Green Marketing in the Digital Age: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This research aims to analyze and synthesize the research articles published over the past ten years, from 2012 to 2022, that deal with green marketing and digital marketing. The objective is to track the evolution of research in the field and to understand the trends on which the area has been researched during that period. The paper is based on a database of 54 research articles published in the specified period. This paper is not limited to specific journals; only the topics and the period are specified. The database analysis describes the topic and perspective of the article, the methodology used, and the themes, in addition to other factors of the given research. The main finding of this research is the identification of five main themes or categories within the research area: strategies, challenges, promotion, consumers, and digital media. These themes provide valuable insights for practitioners and scholars and ultimately benefit the broader community by providing information on decision-making and promoting sustainability in digital marketing and green marketing. This paper will help researchers better understand the research trends in the field and acquire some up-to-date knowledge about the research related to digital marketing and green marketing.

1. Introduction

Environmental issues have long been a concern. Concerns regarding the environmental effects of the production, distribution, and consumption of products have led to many research efforts over the years to create what is known as “green” or environmentally friendly products. A green product is a term used to describe products that cause minimum harm to the environment, regarding the nature of the products (e.g., bio-degradable) and their manufacturing process (gas emissions and use of natural resources), as well as their distribution at various levels [1].

The term “green products” gave rise to the term “green advertising”. It is a known fact that the advertisement of products plays a significant role in consumption patterns. Various research works have shown that proper advertising techniques can shift the habits and behavior of people’s daily lives in a way that makes them more likely to consume certain products. The advertising efforts and techniques focused on creating these shifts toward the consumption of green products are referred to as green advertising [2]. The term green marketing was first introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Polonsky and Everitt.

Green marketing means minimizing a product’s environmental impact through product redesign, sustainable manufacturing, and integrated marketing campaigns. It aims to promote eco-friendly products and meet the demand for sustainable consumption [3]. The main objective of green marketing is to position these environmentally friendly products in the market and appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.

Understanding the distinction between green marketing and sustainability marketing is crucial. While green marketing focuses on promoting environmentally friendly products, sustainability marketing takes a broader perspective and involves the inclusion of the entire community, including its social objectives and efforts towards environmental preservation. It necessitates the active participation of both national and local governments, organizations, and the general population, along with essential resources such as human expertise, financial backing, and infrastructure [4].

Sustainability marketing goes beyond promoting green products and advocating for sustainable business practices. This involves implementing socially responsible initiatives, reducing carbon footprints, embracing fair trade practices, supporting local communities, and ensuring long-term economic viability. By considering social and economic aspects alongside environmental factors, sustainability marketing aims to create a comprehensive approach to sustainability for businesses and organizations. Sustainability marketing is vital for companies targeting young audiences, such as Generation Z, who are known for being tech-savvy and actively engaged on social media platforms, particularly following the fashion industry and technology companies. By adopting environmentally conscious actions, companies can effectively capture the attention and loyalty of this critical target demographic.

Moreover, aligning with their values enhances brand reputation and fosters long-term brand loyalty.

These days there has been a sharp increase in the reliance on technologies for households and businesses. This has been a trend for quite a while now. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in 2019 and peaked in 2020, created a massive shift in businesses to rely more on technologies [4]. As a result of lockdowns, people were forced to stay home and use the Internet for communication instead of doing so face-to-face. This changed business models to embrace such technologies, emphasizing their success and effectiveness in reaching people and conducting different business operations. One of these operations involved the advertising and marketing of products. This phenomenon is known as digital marketing [5].

Digital marketing is simply using electronic devices and the means of digital communication (mainly the internet or text messages) to reach potential clients, connect with them, and convince them to purchase the product “source”. Digital marketing has become a powerful tool for reaching the customer and researching the market and understanding the customers, their needs, their demographic variables, and the connection of these variables with the desirable products. This is all done automatically using modern digital media, increasing the efficiency of market research and significantly reducing the costs, which is beneficial to both the producer and the consumer [6].

