What is “GreenID” Marketing all about?
GreenID Marketing; Marketing that Speaks to You.
What does “GreenID” mean? What does it stand for?
A lot of people don’t even know how to pronounce it. And here I am in marketing, with lack of clarification on my own business name.
It’s not pronounced, “greened” or “green-ed”. It’s actually Green ID, as in Green Identity.
This is the story of my brand and business.
While I spent most of my career in corporate marketing and product management, I “grew up” in the horticulture industry. My family owns and operates a series of businesses outside of Chicago, focused on a variety of horticulture operations, including a retail garden center, landscape design business and a large wholesale tree farm.
At various times of my career, I have spent time contributing to, working at, marketing and managing various parts of the business. After all, that is the core element of most small to medium family owned businesses. You show up daily and do a little bit of everything. A lot of everything; whatever needs to be done. Being an entrepreneur is HARD but I have experienced the benefits first hand. My grandfather opened this company, my brother runs it today.
GreenId was initially a “side hustle”. I helped friends, family and some referrals as they opened new businesses and needed help with their marketing strategy and tactics. There was another purpose. There is simply little chance of staying relevant within digital marketing unless you are working the technology daily. I wanted to keep my skill set current.
Eventually, as my client roster grew, so did my business.
So, why GreenID?
When it came time to name and brand the business, I chose to focus on the sustainability and horticulture industry. This industry tends to lag behind in terms of adapting and embracing new strategies and technologies. It is an industry of build on decades of hard work, generational ownership, and a standard way of doing things. In other words, change can be hard. My goal was to provide these companies with an avenue to change, and a path to creating “digital identities” designed to carry their business into the next generation. Having grown up with my grandfather as my boss, and my little brother as my co-worker, I understand (oh so well) the nuances of leading change within a family business.
My tag line, “Marketing that Speaks to You” came a little later. One of my specialties in marketing has been copywriting. Taking the work, products and services created by passionate entrepreneurs and turning it into marketing content that can truly connect with their core audience.
With GreenID branding in place, I launched the marketing agency as my full time job in 2019.
While the initial focus was on horticulture, today most of my clients are outside the industry.
The tend to have shared criteria and a lot of aspects in common with one another:
Privately owned, often family owned
Led by a dynamic entrepreneur focused on growth
Comfortable turning marketing over to an experienced outside agency
Looking for outside and expert marketing guidance that they don’t have internally
Hardworking, intelligent and loyal teams, dedicate to a common goal: Business Growth
Family owned business include dynamics that are not shared with publicly owned businesses. Start-ups have an energy and a evolving business model that keep me on my toes and bring out the best of my marketing capabilities. This is where I am comfortable as a marketer and confident in my ability to take your marketing to the next level.
While the GreenID branding is no longer directly tied to my current niche, I do think it is the perfect representation of my skill set and goals as a business owner. So for now, it’s not going anywhere.