If you run your own business but are conscious of how wasteful certain types of advertising can be, consider how you can make your marketing efforts 'Green'. There are many ways you can reach your customers that are effective, eco-friendly and inexpensive. Check out these great ideas below:

Advertise Online - Take advantage of online advertising instead of paper based-ads, which are becoming more and more popular. Consider web banners, Pay-Per-Click adverts, and Social Media advertising. Online advertising can also be tracked for its effectiveness too, rather than paper based ads which are difficult to track.

Send Email Newsletters - Newsletters are great for updating your customer base on what's happening with your company, but paper is very wasteful, especially if you're sending it to a large amount of people. Use online newsletters instead, using services such as Mailchimp. It is totally eco-friendly, and you can track how well your emails are doing too.

Recycle Paper - If you do use paper advertising for parts of your marketing, ensure that not only the paper is recyclable, but it is stated that this is the case too. Many people who are handed leaflets in the street for example, will throw them into the bin after reading the information presented. If they see that the paper can be recycled, they are more likely to do so.

Hold Meetings Online - If you regularly hold meetings with other parts of your company, hold them remotely as much as possible. This saves emissions from cars and paper handed out at meetings. Using tools such as Skype is completely eco-friendly.

Buy Local - If you need to buy any materials for your marketing such as paper, stationary and computers, buy them locally like you would do with food. This minimises the shipping costs to your business as well as the environment and supports local businesses at the same time.

Sell Online - It may seem quite an obvious move to make, but many businesses do not have a website selling their products. Selling online is a must today, and is also great for the environment. Your products are immediately marketed to the entire world, and not just your local city. It is good for the environment; fewer people will drive to a physical 'store'.

Are you conscious about being ‘green’ in your marketing efforts? We’d love to hear your tips!