Following these concepts, it is logical to assume that digital marketing is a powerful tool for green marketing and promoting green products. Digital marketing seems to have become the main method of advertising for many businesses and the dominant tool of marketing over time. Due to the importance of promoting green and environmentally friendly products, the connections between digital marketing and green marketing require investigating. As a result of increasing internet penetration rates and the widespread popularity of digital platforms globally, digital advertising has emerged as a vital advertising medium. It is projected that approximately 616 billion U.S. dollars were spent on digital advertising worldwide in 2022, and this amount is expected to experience significant growth in the coming years. Current estimates indicate that global digital advertising revenue will exceed one billion U.S. dollars by 2027. This paper’s researchers have found limitations in research works investigating these connections. In light of this, this study aims to provide a basis for how to research this area and help create digital advertising models specialized in green marketing.

The present study holds significant importance as it conducts a comprehensive analysis and synthesis of research articles published in the last decade, focusing specifically on the domains of green marketing and digital marketing. By closely examining the evolution of research in these areas and identifying key trends, this research offers valuable insights that can benefit practitioners and scholars. Notably, identifying five major themes or categories within this field enriches the decision-making process and contributes to promoting sustainability in digital marketing and green marketing practices. Ultimately, this research serves as a valuable resource for researchers, providing an enhanced understanding of the current research trends and delivering up-to-date knowledge on the aforementioned topics; the following research questions were defined:

• How has the research field in green marketing and digital marketing evolved from 2012 to 2022?
• What themes, perspectives, and focus areas have emerged as significant areas of exploration?

A notable research gap exists regarding the examination of challenges related to the utilization of digital marketing for promoting green products, as well as the specific challenges that arise when applying digital marketing within the context of green marketing through digital media. This dearth of studies limits our understanding of the obstacles and difficulties encountered when implementing digital marketing strategies to promote environmentally sustainable products. Consequently, there is a significant need for further research to address this research gap and enhance our knowledge in this area.

Despite its significance as a major sector in modern times, the mobile phone industry has received limited attention in studying green marketing practices. This research gap calls for further exploration and analysis of green marketing practices within this industry, considering its unique characteristics and challenges. Moreover, there is a noticeable lack of research on efficient strategies for promoting green products through social media platforms, despite the integral role of social media in marketing strategies. Bridging this research gap is crucial to understand how companies can effectively leverage social media to promote green products and engage with environmentally conscious consumers.

2. Materials and Methods

As relevant research papers need to be collected for the review, it is important to select the sources of these papers. After thoroughly researching the available papers from various sources, it was found that studies that connect the topics of green marketing to digital marketing are scarce and not widely available, with fewer than 30 available on the Web of Science. For that reason, the authors of this paper decided to include all the papers published in peer-reviewed journals over the past ten years covering the topics of green marketing and digital marketing that investigate the connections between them.

The research was conducted in various steps. The first step was to select the search engines for selecting the research articles. For that purpose, the following search engines were chosen: Google Schooler, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, and JSTOR. These are comprehensive databases that offer researchers access to a wide range of scholarly literature, ensuring the availability of high-quality academic resources across various disciplines. These databases provide advanced search capabilities, citation tracking, full-text access, and personalized features, making them essential tools for researchers to discover, access, and stay updated on the latest field research. This step was followed by selecting the keywords to find the relevant papers. During the literature search phase, our investigation yielded a corpus of 25 articles from Google Scholar, accompanied by an additional 16 articles sourced from ScienceDirect. As mentioned, the remaining articles were acquired from other prominent databases, namely Web of Science, Scopus, and JSTOR.

The keywords used for the search included the following terms: green marketing, green products, sustainability, sustainable marketing, and environmentally friendly products, combined with one of the following keywords: digital marketing, digital channels, digital media, and social media. The conjunction AND was used between the two parts of the keyword to find the research papers discussing both topics and reveal the connection between them.

The second step was to determine the basis on which the papers resulting from the search would be included. The authors attempted to create a review of research articles connecting green marketing and digital marketing. For that purpose, the following categories of papers were set up: (1) papers discussing the use of digital marketing for promoting green products, (2) papers discussing the effect of digital marketing on consumer behavior towards green products, (3) papers discussing the strategies for using digital media for green marketing, (4) studies investigating the level of using digital media for green marketing, (5) papers discussing the challenges of green marketing through the digital media, (6) research papers discussing how the nature of digital marketing promotes sustainability. It is apparent from the list above that studies establishing connections between digital marketing and green marketing were selected for investigation.

