How to Write "Green Copy"How to Write Commercial Copy Green copy is good both for your career and your clients because green is the color of both money and the environment. Some business people are good at making the former while protecting the latter and you'll have plenty of clients if you know how to write green copy. Here are two case studies. 1) Local Landscaping Company Take my Local Landscaping Company (not its real name), for example. The cover of their direct mail brochure reads: "Healthy Lawns Support a Healthy Environment." That's an excellent example of Green Copy. So by hiring this company, I had no idea that I would be saving the environment. I have to admit I feel better, not worse, for knowing that; no matter how skeptical I might be at the outset. You open the four-fold brochure and you are looking at the picture of happy boy in a boat on a lake, posing with a big fish for the camera, and with a great innocent smile on his face. And your eye catches the bold header on the other page: "Your lawn care and Your Local Bay." A smaller photo below shows a loon flying in a wooded area, presumably a marshland. The rest of this successful marketing piece (designed in various shades of green, of course) really drives home the message of taking care of your lawn almost as a "civic duty." It makes you feel a bit guilty for not having hired the Local Landscaping Company earlier to take care of your lawn for you. 2) Auto Dealership There is a car dealership in Maryland so serious about protecting the environment that it earned a front-page story in Washington Post's BUSINESS supplement on 4/21/2007. The owner of the dealership made the news by the announcement that all his dealerships are now converting to 100 percent wind power for electricity. We learned that the dealership is the first of its kind in the whole United States named a "Green Power Partner" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. How is that for some great Green Copy and a PR coup? It’s the kind of “green writing” that you should try to deliver for your clients. When asked "Jack, do you consider yourself as an environmentalist?" the owner answered: "I think of myself as a used-car salesman, but if I'm going across my used-car lot and I see a piece of trash and I pick it up and put it in the can – put it in the right can – then I'm an environmentalist." What an excellent answer. Not only he comes across as a modest and truthful businessman but now we can also imagine how clean his car lots must be! How can you make your business copy more green-friendly? Can you write about wind turbines or solar cells installed for the electricity need of your client’s business? Can you perhaps create a prize for the best "Green Essay" written by the local high school students of your client? Green is environment and green is money. You establish the connection by your fresh Green Copy and your client could be the next story in your local newspaper or the evening news. Have a Great Tip, Photo or Comment About This Topic?Do you have a great tip or photo about this? Something that you believe we should read or see? Contribute and share it today! |