Faye Clifton is the sales and marketing manager at the multi-award winning Green and Blue, a company of designers, creators and innovators who create products to help wildlife. Selling to consumers and trade. They launched in 2005 and as well as growing online sales, they are selling to over 80 stores worldwide including some awesome organisations such as the National Trust, Design Museum and the Tate.
About the business
- eCommerce Business Structure – Online Only & Wholesale
- Product Range Scale – niche
- On WooCommerce
- Based in Perranporth, UK
- Plugins – ZenDesk
Bee Bricks
About 90% of bees in the UK are solitary bees, and within that category there are over 250 species of bee. They don’t produce honey, live in hives, or have a queen, but they are absolutely vital pollinators and are responsible for about a third of the food we all eat.
Bee bricks can be used in construction or just in your garden to provide them a nesting site and habitat. If every new house being built used bee bricks, there would be massive amounts of necessary habitat for solitary bees.
Solitary bees do not swarm, and since they don’t have a queen to protect, they are not aggressive. This makes providing bee bricks for them a safe way to encourage the bees, look after them, and introduce them to children, because you don’t need to be scared that they’re going to sting.
The Team
The team has grown from just Faye and co-founder Gavin to a group of eight, seven of whom are involved on a day-to-day basis working across making their ranges, putting bird feeders and birdhouses together, picking and packing, and designing the products. Everything from design to manufacture to shipping is done in-house.
The only thing outsourced is the ceramics that their bird feeders are made from.
Raising Awareness
As a company, Green&Blue wanted to feel like they were doing some good in the world and making a difference. One way they could do that was to create awareness and education about solitary bees. They are hoping to develop a National Solitary Bee Awareness Week, and they are taking on a freelancer and an intern to help them manage that.
Listen to learn about National Solitary Bee Awareness Week educational possibilities, date possibilities, why they chose a week instead of a day, and how that helps them with the challenge of spreading their message across their different platforms and audiences.
Marketing with Passion
Now that Green&Blue has added bee bricks to their range, it’s even easier to do consumer-side marketing. They are so clear about their niche and their message, and it makes everything just flow.
They try to get a new blog post out at least once a month, and also do guest blogging. They also produce content for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Tips for Guest Blogging
Know your niche. Be very clear about the audience you are reaching and what kind of content will work well. Any content they accept from others must fit with their story and the reason behind it. Producing content for others lets them get their message out to a wider audience. The SEO is a nice bonus on the side, but it’s more about the value that they can give and receive.
Listen to hear an example about Green&Blue’s collaboration with Bloom Box.
Press and Awards
The beautiful design of the products has contributed to some of the great press that they’ve received and awards they’ve won. Their range is different and iconic, and it stands apart.
Listen to learn some of the press and awards that Green&Blue has received, and how they have listed those achievements on their website.
Most Awesome Thing Right Now
Faye loves that they have a small, passionate team who all love what they do and get along. It’s a brilliant place to come to work, and they are producing a product that makes a difference so they can hold their heads high. It’s awesome to be setting up National Solitary Bee Awareness Week, awesome to be making the world a better place, awesome to feel like they are doing some good, and awesome that they all love doing it.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Do Open: How a Simple Email Newsletter Can Transform Your Business by David Hieatt
- Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Know your niche.
You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…
Tool Top Tip
- Grammarly
Growth Top Tip
- Be really clear about who you are. It makes everything so much easier.
- If you’re clear about what you stand for, it makes every decision you make in your business much clearer. You won’t get led astray or make wrong decisions because it’s all coming from a higher purpose.
Interview Links
For a special 15% off an item offer available through the end of July, visit the Green&Blue website and use code ‘masterplan.’
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