What Today's Conscious Consumers Want — Sustainability Copywriter

Guest Post by Sarah Breeze, Sustainability Copywriter for Impact-Driven Brands

From the rise of veganism to the fall of fast fashion, conscious consumers are sending a clear message: we want sustainable goods and services from brands we trust. Shoppers are voting with their dollars now more than ever — $113.9 billion dollars in 2018, to be exact (1).

It no longer benefits brands of today to stay silent on the challenges facing us. From climate change to COVID-19, consumers are always listening closely to your brand’s message. In order to connect with your customers, you have to be present, aware, and authentic. Your words matter.

Conscious consumers want to know how your brand is supporting the causes they care about. 70% of consumers agree that brands should have a position on social and environmental issues (2). Given the current state of a global pandemic, the climate crisis, and the anti-racism movement, there’s never been a better time for your brand to send a clear message to consumers about these important causes.

But here’s the thing. Conscious consumers are savvy, and they don’t like messaging that rings inauthentic. Your actions and your words have to align in a way that rings true to your mission statement.

Why is authentic messaging so important? Because the main driver in conscious consumer decision-making is brand trust. In a recent report by Nielson, 62% of consumers agreed that trust was the most important factor in choosing one brand over another (3). Trust-building is a vital strategy in your sustainable business.

But how do you build trust? It would be next to impossible to do this by running one social media ad. You need a consistent multi-channel approach to content marketing to tell your story, spread your message, and reach your customers.

You might have the best product in your niche, but if you don’t have a solid way to communicate your message to the right people, you may as well be a speck of virtual dust in the wind.

Let’s take a look at the essential components of a solid content marketing strategy.

Build trust with your customers using blog content.

Here’s how today’s conscious consumers make a purchase decision:

They have a problem that needs to be solved. Example: a conscious consumer decides they want to ditch plastic straws to help the environment.
They search the internet for what they want. To use the straw example, a consumer might search for “plastic straw alternatives.”
They research their problem based on what comes up in their search.
They purchase the item that best fits their needs and that aligns with their values.

Here’s where having a solid blogging strategy is vital for your business. It’s not enough to write a 200-word post with a list of all the zero-waste straws you offer.

First, you have to know what your customers are likely to search for. Then, you have to create content that appeals to both Google and your customer. Jordan created an excellent blog post detailing exactly how to do that. But how do you use your blog to build trust? Remember, it’s the most important factor in conscious consumer decision-making.

To build trust with your blog content, you have to:

Write in a consistent brand voice. Your blog is your chance to tell your story and to let your customers know how you’re going to help them.
Be clear about topics and issues your brand is involved with. Consumers don’t make decisions when they’re confused. If they don’t know exactly where you stand, they’ll find a brand with a clearer message.
Blog consistently. Having a blog for your business is a time investment that will pay off. But it’s important to remember that you need at least 24-51 blog posts before you start seeing more traffic to your site (4).
Understand your ideal customer. What are their pain points? What are they reading about? What are they searching for? What causes do they support? When you understand your customer you can create content just for them. This lets them know that you understand them, which in turn builds trust.
Build backlinks and invite guest posts. Linking to trustworthy sites is an important part of your blog strategy. It shows that you’ve done your research and you’re an authority on the topic. Similarly, when you invite other experts in your niche to guest post, you build credibility with your customers.

You might be wondering… will my blog content efforts really pay off? The answer is yes! Consumers who read educational content from a brand are 131% more likely to buy from that brand (5). You’ve got to deliver the content to develop the trust.

Have meaningful conversations with your customers using emails.

Remember that email list you built and then forgot about? Now’s the time to nurture it. If blogging is your chance to tell your story and inform your customers, email is the place to have a conversation with them.

In a recent survey, 54% of respondents selected email over any other channel as their preferred method of communicating with brands (6). Add that to the fact that a good email campaign can yield as much as $44.00 for every dollar spent and the benefits of email for your business are clear (7).

Let’s cover the different ways you can use email to connect with conscious consumers and promote your products.

Newsletters are a good way for you to consistently show up in your customer’s inbox. You can include information about recent events, highlight causes you support, and include product highlights.

Be mindful about how you use a newsletter. In most cases, conscious consumers don’t care about business updates unless:

You tell them how it directly impacts them.
You tell them how it impacts the causes they believe in.

So make sure your newsletter is value-driven. Some examples of engaging ways to use an email newsletter:

Updates on shipping methods and how it benefits your customer
Your response to local or national events and how it benefits your customer or the causes they believe in
Special features on events you’ve participated in or organized
Invitations to your customers to join you in your volunteer efforts. Organizing a beach clean-up? Invite your customers!

Email sequences or campaigns can be used to welcome new subscribers, market a specific product or service, or revive a cold list.

Welcome email sequences should be focused on making your subscriber feel like part of a community — save the selling for another time. A great way to increase engagement is to ask your subscribers a question and encourage an email response. You are doing two things here: starting a conversation and gathering information about your customers so you can better serve them.
Nurture sequences are designed to provide additional information about a specific product or service your customer may be interested in. You might send out several emails in this sequence that address your customer’s pain points and objections. These types of sequences typically follow a specific order, designed to lead your customer to an eventual purchase.
Reengage a cold email list. To do so, you might send an enticing offer or a relevant piece of content. If your subscribers don’t respond, they’re likely not helping your email metrics. In this case, you should send an email letting them know that you are unsubscribing them. It’s important that your subscribers actually want to be hearing from you.

In the same way that investing in quality blogging can yield big returns for your business, so can emails. Just don’t forget to be conversational — let your customers know what’s in it for them and the causes they care about.

Build brand awareness and highlight your mission using social media.

Having a social media presence is an essential part of any content marketing strategy designed to build trust. 3.8 billion of us are actively using social media and following our favorite brands.

It may seem daunting to think about all of the social media channels out there, and how your business could possibly develop a consistent presence across them all.

The good news is: you don’t have to! A good strategy is to find out what channels your customers are using and develop a plan around only those platforms (9). It’s also important to use social media to direct your customers back to your website — after all, that’s where they’re most likely to make a purchase.

While your social media strategy will vary based on the channels you are using, the principles of building trust and authenticity in the eyes of conscious consumers are the same.

Here are some examples of how to use social media to build trust:

Provide helpful content on relevant topics. A zero-waste store might do a feature on composting, for example.
Communicate about social and environmental issues immediately. It’s important to show that you care.
Invite other businesses who have similar missions to guest post.
Highlight your products and/or announce sales — again, don’t forget to highlight the benefits to your customer!
Inspire your customers with quotes, images, and video.

Nurture lasting relationships with a solid content marketing plan.

Mission-driven brands have an incredible opportunity to bring value to conscious consumers with their content marketing. When you’re focused on more than just the bottom line, you’re able to form a relationship built on trust with people who want to buy from brands they believe in..

The words you use across all marketing channels will help you build that trust and connect with your customers.

If all of this seems overwhelming to you — fear not! Partnering with a content marketing strategist can help you create the conscious culture that your customers crave. A sustainability copywriter can develop a solid plan across all channels designed to highlight your story, emphasize your mission, and deliver value to your customers. Invest in quality copywriting and you’ll be seeing the benefits for years to come.

Sources:

What Today’s Conscious Consumers Want — And How to Deliver

Build trust with your customers using blog content.

Have meaningful conversations with your customers using emails.

Build brand awareness and highlight your mission using social media.

Nurture lasting relationships with a solid content marketing plan.

Why You Need to Hire a Copywriter to Handle Your Content Marketing Needs

Five Reasons Why Blogging Is Important for Your eCommerce Business