Like me, I suspect many of you probably get bombed daily with a ton of junk mail. From mass mailings from credit card companies to furniture catalogs, my mailbox gets inundated with unwanted mail that frustrates me and overwhelms my recycling bin! Yes, that's where such mail goes instantly - into the recycling bin that accumulates too quickly. I conducted an informal survey with 10 friends over the last week on what they do with their junk mail, and all 10 expressed the same frustrations with junk mail. Inevitably, the vast majority of us toss our marketing mailings almost immediately into the trash, and a few who are more environmentally conscious recycle them. The rate at which we receive such mail, sometimes two or three per month from the same companies, begs the question: "Why are these companies not engaging in more cost-effective (and incidentally more environmentally friendly) methods like e-marketing?"
Effective or not, the truth is junk mail is an environmental hazard. According to this article by the Wall Street Journal, a staggering 5.2 billion pieces of direct mail were sent out to US consumers in the third quarter of 2009 alone. To add to this, the bulk of mass mails are also printed on thick glossy virgin paper, as opposed to recycled paper. Despite these facts, the same article, much to my dismay, states that many companies are "holding fast" to mass mailing efforts because "swapping snail mail for email" has resulted in sales declines. While sales might have declined going from traditional marketing to e-marketing, have these companies surveyed by the Wall Street Journal thrown in the towel too quickly? Did they send out emails too frequently or worded them in such a way that triggered spam filters? Have they explored other more sophisticated means of e-marketing such as using Social Media like Facebook and Twitter? What about other online advertising means like using Google AdWords or AdSense?
E-marketing (or more recently known as green marketing) much like direct mailing is a business tool, and its effectiveness depends on how companies use it. In many sense, green marketing offers much more flexibility, just to name a few - it is way speedier, more cost effective, can be more targeted, and allows for a variety of ways to track customer responses. With such enhanced features comes the need for companies to learn and educate themselves, and many unfortunately jump in blindly and give up too soon. To prove my point, see this study conducted by Environmental Leader on the effectiveness of green marketing. In general (contrary to the Wall Street Journal article), more marketers have seen improved results from green marketing - 28% as opposed to the 6% who have seen a decline. Here are also some additional statistics on social media to offer reasons as to why companies should go green marketing:
- Facebook: Over 500 million users as of July, 2010
- LinkedIn: Over 60 million users as of Feb, 2010
- Twitter: Over 105 million users as of Apr, 2010
As issues on the environment come to a head and as the world gets increasingly networked through social media, it is only to companies benefit to embrace change and move with the times. There may be challenges and perhaps apprehension about adopting social media marketing efforts, but if used effectively and creatively, the rewards could be immense. Consider the example of Whole Foods from this article by Environmental Leader:
Social media is also a cheap and easy way for companies to conduct promotions. Whole Foods is running a contest on twitter wherein its twitter followers are encouraged to tweet philosophies in five words, reports Supermarket News. The people with the ten most creative philosophies will earn a $50 Whole Foods gift card and a five-pound bag of quinoa. For those who wonder why anyone would “follow” a supermarket chain on twitter, consider this: Whole Foods has more than 1 million followers.The message: Go green and you'll be surprised!
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