green

By Thea Dodds and Dawn Tacker

The purpose of all promotional materials is to sell your services and products, and to build your brand. But the methods of marketing have changed drastically with the rising sophistication of electronic media. Are printed materials going the way of the dinosaur? Greening your promotional kit is an opportunity to make your business sell better with less waste and lower costs. Here are some ideas to green your marketing efforts.

Shades of Green

Your promotional strategy should comprise a variety of marketing materials aimed at your target audience. It is rare that one promotional piece alone will be enough of a call to action to turn a window shopper into a client. You have to hit your target market from different angles through different types of media. This article will focus on electronic and printed promotional materials, and we'll have future Greener Photography articles on other types of promotional materials. Each of the marketing methods here is an opportunity to choose greener marketing materials and brand yourself as an earth-friendly photographer.

What are greener promotional materials?

There are several different types of marketing materials, each with its own shade of green. Even with the most conventional marketing options, there is always a “greener” choice you can make.

Electronic

The most earth-friendly marketing materials are those that have virtually zero energy cost to reproduce—electronic marketing materials. These include the most basic portfolio and informational pieces, such as your website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. As visual artists, most photographers are already using these media as their first interaction with clients. Assess your online presence with an eye toward efficient marketing. Can clients find the information they need? Can you track the results?

You can take your electronic presence one step greener by choosing an Internet service provider that uses alternative energy sources such as solar and wind energy to power their hosting. See Greener Photography for a list of ISPs.

Second tier electronic marketing tools used by many photographers include e-mail marketing, portfolio slideshows and electronic newsletters. These tools have the added bonus of facilitating viral marketing, as they can be forwarded by clients to their extended networks. Use analytic tools to track the effectiveness of your e-marketing campaigns.

Finally, consider the efficiency and green qualities of PDF-formatted information. Rate cards, brochures, product descriptions and even client contracts can be sent electronically. You can drastically cut down on the amount of printed materials provided to clients this way.

Printed

When you absolutely need to provide printed materials, there are ways to keep them as green as possible. First, make a realistic estimate of how many copies you need for a defined period of time and just print what you need. Short-run printing uses less resources and allows you to update your materials more frequently. Second, consider your marketing pieces and how they can fit together. For example, design a simple printed piece for each type of photography that you promote, then design an overall piece into which these individual pieces are placed. This allows customized materials with the least amount of waste.

To choose greener options for your printed marketing materials, ask yourself and your printer the following questions:

    * What is the paper made of? Look for recycled content, unbleached paper, or handmade/dual purpose paper like birdseed paper.

    * What kind of ink is being used? Consider non-toxic alternatives such as soy- and wax-based inks.

    * Where is the paper made? Locally made paper will have a smaller carbon footprint.

    * Where is the printing being done? Working with a local printer can mean less shipping.

    * How is it being delivered? Order printed materials via ground shipping whenever possible, which uses less energy instead of air freight. Or choose a local printer and pick it up yourself.

Brand it Green

Studies show that consumers value green products. Don't miss the opportunity to show your clients you care about the environment in your promo materials.

    * Put a recycled symbol on recycled paper products.

    * Ask recipients not to print your PDFs or e-mails unless necessary and tell them why.

    * Join Greener Photography and put your member logo on your marketing materials.

Share your creative branding and marketing ideas! Leave a comment below, or e-mail Dawn Tacker. Stay tuned for Greener Marketing 201 for ideas on more ways to brand it green.

Digital Vs. Film

The Issue:

• Is digital photography greener than film photography?

What you Need to Know

• There is a myth that digital is greener then film.
• Although the waste is different, it is unlikely that digital is any less polluting than film photography.
• There are many opportunities for us to lessen the environmental impact as digital photographers (see last paragraph).

Greener Photography's Recommendations:

• purchase used gear whenever possible
• recycle your gear
• minimize your energy consumption (use rechargeable batteries, conserve energy in your studio)
• provide digital, not paper proofs/li>

One of the assumptions we have heard frequently is that digital photography is greener then traditional film photography. But is this true?

The crux of the issue on the digital side is in embodied energy. Embodied energy is the amount of energy used to produce a product. This energy inherently creates waste and pollution. Our digital cameras, computers, disk, drives, CF cards, etc. have a lot of embodied energy because of all the technology that goes into producing them. Film cameras and darkroom enlargers are old and simple technologies, requiring far less energy to produce.

The crux of the issue in the darkroom is chemicals and paper proofs. We don't miss the days of our hands and clothing smelling of fixer. There is a lot of toxic waste involved in producing and disposing of photo chemicals. These are poisonous materials to which we as individuals see, smell and expose ourselves. Getting out of the darkroom is a huge benefit of digital. Photographers are exposed to far less toxins, but we really doubt that we are producing any less pollutants as consumers of digital photographic gear. Perhaps we just don't see the waste and pollution, so we think it's less.

This is Greener Photography's opinion and not a scientific comparison. We wish we could offer you a factual answer that compares the amount of waste from an energy intensive digital process and a chemical intensive film process. We hope as a greener photographic community we can find someone to work with us on providing us with hard facts on this issue. Until then, it is up to us as photographers to think about waste and pollution as a larger issue than just not having to buy film, pour chemicals, or print proofs. Clearly these are improvements, but as digital photographers our gear and production choices still have an environmental impact.

So what can you do?

• Buy used gear when ever possible
• Recycle your old computers
• Use rechargeable batteries and recycle these batteries when they no longer hold a charge
• Shut down your computer overnight
• Power your studio with renewable energy
• Provide digital, not paper, proofs
• Join Greener Photography's campaign to demand photographic gear manufacturing be done with renewable energy sources.

We're sure you can add to this list and we'd love to hear what you think!

Please contact us with your comments, questions and ideas, or post your comments below.