The third step of the research was to collect the papers that fall under these topic categories and analyze them to confirm that they indeed include the topics of interest for this research. The research initially collected 68 research papers from the conducted search; after a thorough analysis, 14 papers were found irrelevant to the research topic, leaving 54 papers selected for the study. The small number of research articles that were found to be relevant to the topic shows the scarcity of research that focuses on the topic and confirms the need for conducting a study that helps with future investigation in the field [7].

The fourth step of the research was the collection of data. The selected articles were analyzed by first defining the data that needed to be collected from each article and then establishing a table of those data to collect the information from each of the papers of the study and store it. The collected data connect the topic of the study, the research methodology, the methods of data collection, and the authors of the papers investigated. The research employed a deductive thematic analysis approach, wherein predetermined categories or themes were established to guide the inclusion or exclusion of research papers. The process of the research is shown in (Figure 1).

3. Analysis of the Papers

This section is devoted to the analysis of the collected papers. First, a paper table was created listing the authors, the article’s publishing year, the title, the research methodology applied, and the main subject. That information is used for the analysis in the following sections.

3.1. The Authors of the Analyzed Articles

The first step was to investigate the authors of the papers. Regarding the collaboration, it was found that 8 articles were written by one author, 10 by two authors, 16 by three authors, 9 by four authors, and 11 by five or more authors. As far as the background of the authors is concerned, it was found that 25 of the authors were from Europe (with Slovakians being the highest number), 18 of the authors were from Asia (with Chinese at the top), 8 of the authors were from the American continent (especially from the United States), while 3.70% of the authors were from Africa (all of them from Morocco). Only a very low percentage (1.85%) was from Australia.

3.2. Classification of the Topics

The next step was to investigate the topics of the paper. The authors analyzed the research papers and identified the main topic of the study. According to the analysis, it was found that the papers that discussed the strategies and methods of implementing digital marketing with green marketing had the highest number, with a percentage of 29.63%, followed by the effect of digital marketing on consumer behavior toward green products, with a percentage of 25.93%. The use of digital marketing for promoting green products had a percentage of 24.07%. The topics on the challenges of green marketing through digital marketing and the level of using digital marketing for green marketing had relatively low percentages, making them the least researched themes in the topic of green marketing through digitalization.

The most important aspect of the investigation seems to be the topic of the study. The researchers identified five main themes that a study can fall under. They are as follows:

• Strategies: strategies for using digital media for green marketing (T1). This category describes the methods and strategies considered when applying digital marketing to promote green products.
• Challenges: The challenges of green marketing through digital media (T2). This category deals with the challenges of applying digital marketing for promoting green products and the challenges resulting from its application.
• Promotion: Using digital marketing to promote green products (T3). This category analyzes using digital media for green marketing, including some benefits and basic ideas.
• Consumer: The effect of digital marketing on consumer behavior towards green products (T4): This theme focuses on how digital media may influence consumer behavior to search for green products.
• Digital media: The level of using digital media for green marketing (T5). This category examines at what level digital marketing is applied for green marketing these days.

3.3. Research Methodologies of the Analyzed Papers

Regarding the research methodologies applied, the analysis found that 27.77% of the articles used a theoretical approach, while 72.23% used an empirical approach. It was also found that among the studies that used an empirical approach, a survey was the most commonly used data collection method in 76.92% of the studies. The remaining studies used secondary data from various sources, a systematic review of previous literature, or personal interviews. Of the studies, 59.25% collected primary data, while the remaining gathered secondary data.

Regarding the data collection methodologies used in the collected articles,

Table 1. The distribution of data collection methodologies for the themes’ topics.

	Systematic Review	Survey	Interview	Observational Experimental	Case Study
T1	5	6	3	2	0
T2	1	2	1	0	1
T3	5	3	0	3	2
T4	4	7	1	1	2
T5	1	2	0	1	1
Total	16	20	5	7	6

Source: systematic literature review, n = 54.

displays the methods employed for each research theme or topic. The most commonly used methodology for data collection was surveys, followed by systematic reviews.

