Steps to Sustainable Marketing for Businesses in Nigeria

In 2017, Unilever asked 20,000 adults from five different countries if their sustainability concerns influenced their purchase decisions. The study revealed that 33% of these people prioritize brands they believe are doing environmental and social good over the ones that aren’t, which is normal.

The idea of sustainability helps consumers choose products and brands they believe benefit the environment and boost social positivity. How can you implement the concept of sustainability into your marketing strategy to aid your business growth? This article will discuss sustainable marketing and the necessary steps to implement sustainable marketing for businesses in Nigeria.

Table of Contents

What is Sustainable Marketing?

Sustainable marketing is a marketing strategy that prioritizes the environment, society, and your business’s well-being. It considers the impact of your products on future generations and the planet and appeals to consumers with the same sustainability mindset.

Sustainable marketing allows businesses to create or promote environmentally and socially responsible products, practices, or packages. For instance, you’d be practising sustainable marketing if you package your products using eco-friendly design and packaging, such as reusable containers like cloth bags, recyclable materials like cardboard and biodegradable plastics that are easily recycled. That’s one way.

You can also spread sustainability awareness through your social media pages, use renewable energy sources in production and operations (ensure the public knows this), partner with organizations for environmental conservation, and educate your customers on sustainable consumption practices. Sustainable marketing aims to create a win-win situation for your business, customers, and the environment by promoting products and services that benefit all parties involved.

Importance of Sustainable Marketing for Businesses in Nigeria

Sustainable marketing is gradually gaining ground in the business industry. Its positive outlook has significantly increased the business’s customer base worldwide, including Nigeria. If you’re considering sustainable marketing for businesses in Nigeria, these are why you should consider it;

Environmental conservation

Sustainable marketing can help reduce the negative impact of business activities on the environment, and promote conservation efforts, reducing ecological challenges such as soil degradation and air pollution in the country.

Consumer demand

The Nigerian market is experiencing a growing demand for eco-friendly products and services as many people have become aware of the impact of their purchasing choices on the environment. This allows your business to tap into this demand to meet the expectations of these conscious consumers.

Economic benefits

Implementing sustainable marketing practices can help companies save costs through waste reduction, efficient processes, and resource conservation. These benefits can also spur new business opportunities, such as developing new eco-friendly products and services.

Steps to Sustainable Marketing for Your Business in Nigeria

Sustainable marketing is improving in the Nigerian business industry. These are some of the steps you can take to tap into the market and gain more customer base:

Understand your business and its customers

The first step to any successful marketing scheme is knowing and understanding what your business offers its customers and the problem it solves for them. Some of the best ways to know this is to evaluate these options:

Understand your business’s impact on the environment

This is simple. One of the best ways to gauge your company’s environmental impact is to calculate your carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane, your business operation produces into the atmosphere, which aces it for floristry businesses. You can track your carbon footprint by analyzing your energy use, such as industrial production, waste, and transportation.

Know your target market

Your target audience is a priority. Familiarize your business with consumers who value environmental conservation. You can achieve this by conducting market research through surveys, customer interviews, secondary research, and focus groups to understand your target customers, their demographics, interests, and values. This research will aid in effectively reaching and engaging them with sustainable marketing initiatives.

Create a customer profile

The next step after acquiring your market research is to create detailed profiles of your target customers to understand their needs, behaviours, and preferences. This information will inform your marketing strategy and help tailor your offerings to appeal to your target customers.

Understand your customers’ needs and expectations

A customer profile gives you detailed preferences and wants of your target customers. But that isn’t all. Ask your customers for their opinions on newly launched products, get their reviews on purchased products and services, encourage customer feedback on used products, and conduct surveys to gain insight into potential customers’ desires and preferences. This information will help you understand their viewpoints and how you can use that to make your business appealing to them.

Develop a sustainable marketing plan

The second step to an effective sustainable marketing for bsuiness is to have a marketing plan. Like understanding your customer and business, developing a sustainable marketing plan also require adequate preparation, including:

Setting sustainable marketing goals

The first step in developing a sustainable marketing plan is to set clear, measurable goals. You should set your marketing goals, such as increasing your brand awareness on social media platforms or improving customer engagement. Consider your business’s overall sustainability objectives, which can be anything from reducing your greenhouse gas emissions, and using recyclable materials for your packaging, to supporting local communities through volunteering and charitable donations.

Identifying sustainable marketing strategies

You must prioritize identifying sustainable marketing strategies that align with your marketing goals. This may involve using environmentally-friendly materials in your marketing efforts, incorporating sustainable messaging into your advertising, or partnering with organizations focused on sustainability. The goal is to create and implement marketing strategies that show customers that you’re the real deal.

Choosing the right marketing channels

You must choose the right marketing channels to reach your target audience. These channels include social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok; email marketing; online ads, and content marketing such as blog posts, infographics, videos, webinars, and e-books. It would help if you prioritized the channels your target audience frequents the most and aligned them with your marketing campaign to choose the right ones.

Creating a marketing budget

You should finalize your marketing preparations by creating a budget to allocate resources to your marketing efforts. Consider your goals, target market, and marketing strategies when determining how much to give each channel. You should also ensure that your budget is sustainable and allows ongoing marketing efforts over time.

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Measure your sustainable marketing efforts

Observing and measuring your marketing success allows room for improvement and also updates you on strategies that worked the best. Some of the ways to measure your sustainable marketing efforts include:

Setting key performance indicators

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measures that aid the accurate evaluation of your business to meet specific performance goals. It’s essential to set clear, measurable KPIs to measure the success of your sustainable marketing efforts. These KPIs may include metrics such as customer engagement, brand awareness, customer satisfaction, and environmental impact, depending on your marketing goals.

Tracking your progress and adjusting your strategies

Regularly tracking your KPIs will help assess the effectiveness of your sustainable marketing efforts and make adjustments where needed. You can use tools such as analytics, customer surveys, and focus groups to gather data on necessary information and make informed decisions about them.

Evaluating the impact of your sustainable marketing efforts

It’s essential to evaluate the overall impact of your sustainable marketing efforts, including assessing your carbon footprint, analyzing customer feedback, and comparing your KPIs to industry benchmarks. That’ll help you understand the impact of your efforts and identify areas for improvement.

Wrapping Up

Sustainable marketing for businesses is critical to building a successful, responsible business in Nigeria. Understanding your business and customers, developing a sustainable marketing plan, and implementing sustainable marketing practices are sure ways to improve your business through sustainable marketing. This way, your business can build a strong brand, engage customers, and minimize its environmental impact.

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About Author

Adetola Rachael Iyanuoluwa

Adetola Rachael is a content and copywriter. With experience in tech, entrepreneur, and casino niches, she relies on deep research to create quality, original, and marketable content.