Yes! You Can Care About "Green" Again

I hope you'll indulge me and let me get on my soap box for a minute. I recently released a new report in my Marketer's Primer Series, “Greening Print Marketing: A Practical Guide.” One of the most surprising pieces of feedback I've gotten is, “My clients don't care anymore.”With all the media discussion about green these days, my first question was, “Are you sure?”People do care about the environment. In fact, studies show that consumers are committed to green products even in a down economy. In addition, they are often willing to pay more for them. It's a hot topic in the news media and B2B world. How can clients not care? Of course they care.So what's going on?In the raging debate about what's greener than what, it's become confusing. There are real solutions, but it's just too hard to know who's telling the truth. One company says this. Another says that. They all contradict one another. So why even try? It's easier to throw your hands up in the air and forget about it. If green evangelists on every side are going to make it this difficult, we'll just tune it out completely.Does this sound familiar? Most likely, it does. But rather than suggesting that clients don't care, it suggests they are simply paralyzed into inertia.What if you could offer them a way to green their print marketing that nobody can argue with? What if it actually cost them less money and made their marketing more effective? Now you're talking, right?Here it is, and it's not rocket science.Targeted marketing and personalization are green printing. How? By their very nature, they reduce unnecessary print volumes. (Key word here is “unnecessary.”) Why send a 64-page booklet filled with irrelevant information when you can send a 16-page brochure with targeted, relevant material? You make your marketing program more effective while saving the planet at the same time. Or how about this? Cleanse your database on a regular basis. Run it through NCOA. Why mail to people who don't live there anymore?Is this the be-all and end-all for greening? Of course not. But greening and personalization go hand in hand. If you've been looking for a way to move your clients into targeting and personalization, this is another reason to get them to do it.For more information on “Greening Print Marketing: A Practical Guide,” visit www.digitalprintingreports.com/marketer_primers_green.htm