3.4. Methods of Data Collection

Various methods of data collection and analysis were used in the reviewed studies. The methods of data collection included case studies [8], systematic reviews [9,10,11], surveys [12,13,14,15], interviews [16,17,18,19,20], and studies analyzing secondary data obtained from records [21], and some papers took investigative approaches for the data collection.

As far as the investigative approaches are concerned, Ref. [22] conducted a longitudinal study, Ref. [23] carried out a hierarchical linear modeling study, and some researchers performed experimental and observational studies [24,25,26]. Some of these studies took a qualitative approach and some took a quantitative approach, in the percentages described earlier in this paper.

3.5. Methods of Data Analysis

The data collected in the reviewed studies were analyzed through various methods. The experimental data were analyzed with methods such as deterioration analysis, cluster analysis and component analysis [27], qualitative content analysis [28], and entropy approach [8]. For the systematic review studies, systematic literature review [29,30], meta-analysis [10,11], thematic analysis [31,32,33], content analysis [34,35], and descriptive statistics [21] were used.

For the statistical analysis, various methods and tests were employed, such as Harman’s single factor [23], percentage analysis [9,12], Chi-square [24], Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model [13], t-test [36], Cronbach’s alpha test [37], F-test and ANOVA test [38], correlation analysis [39], one-dimensional and multidimensional data analysis, Crosstab and Pearson’s Chi-square test [40]. Finally, for the interviews, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis [16], and thematic analysis [19,20] were used.

3.6. General Types of Methods of Analysis Associated with Each Theme or Category

Regarding the methods of data analysis,

Table 2. The distribution of the methods of analysis for the themes’ topics or categories of the topic.

	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5
Analysis of variance and co-variance	5.56%	1.85%	5.56%	5.56%	1.85%
Correlations’ analysis	7.41%	1.85%	5.56%	9.26%	5.56%
Qualitative analysis	7.41%	3.70%	5.56%	3.70%	0.00%
Descriptive analysis	3.70%	0.00%	3.70%	0.00%	0.00%
Factor analysis	5.56%	1.85%	3.70%	7.41%	3.70%

shows the methods of data analysis used for each theme of the research topics. Three analysis methods were identified for the empirical data: variance and co-variance, correlation analysis, and factor analysis. On the other hand, two methods of analysis were identified for the theoretical data: qualitative analysis and descriptive analysis. It was found that correlation analysis was the most widely used at 29.63%, followed by factor analysis at 22.22%, then analysis of variance and co-variance, as well as qualitative analysis at 20.37%, and finally, descriptive analysis with 7.41%.

While reviewing the literature, it was observed that there are papers that investigated certain fields and papers that discussed certain products, with differences in the results and the effects of green marketing and digital marketing. This means that different fields and products differ in their aspects, making it important to investigate the different fields individually to capture all the related aspects to optimize digital green marketing, understanding its defects and negative aspects to improve them. Different products require different marketing models, which is a well-known fact [41].

The primary focus of these studies revolves around the utilization of social media and digital marketing tools by companies to promote specific green products. Various sectors have been explored, including the dairy industry, agro-industrial sector, mechanical engineering, food industries, textile industry, and cleaning industry. Specific products have also been examined, such as those containing palm oil, Schneider Electric, the “Philips Green Logo”, “Natura EKOS” by Natura Cosmetics, the “Conscious Collection” by H&M, and smokeless tobacco. However, none of the studies have specifically delved into the mobile phone industry, despite its significance as one of the major industries in modern times.

Several studies measured the performance and effectiveness of using digital marketing channels for promoting different types of green products; most of the studies analyzed the social media platforms and the campaigns being launched by using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Flickr, and Instagram. In contrast, other studies focused on SEO (search engine optimization) and mobile marketing.

The study aims to propose an efficient strategy for promoting green products through social media. Some studies have examined the content of advertisements by analyzing various types of content, including informative posts, testimonials, user-generated content, and sustainability initiatives. Other studies have focused on understanding user engagement and interaction with green product content on social media platforms, including likes, comments, shares, and direct messages. These investigations aim to assess the extent of user interaction and the nature of discussions surrounding green products.

