Time to step outside the ESG echo chamber?
If it seems like every other post you see on LinkedIn is from a company or one of its senior people talking all the time about their sustainable and social impact initiatives, it may feel like overkill. What you might not know is that rather than enhancing their brand, it is likely having a negative impact on their bottom line.
We’ve been a B Corp since 2021 – one of the very first PR agencies globally to become certified. Whilst I love the B Corp community, something has become very clear to me when speaking with other B Corp business leaders and marketers: they tend to lean on their B Corp status as the primary selling point in their marketing.
If looking to win new customers exclusively within the B Corp community this makes perfect sense. But with less than 3,000 of us that’s a remarkably small pool of prospects to be swimming in.
Our experience shows that most if not all B Corps are looking to do business and partner with the wider SME community, which is made up of 5.6 million businesses (FSB) – some will be attracted to working with B Corp businesses and brands even if they are not one themselves, but many won’t give a hoot.
That might sound harsh, yet it is true. And we have the evidence to back it up.
We canvassed the opinions of over 2,000 business leaders and marketers and asked them:
“A lot of businesses and brands talk a lot about their environmental and social impact on LinkedIn and (X) Twitter. In what ways does this influence your perception of them?”
This is what they told us:
- 1 in 3 (36%) stated that the messages shared on social media by businesses talking about their green and social impact initiatives has “no effect” on them whatsoever.
- 31% stated that such posts actually “puts them off” that business.
How can this be when there is no much research that points to the rise of the conscious customer and that purpose-led businesses tend to out-perform others in terms of revenues and growth? Here’s what’s happening.
Too much telling, not enough sharing of the right information
Customers are like children. They don’t want to be told what to do. Pushing out messages via owned media (your social media channels, blog, podcast etc.) or earned media (press releases sent to newspapers, magazines, TV/radio) that focus heavily on your ESG credentials will simply do one or all of these three things:
- P*ss people off because you’re polishing your own halo and seeking public endorsement for doing the right thing by people and the planet.
- Confuse your target audience as to what you actually do as a business if most or all of your messaging is ESG-focused.
- Antagonise those customers who may have been willing to buy from you but won’t because your messages are essentially telling them that your commitments to ESG or B Corp status means you should want to do business with them.
That’s not how to sell your product or service. So, when sharing your stories with the media or on social media, do so in moderation. In other words:
Be careful not to overshadow what you actually do as a business for the sake of promoting your green and social impact credentials.
Businesses need to rethink the way they talk about what they do in their ESG comms and how they engage their customers. This will enable them to appeal both to those already onboard with their quest to be more responsible and others who remain rather nonchalant about the whole thing.
When I see a business talking of nothing other than their purpose and ESG initiatives on social media and in the media itself, it makes me question just how in tune with their customers they really are.
One final thing that organisations need to be mindful of is this:
We need to stop saying ‘purpose before profit’ because no business can ever deliver on its purpose without generating profit.
It’s crap. You cannot fulfil your purpose without the profit to fund it. Suggesting otherwise implies you don’t understand basic business principles and that turns potential customers and partners off.
Nobody likes feeling they’re being looked down on from a moral high ground. Educate don’t alienate them and your prospect will make their own informed decision to do so on their terms.
Getting the balance right between communicating your ESG credentials and doing so in a way that appeal not repeals customers is hard, but possible. That’s where we can help.
