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Sustainable marketing needs to ‘have its moment’ in the digital ecosystem

March 6, 2019

The average American sees ten thousand brand messages a day, and 82% of them consider online ads to be disruptive. What good is digital marketing without the support and engagement of consumers?! It simply isn’t any. Excessive ads and emails are their own type of pollution, and digital marketers need to welcome the sustainable marketing movement to retain consumer interest.

Environmental sustainability is having a moment. The growing awareness of threats to our physical ecosystem is causing consumers to upcycle, recycle, and shun single-use plastics. Some marketers are even following suit by reducing the use of landfill-bound swag. These are all steps in the right direction; Bombora is proud to support organizations whose missions include bettering and protecting our environment.

To Erik Matlick, waste reduction isn’t the only thing that needs to be done to actuate sustainability. The digital landscape also requires a cleanup and marketers need to stop inundating consumers before all attention and trust is lost. It’s time to let sustainable marketing have its spotlight because regulations like the GDPR and California Consumer Privacy Act can’t possibly do it all for the industry.

What is sustainable marketing?

It all starts with marketers knowing the consequences of their aggressive actions. Brand equity, customer trust, and consumer attention can all die as a result of untargeted, unfocused ads. In Erik’s article published on LinkedIn and AdWeek, he explains that the loss of these finite resources may not just cause damage to individual brands, but rather the entire digital ecosystem.

Sustainable marketing can prevent this. Sustainable marketing is about conservation and making conscious decisions based on an understanding of their true costs. The goal of sustainable marketing is using less but performing better. Fewer ads, emails and sales calls, done more selectively and effectively.”

How to embrace sustainable marketing

Are you prepared to welcome change, establish the conservation of consumer attention, and protect your brand equity in these volatile times? There are three main components that Erik shares to kickstart these practices. It starts with using meaningful data, to make smart and ethical decisions, and finally evangelizing sustainable efforts. Without widespread recognition, sustainable marketing won’t shine.

Read the full list of tips and supporting techniques that Erik shares with marketers in order to create more value for digital consumers. 


Parts of this post were first published on AdWeek.