The research areas for studying social media and customer behavior towards green products include the following: identifying commonly used social media platforms for promotion (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn); analyzing content strategies used by companies (e.g., informative posts, testimonials, user-generated content, sustainability initiatives); investigating engagement and interaction patterns (e.g., likes, comments, shares, direct messages); exploring the role of social influence and peer effects; examining information processing and decision-making factors (e.g., accessibility, credibility, user reviews); assessing the influence of social media on attitude and perception formation; studying behavior change and purchase intention; considering moderating factors (e.g., demographics, environmental awareness, social norms); and identifying mediating factors (e.g., trust in social media content, perceived social responsibility).

The following proposed social media entities model identifies key entities that need to be examined to analyze the effectiveness of social media activities in promoting green products. Each entity plays a distinct role in the broader marketing or communication strategy and can be considered an independent component within this framework.

The authors composed a model that identifies key entities that need to be examined to analyze the effectiveness of social media activities in promoting green products, as shown in (Figure 2).

3.7. The Years of Publication

The next step was to investigate which years the research papers were published. The analysis results revealed a gradual increase in research articles that discuss a connection between digital marketing and green marketing over the years.

However, there was a sudden increase in the number of research articles in 2020 and 2021, a rise of 18.5% in the case of articles published in 2020 and 40.74% a year later. It may be assumed that the sudden increase in these numbers was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a heightened interest in digitalization in general and digital marketing in particular. As the research was completed by the first quarter of 2022 with 11.11% of the published papers, it may be assumed that the year 2022 is likely to follow a similar pattern to the previous year regarding research interest. Figure 3 shows the number of published articles over the years.

3.8. The Trends over the Years

Table 3. Number of research themes with respect to the years.

Year	(T1) Strategies	(T2) Challenges	(3) Promoting	(4) Consumer	(5) Digital Media
2012	0	0	0	0	0
2013	1	0	0	0	0
2014	0	0	0	0	0
2015	0	0	1	1	0
2016	1	0	0	0	0
2017	2	1	0	0	0
2018	1	0	1	2	0
2019	2	2	0	0	1
2020	2	0	3	2	2
2021	6	2	8	7	1
2022	1	0	0	2	2

shows the five themes of the topic and the number of papers on that topic throughout the years. It is evident that the theme highlighting the strategies for using digital media for green marketing tends to be the most consistent, a point of almost constant discussion, compared with the rest of the themes, which were almost non-existent before 2016. This suggests that connecting digital marketing with green marketing is a relatively new field of study. In addition, this indicates that research on what level of digital media is used for green marketing only started to appear after 2018. This might be because this theme was hardly investigated, as no sufficient data and/or methods for measurement were available earlier.

Table 3 also shows that the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in the number of studies, including the following themes: the use of digital media for green marketing, the effect of digital media on consumer behavior towards green products, and the strategies for using digital media for green marketing. The other research themes or categories seem to be unaffected by the pandemic. This phenomenon may be attributed to an increased interest in highlighting the positive outcomes of digital marketing in the field of green marketing by providing a proper method for its implementation. The increased interest in digital media may also be accredited to the immense need for its application during the pandemic.

4. Discussion

This section is devoted to analyzing the collected papers to synthesize and interpret the research findings in the context of the paper’s objectives.

4.1. Positive Effects of Digital Media on Green Marketing

Various results were obtained from each of the reviewed studies. This section provides an overview of the main findings of these studies. The first significant conclusion drawn from the results is the positive correlation between implementing digital marketing for promoting green products and sustainability. It was found in a large number of studies [9,23,24,31,33,42,43] that using digital technologies for green marketing has positive effects on the outcomes of marketing strategies.

Some studies focused on specific fields dealing with smokeless tobacco [22] or the textile industry [15]. Ref. [25] found that green marketing has raised consumer awareness of the environment, and social media has proved to be an effective tool to make internet users aware of green products and their advantages. On the other hand, some studies focused on certain platforms for digital marketing, such as Instagram [28] and websites [35]. Ref. [44] found that by stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship, increasing market share, reducing waste, and recycling resources, digital green marketing has a favorable association with green product consumption.

Other studies also investigated the ways digital green marketing change people’s behavior towards sustainability and the consumption of green products, indicating that it promotes these green products and the culture of customers to encourage them to purchase and consume these products instead of ordinary ones. Some authors [10,11] also focused on the field of tourism and found that digital marketing contributes to destination sustainability for tourists.

