If you go for it, you require environmental cleanup leads to boost your business coverage, which can be achieved by setting the right lead gen process and strategies. People are more concerned than ever about protecting the environment, which means you have an opportunity to thrive if you pick the market, even when it may get some work.
It is important to adopt eco-friendly business practices in your business structure and not only outside of your company and for your services only.
This trend is expected to continue. Not only are companies changing, but so are consumers’ attitudes. The latest data shows that 26% of European citizens only buy eco-friendly products, and this number is increasing by the day. Therefore, the same follows for the other areas and aspects of society.
Data points to these changes, and the business world will have to adapt to keep up with consumers’ demands.
We have prepared a list of lead generation strategies to help you market your eco-friendly company to gain the recognition it deserves and ensure clients come your way, not only to your competitors.
Before we jump to action, we want you to remember a couple of things:
- Market effectively if you want to make your business more sustainable. Your marketing must effectively sell both the benefits you offer to the earth as well as your customers, whether that is a green product or a new manufacturing process.
- You are not the only one who is not familiar with lead generation strategies and tactics. Many eco-friendly businesses do not fully understand the concept of sustainability marketing, but they are working on it.
Green marketing is a promotion your business uses to attract potential customers. It also promotes sustainability as a culture and practice.
You can create demand by focusing on the environmental benefits your business provides. This is usually done by highlighting every single one of your services and what products you use to get things done.
Avoid ‘greenwashing,’ which is when a company claims it is environmentally responsible, but it is not. And yes, this applies to those focused on the niche since they offer practices but don’t really establish them for themselves.
Let’s move on with what you need to do to ensure more cleanings with that clear.
Get to Know Your Customers
Many products and services appeal to different audiences. It is important to get to know your customers so you can understand what motivates them and what you can offer them compared to others.
First, identify the most appealing aspects of your company and what it offers to customers when promoting it. Find out why they care about environmental responsibility and why they are interested in you—or maybe they aren’t.
Are they concerned about reducing the adverse effects on our health? Are they interested in preserving vital animal and plant species? Do they want to preserve the environment for future generations as they finance more cleanups?
Once you have determined why sustainability is important to your customers, you can craft an effective message that will drive them to take action. This message must be repeated across all marketing channels.
Also, be aware of the information channels that your customers use. This will ensure that your message is received.
Create a Custom Plan
Marketing is about standing out in the crowd. You should not follow a formula. If you do, your message will be copied by your competitors.
Create a customized plan to maximize your marketing efforts. Find unique ways to spread your message. Look for sustainability-focused events, co-promotional partnerships, content providers, and social media opportunities that align with your offering, message, and audience.
In short, you need to create a lead generation strategy that appeals to your customers on the channels that they prefer with a message that moves them.
This will increase your chances of making a lasting impression on them, avoiding lead contamination, and influencing them to purchase what you sell.
Involve Yourself in Real-World Issues
By their very nature, sustainable offerings address environmental concerns. Innovators often design and implement them to address environmental disruption, pollution, or destruction.
Marketing green in business means linking your offer directly to an environmental problem. It should be seen as a solution and not only for the global cause.
Use current research from credible third-party sources to strengthen your argument and explain why your offer helps the environment.
In this process, and as something we would like to add, you need to worry about the market, and with it comes the value vs. price.
You and your customers may pay more for sustainable products and services. This is not always the case, and it should be investigated while you’re working on finding a cause. Why? Because this whole process follows something like:
- Find a cause and market it with your image.
- To find it, you may have to analyze what your prospects are working on and how much they are willing to pay for their causes and support them.
- You can set a price based on the actual value.
Marketing sustainability’s value will have a greater impact than marketing price on environmentally conscious customers, regardless of the added cost.
Your marketing should emphasize all environmental benefits. Your offering should also highlight any non-environmentally related benefits.
Many will be grateful for a sustainable business. You can market your product well and be a better businessman than your competitors. This will make your customer take action.
It Must Be Cultural
Your brand identity must include green values, and this includes how your guidelines should specify acceptable practices.
It all comes down to this: Practice what you preach.
Your organization must be committed to green marketing. You do not want to have a disconnect between your brand’s words and actions. If this is the case, your audience’s perceptions will be seriously affected.
Green marketing is a natural evolution of your brand’s evolution if you place eco-friendly initiatives at your core.
