What A Sustainability Copywriter Is — And Why It Might Be Worth Your Investment
It takes a lot of hard work to bring something that’s truly earth-healing to the marketplace. You heard the call from our ravaged earth. And you brought your expertise to the table to create something really cool.
Maybe it’s a regenerative agriculture course. Or perhaps it’s a low-waste option of a cultural staple. Whatever it is, you’ve put in long hours to bring it to the world.
Now that it’s here, you’re getting a taste of the hungry marketing machine. Which parts of the machine are worth your investment? And which can you put on the backburner? A sustainability copywriter can help you make these decisions.
I’m Andraya (she/her), the owner and founder of Woven Wordsmith Copy. I’m a beyond-sustainability copywriter and I write marketing materials for sustainable brands that go beyond sustainability. To give you a sneak peak, going beyond-sustainability is entering regeneration. It’s cultivating practices with positive feedback loops. It’s whole systems thinking — rather than symptom thinking.
Let’s dig into what a sustainability copywriter is and what it means to be a beyond-sustainability copywriter.
What is a sustainability copywriter?
A sustainability copywriter is a marketing professional who writes copy for sustainable businesses. This includes:
Websites — The virtual home for your business. Where people learn what you do, why you do it, and why they should choose you. And where Google learns if your cool stuff is worth recommending to others.
Blogs (like this one) — This content educates your audience. It also makes you an authority in the sustainability industry. And it’s where Google decides if you’re worth a recommendation.
Emails — The place to nurture your audience, promote anything you have to offer, and build relationships. An email list is one of your most valuable assets because you own it.
Ads — Targeted ads boost your awareness and make more sales. And the best part is that the algorithms do the work of reaching new leads for you.
Landing Pages — This piece of copy spells out what your offer is, what it does, and how it will help your audience. Which leads to more sales and more raving fans.
Opt-Ins — The opt-in is a valuable freebie (like an ebook, guide, checklist, or quiz). A strong opt-in builds momentum and demand for the cool stuff you bring to the world. When you do it right, your opt-in will be that sweet first taste that keeps them coming back for more.
Social Media Posts — The place to build authority and trust. Posting relevant, engaging content brings value to your followers' lives.
Most sustainability copywriters, including myself, also offer marketing strategy services. This includes creating sales funnels. They have specific expertise and experience in the sustainable market. Which is an invaluable part of understanding audience preferences and beliefs.
So, let’s remove the jargon and get into what copy and sales funnels are. Basically, copy is the name for the words your business needs to run. You use them to promote your products and services, connect to your customers, and make sales. And when pieces of copy are put together to strategically guide your customer’s journey, it’s called a funnel.
A sustainability copywriter works specifically with brands that have a sustainable business model or offer sustainable options to their customers.
Seems pretty simple, right? Why would you even need a sustainability copywriter? Can’t anyone write words, including the business owners themselves?
The short answer is yes. But like anything, there’s a way to write copy well and infinite ways to miss the mark.
What does a sustainability copywriter do?
A skilled sustainability copywriter is an invaluable asset to your sustainable brand. If you’re looking for a copywriter or a sustainability content writer for your website, they’ll do that.
A sustainability copywriter considers a ton of factors before they even begin writing. Factors that direct which approach they take. Things like:
Your target audience — what they think, believe, and value
The place in the funnel your piece of copy will go — and the attitudes of your customers at that place in your funnel
Dream and pain points of your audience — and how your cool stuff solves their problems
What objections your customers might have — along with strategies to overcome those objections before they’re even raised
A good sustainability copywriter has done all of this work before they’ve written a single word. These are all factors I consider to help me write copy that connects deeply. And connection, my friends, is the cousin of conversion.
People like to feel seen and understood. They connect with you when you understand their struggles and celebrate their successes. Good copy shows them that you get it. And you’ve created something that can take them from where they are to where they want to go. This is what leads to conversion, the art of making the sale.
When it comes to writing the copy, sustainability copywriters create deep connections. I do this by including a few key techniques…
Emotional techniques — These techniques are used to connect your earth-healing stuff to the emotional lives of your audience. When you connect emotionally, you speak to the transition story of your audience.