4.2. Overview of the Field

Some of the studies aimed to provide an overview of digital green marketing. Ref. [30] proposed a model to investigate the level of digitalization of green marketing and recommended possible areas of future research in the field. Ref. [45] investigated the main topics of research in the field of digital green marketing and found that general marketing strategies of brands, brand promotion strategies, determinants of consumer green purchasing behavior, and raising environmental awareness are the main themes of the research. An overview of sustainable development, green sustainable tourism, and digital techniques to enhance these characteristics was provided by [46].

4.3. The Affecting Factors

Some reviewed studies examined the factors that affect the degree to which digital media enhances green marketing. Various results were obtained from the review, such as the digital management of prices, sales, operations, and purchases. Attitude, perceived behavioral control, subjective standards, and green marketing methods all impact foreign tourists’ behavior [14]; brand awareness and connections, perceived quality, and behavioral loyalty are all factors to consider [16].

Other studies found several factors, such as environmental beliefs, packaging, and design. The findings contribute to our understanding of green marketing by confirming that individual awareness of eco-friendly products, specifically their packaging and design, has a significant relationship. Additionally, the study reveals that both significant factors are consumer willingness to pay a premium price for eco-friendly goods and their intention to purchase at a higher price compared to non-green products. These results highlight the importance of consumer mindset and willingness to invest in environmentally friendly options in the marketplace [38]. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, communication system, and institutional support, a comparative analysis was conducted to examine the promotion of sustainable food consumption through online marketing communication in grocery stores in Slovenia and Croatia. This analysis allowed the researchers to identify the differences and similarities in the promotional strategies. The findings revealed that the majority of grocery stores in Slovenia have a strong online promotion of sustainable consumption, whereas not all observed grocery stores in Croatia prioritize this aspect.

Furthermore, the local grocery stores in Slovenia and Croatia fall short compared to international grocery chains in promoting sustainable consumption through online marketing. This discrepancy can be attributed to various factors, including differences in available resources, awareness, and knowledge for implementing effective online communication strategies. Additionally, it may be influenced by the target consumers of the respective grocery stores and the competitive landscape within the grocery market [32].

Factors such as product quality, pricing, and the company’s image are covered by [47]. The findings of the study provide clear evidence supporting the effectiveness of green marketing. It was found that having a green image and offering high-quality green products contribute significantly to customer satisfaction. Interestingly, the research also revealed a positive correlation between prices and satisfaction, indicating that consumers are willing to pay higher prices for environmentally friendly products of superior quality; additionally, the study emphasizes the ongoing significance of the salesforce, highlighting that, despite the prevalence of online tools in the digital age, suppliers should not underestimate the importance of their sales team in driving success.

The research by [18] indicates that Greek online consumers have been influenced by the economic climate, recession, and lower income, leading to increased price sensitivity. The consumption of green products positively correlates with price sensitivity and perceived quality. This heightened price sensitivity creates more market opportunities for green products. Furthermore, the quality of green products plays a significant role. Merely purchasing a product at a low price is insufficient for online consumers; they strive to find the optimal balance between price and quality. While price remains the primary factor impacting their purchase decisions in specific online market conditions, they prioritize finding the best combination of price and quality. The study also covers various factors, including consumer attitudes toward green products, perceived value, brand awareness, and demographic characteristics, such as age.

Regarding investors’ and customers’ marketing communication [48], the study’s findings indicate that global efforts are directed towards integrating eco-innovations into the daily business activities of companies and making them an integral part of society. Effective marketing communication recognizes eco-innovations as a crucial factor for success. With the rapidly changing landscape of digital media and evolving user behavior, businesses are increasingly utilizing online communication as a means of marketing promotion and differentiation, incorporating innovative elements to stand out in the market.

Ref. [49] suggests that websites with a single source of green information, whether from restaurants or fellow customers, can influence green perceptions but not overall attitudes and behavioral intentions. However, websites that include both firm-initiated and customer-generated green information have the potential to influence overall attitudes and behavioral intentions. In addition, the findings revealed that individuals who are already environmentally conscious are more likely to be persuaded by green information. They tend to develop more positive attitudes and behavioral intentions after engaging with green information on the website.