Use Your Community Support Activities to Benefit
This is not only for eco-friendly businesses, but it is essential to green marketing. Being environmentally-friendly starts in your local community, which is why it’s all about building trust among your target audience.
To build goodwill for your brand, there are two steps:
- ONE: Get the whole company involved in the community.
Support local charities, community programs, and eco-friendly initiatives. Encourage your employees to participate by offering incentives.
Each quarter, make it a requirement that everyone participates in a team event and gets out of the office. Financial support for causes that are close to your company’s core values.
- TWO: Encourage community involvement.
To show that your company is practicing what they preach, take pictures and shoot videos. You can use charitable donation incentives to encourage sales and interaction with your target audience.
Facebook Live Video, Instagram Stories, Periscope, and other social media features can be used during community involvement events to improve lead quality.
Although it might seem self-indulgent to speak so often about your company’s good works, it is not. It is simply a way to let people know that your company delivers on its promises and has more than words.
Make Greener Products, Not Only Services
Are you environmentally conscious? The first tip you can use to ensure every single cleanup—not only outside—is conducted by using green products you either make on your own or buy from someone else. This is how you integrate environmentalism into your business story.
What is the environmental impact of your product? Be aware of materials, function, and purpose. Are there any eco-friendly ways to make your product? Do not be vague nor make generalized statements because people will ask when they request a specific cleanup from your company.
Most environmental companies want to have their own products even when they may not use them for their services and activities as this promotes the brand and offers great ROI.
However, we want you to focus on setting and making them so you are able to utilize them as a message and benefit your lead gen process.
Be an Environmental Advocate
Are you on the right side? The second tip you can use to improve the environment is advocacy. You can do this in many different ways, but these are the most effective.
A portion of your sales proceeds can be donated to a charity that supports the environment.
Locally grown meats, wine, vegetables, and fish should be supported and used. Set a proud and loud environmental goal for the future: “Zero waste by 2025. To slow climate change, we must continue to work for the green cause.”
Institute a policy of plastic-free lunches at work. Incorporate green practices in every area of your business.
To be an environmental advocate, you must make eco-friendly choices above all else. Every decision you make can help society, from finding innovative ways to save energy to having a “no-printer” policy to preserve paper and ink to planting trees for every product sold.
Create a Recycling Program and Reduce Waste Disposal
What if your services are not unique? This applies to small businesses that do not invest in sustainable products they need or don’t worry about making their services more than just eco-friendly.
It is possible to still be environmentally friendly by implementing a recycling program at work and reducing waste disposal, so your prospects feel motivated to choose you based on your initiatives.
Recycling programs will be a boon for restaurants and retail shops. Many people use technology to help staff recycle education and improve results.
The best app or set of lead generation strategies will connect with your municipality, offering convenient reminders, notifications, and a calendar.
It should be simple to recycle, reuse, or dispose of products and items, and this is a way to show how your company handles cleanups as well.
Your sustainability lead generation campaigns should focus on your recycling program and your commitment to waste reduction. Experts agree that recycling is the best way to impact the environment, economy, and conservation.
Create Green Campaign Awareness
Are you using environmental marketing to encourage business beyond the simple fact of being a company that dedicates its time to the area?
Promoting long-term social change and environmental awareness is best to build consumer trust and likability.
Promoting your company on the basis of your green efforts involves:
- Press releases to support green causes.
- Promotions on social media and online for green awareness.
- Avoid all forms of print-based advertising.
- Online collaboration and networking with eco-conscious businesses.
It is about showing your customers that you are committed to green campaign awareness. Green marketing is a way to support yourself and make a difference. It is time to align your company with the most important things for your potential customers.
Focus on the Important Issues & Use Them for Your Marketing
The most powerful metrics for marketing your sustainable business are those that explain how your company addresses the most pressing problems in your industry.
Let’s take, for instance, a company that produces renewable energy. How many tons of carbon emissions do their services help to reduce?
Because customers want to reduce their carbon footprint and fossil fuel dependence, the ‘avoided CO2 emissions’ position is more persuasive and impactful.
You can also differentiate yourself from your competitors by focusing on your industry’s most pressing environmental and social issues.
If the hypothetical restaurant were eco-conscious, then the “composting” sell would work better in their marketing. Because food waste in restaurants is more important than carbon emissions.
