from a brand perspective. Interactivity also demonstrates that your brand is truly committed to the green and sustainability efforts you claim to support. There's nothing less authentic than a sustainability website that's static, with little to no updates, and with minimal to no interactivity. This kind of website screams that a company put it up as a marketing check-box and has moved on to other things.
Executive involvement
To accelerate authenticity, prove to your audience that everyone involved with your brand -- all the way to the top -- is committed and involved in furthering your green and sustainability efforts. Get your C-level executives -- including your CEO, if possible -- to participate actively on the site. This can include contributed content, blog posts, direct responses to audience questions or comments, etc.
This must go beyond a simple introductory message ghost written for an executive. Prove that your organization is actively engaged in sustainability through ongoing executive visibility, leadership and contribution.
Executive support for your green website wasn't discussed in the "for starters" section above, but it is clearly a critical component not only to having the resources available to successfully execute the site, but to ensuring an executive's involvement -- directly or indirectly -- in its ongoing success.
Online/offline synergies
Simply put, do not let your sustainability website operate as a marketing island. If your green message is truly important to your brand, integrate that message and your interactive "hub" into your multichannel, multimedia strategy. This includes not only other marketing channels -- advertising, PR, your other web initiatives -- it also means your sales channels, supply chains, corporate marketing efforts and more.
Should your email signature tout this new web page? How about your out-of-office email message? Or voicemail? Be creative and truly integrated.
Metrics
When you define what success looks like up front, ensure you have the means to measure that success. This sounds simple, but it is a missing step for many organizations and marketers who intend to measure something up front but fail to put tools in place to execute that measurement over time.
Make sure you also have the tools and insights to convert those metrics into improvements or, if necessary, changes to your sustainability web initiatives. Is your message getting across? Is certain content getting more traction than others? Which sub-pages get the most traffic and why? Where does that traffic come from?
Then, define a subset of metrics that you can communicate on a regular basis back to your organization. Include not only a summary of those metrics, but an interpretation of what those metrics tell you, and how you're acting on them to improve and grow the overall sustainability website's presence and impact.
Now it's your turn
This is a mere start to what is possible. Now, let's do as we say and start the interaction. In the comments section below, share a bit about your green website plans -- current or future. What are you selling? What green story do you have to share? What best practices above will you consider or execute on in your own sustainability web initiatives? What additional ideas do you have to add to this conversation -- either new ideas, or implementation stories (good and bad) that you've already tried?
Matt Heinz is senior director of marketing for Verdiem and the author of Matt on Marketing.