A transition story — This is the story of where your audience is before your gadgets and gizmos and where they’ll be after. Having a clear transition story guides the copy, and the reader, from beginning to end.
Storytelling — Humans loooove stories. When you weave storytelling that resonates with your audience in your copy, it helps them stay engaged and see themselves in the writing.
A Call-To-Action (CTA) — Every piece of copy should end with a super clear CTA. This is the action you want your readers to take after they read your copy. It can be joining your email list, checking out a page on your website, or making a purchase. A CTA guides the reader through your sales funnel, directing their journey.
You see, ethical marketing is understanding where your audience is at and how your sustainable brand can make their lives better. Then, it’s about crafting messaging that shows them they’re understood and taken care of. A sustainability copywriter does all this with the planet in mind.
To get this balance right takes practice and expertise. And usually sustainable business owners wear too many hats to do this job well on their own. This is where a sustainability copywriter comes in.
What is a beyond-sustainability copywriter?
“Beyond- sustainability copywriter” is a term I’ve coined at Woven Wordsmith. It references a future that’s bigger than sustainability. According to Oxford, sustainability is the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
They define environmental sustainability as “the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.”
But is all this earth-healing work *just* about avoiding the depletion of natural resources?
For me, and my clients, it’s about the increase of natural resources like healthy soil, clean air, and pure water. And it’s also about the hard-to-measure good stuff that results. Like a sense of belonging in your community, regenerative ecosystems, and equality for all. A beyond-sustainability copywriter thinks about climate solutions holistically.
As a beyond-sustainability copywriter, I work with brands that are building a regenerative and resilient future, not just a sustainable one. A regenerative future is full of components that positively impact each other without consistent input.
Healthy soil is regenerative because it creates a loop of carbon storage (among other things). Regenerative communities support each other at the grassroots level. And having a resilient future means weathering coming environmental challenges. It means riding out the turbulence of switching to a green economy. And after it all, coming out stronger on the other side.
Basically, as a beyond-sustainability copywriter I work hard for clients who are creating a future that takes less and gives more — creating positive ecological, social, and cultural feedback loops.
The world we live in today isn’t just headed toward ecological disaster — it’s not working socially either. As a beyond-sustainability copywriter, I use copy to help tip those scales towards a world we actually want to live in. One that’s inclusive to all human voices, thoughtful to our non-human companions, and protective of the environment.
Writing for businesses that are building a regenerative future is beyond-sustainable.
What will a beyond-sustainable future leave behind ?
One of the easiest ways to uncover what future I’m helping to build as a beyond-sustainability copywriter is to explore what that future IS NOT. We’re ditching…
Greenwashing — there’s no room for false environmental promises (claiming to be eco-friendly without action) or small commitments (just being recyclable).
Exploitation — we’re not interested in taking with destruction (oil and gas) when there’s an abundance given freely (solar and wind).
Symptom design — carbon is an important piece of the just one piece of the climate change puzzle. But too much carbon is a symptom of a much bigger picture. One that includes loss of forests and soil decarbonisation. Considering how everything fits together at its root is beyond-sustainable thinking.
Inequality — I believe that all environmentalism is intersectional. And that’s the kind that I practice. This means protecting the vulnerable, fighting for equality, and making space for all voices. A beyond-sustainable future is addresses social and environmental injustice. And it replaces it with inclusion.
With those things in mind, we can begin to paint a picture of a beyond-sustainable future. As a beyond-sustainability copywriter, I’m helping to share the story of sustainable brands. Brands built on reciprocity and whole systems thinking.
Join me in building a beyond-sustainable future
I hope you’ll join me in building a future that’s beyond-sustainable — it’s regenerative and resilient. If you’re a sustainable business owner who wants to see the difference good copy can make in your business — and in your earth-healing work — I’d love to chat. Chatting with sustainable business owners is one of my favorite parts of being a beyond-sustainability copywriter.
To get started, book your FREE 30 minute strategy session. Follow this link to learn more.
The impact you’re dreaming of is possible when your brand has a beyond-sustainability copywriter on your team. I can’t wait to help you.