Companies should minimize their environmental impact. However, advertising that highlights your efforts to address specific industry issues will help you stand out from your competitors.
You need to show them how to, maybe, reduce their impacts and show what your business can do to address the main issues.
You Can Create a Page Dedicated To Sustainability on Your Website
An eco-conscious user will likely visit your website and click on your “About Us” page to learn more about your company’s values. This usually applies to every business, but people want to know about you when it comes to environmental companies.
A page that focuses on your sustainability goals and mission will impress online visitors and attract high-quality leads. If your company already has a page on corporate social responsibility, make sure you create a separate section for sustainability.
This will allow visitors to understand your efforts in reducing your environmental impact. Your sustainability page should include the following:
- Your company’s green mission statement and what it does, mainly.
- Your company’s long- and short-term sustainability goals.
- Your company’s sustainability achievements. Images that support your accomplishments can help users understand your efforts better.
- Partnerships with other purpose-driven organizations.
A designated sustainability page allows online customers (and potential employees) to see your progress and purpose and shows that your company’s core values include environmental responsibility.
Get Certified as a Green Business and Display It
Earning a green business or sustainability certification is the best way to demonstrate your commitment, and you will need it in most states if you want to start an environmental cleanup business.
A majority of third-party sustainability certifications include a “seal to approve” that can be included on your website, advertisements, buildings, vehicles, or other marketing materials.
Your certification’s display is important because it shows your credibility and trustworthiness to your stakeholders.
There are many sustainability certifications available. The value of each one depends on the company’s capabilities and needs.
The online, guided certification program by Green Business Bureau is ideal for all businesses, regardless of size or industry, who wish to focus on a range of green initiatives and work at their own pace without the need for expensive consultants.
Share Your Sustainability Journey
Given the facts about climate change and the inaction of companies to address it, it is easy to make sustainability discussions seem “doom-and gloomy.” Although it is important to give the facts, it can be difficult to convince people to support your company. People will be more motivated to act if you use a more optimistic and encouraging approach.
This can be done by sharing your steps to growing your green business. Your unique sustainability story demonstrates honesty, and it allows stakeholders to get to know you better. It can inspire others to do the same by highlighting your successes and failures.
Promote your sustainability journey via social media, newsletters, outreach events, and other marketing channels. Let prospects know your progress and invite them along on your journey towards sustainability.
Make Sustainability a Theme on Company Social Media Channels
Over the past decade, social media has been an integral part of business marketing. Globally, 54% of the world’s population uses social media. This includes those in developing countries where climate change has had the most devastating effects.
Furthermore, younger generations are more likely than older ones to use social media and care deeply about the environment and social causes. Sharing your company’s environmental stance via social media will help you gain new customers and employees.
Here are some ways to make sustainability a main theme in your social media:
- Post regularly about your green accomplishments, projects, and goals.
- Send interesting articles and resources on topics that are relevant to your industry and business.
- Add your green mission statement and core values and link to your website to your profile bio.
- Your sustainability leader or green team should be featured.
- Keep track of your company’s progress toward its long-term and short-term environmental goals.Use simple typography and
- images that are easy to read.
Avoid Greenwashing in Your Marketing
Marketing your company’s sustainability is crucial for communicating your purpose, increasing sales, and generating leads. However, it is important not to exaggerate your company’s positive effect on the environment.
Greenwashing refers to companies making unsubstantiated or misleading claims about their eco-friendliness. This can also be used to describe companies that claim they are environmentally responsible in certain areas of their business but not in others.
Example: when a company claims they are trying to reduce carbon emissions but pollute waterways through their production.
Sometimes, greenwashing is easy to spot, and people who are well aware will not hesitate to expose companies for making false claims. This can often have a negative impact on a company’s reputation.
Avoid greenwashing your marketing efforts with:
- You must make sustainability a central part of every aspect of your business operation.
- Earning a third-party verified green business certificate and displaying your certification stamp on all marketing materials.
- Ensure that you have solid evidence to back your claims about sustainability performance, and make such data available for stakeholders.
- Avoid offering products or services that have “hidden tradeoffs.”
- Ensure that your suppliers operate ethically and sustainably.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Environmental Cleanup Services
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Environmental Cleanup Services Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Environmental Cleanup Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.