The study by [8] covers failure rates, image, and remarketing campaigns. It indicates a connection between the characteristics of marketing communication channels and the level of green competitiveness in enterprises. To enhance green competitiveness, it is essential to adopt an omnichannel strategy, employ diverse combinations of marketing communication channels, and identify causal relationships among relevant quality criteria.

The factors of attitude and the image of the green brand were covered in the study by [37]. The findings emphasize that eco-friendly product packaging provides more than just environmental benefits. It also helps reduce transportation and warehousing costs, meet the demands of green consumers through sustainable materials, and attract environmentally conscious customers. Positive consumer emotions are closely linked to positive brand evaluations, while negative content or experiences, such as excessive packaging, should be avoided to maintain a favorable brand image. Enterprises can utilize these insights to better understand the value of eco-friendly packaging and make informed decisions for their brand.

4.4. Strategies for Implementation

Other reviewed papers focused on the proper strategies to be implemented and things that need to be considered for using digital media for green marketing. Ref. [29] mentioned the significance of building a measurement and assessment system for digitalization. Ref. [33] proposed a model for developing sustainable digitized sales, marketing, and services. Ref. [17] recommended using social media and platforms such as LinkedIn for display advertising. On the other hand, ref. [36] mentions the benefits of advertising through high (not low) sociality green newsfeed advertisements and the importance of consumers’ green involvement.

Several studies mentioned other important points, such as knowledge redundancy and relational embeddedness. Ref. [26] suggested using modern information and communication technology to intensify the process of ecological marketing. Ref. [19] mentioned the importance of smart packaging, smart equipment, predictive social media, and customer relationship management. Ref. [20] explained that corporations must identify the most appropriate social media platforms for their enterprises and develop additional ways to inspire individuals to participate in and contribute to the sustainability of the environment.

Furthermore, Ref. [50] mentions that business models must be capable of generating strategies that account for the ever-changing environment of digital media. Ref. [40] mentioned that companies must make it apparent that their products are environmentally friendly as most consumers will not read the labels on these products.

4.5. Challenges of Green Digital Marketing

Other studies that were reviewed focused on the challenges and difficulties that can be encountered in the field of digital green marketing. Ref. [51] found that one of the biggest issues is what is known as “greenwashing”, which refers to a type of marketing spin in which the concept of green marketing is used to deceive the public into believing that a company’s goods, goals, and policies are environmentally beneficial when they are not. Ref. [7] also investigated the difficulties of green digital marketing, where customer-centricity and behavior, competitiveness, supply chains, and competencies are all factors to consider.

5. Conclusions

Digital marketing is a relatively new research direction, which comes as a direct result of the rapid technological advancements in modern days. For that reason, it is rapidly gaining popularity. This is because businesses and organizations are shifting their business models towards a more digitalized one to increase efficiency and reduce the costs of their operations, such as marketing. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 interconnected goals addressing global challenges, including poverty, health, education, gender equality, water, energy, economic growth, infrastructure, inequality, cities, consumption, climate, oceans, ecosystems, peace, and partnerships. The SDGs aim to create a sustainable and equitable world. Green marketing is a term that has emerged due to the negative side of technological advancements, as these days the environment is vulnerable to the harmful effects of the industry and production, creating the need for the manufacturing and advertising of green products.

This paper investigated the research efforts over the past ten years, which connect the concepts of digital marketing and green marketing, to understand the trends and characteristics of research in the field and to help researchers get an up-to-date understanding and provide assistance with their research. Upon analyzing the years of publication, it was found that there has been a steady increase in interest in the topic until 2019 [18] when a rapid noticeable increase in the number of research papers occurred. This is because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased the interest in digitalizing businesses and using digital media for business operations due to the lockdown measures taken by almost all governments.

The authors of the paper identified five main themes (or categories) for the topics of research in the field: strategies, challenges, promotion, consumer, and digital media, within Appendix A, an exposition of these thematic elements is showcased, accompanied by an inclusive catalog of reviewed studies relevant to each individual theme.

It was found that the strategies and methods of implementing digital marketing with green marketing were the most common theme, followed by the effect of digital marketing on consumer behavior towards green products and then the use of digital marketing for promoting green products. Additionally, it was found that the COVID-19 pandemic created an increased interest in these topics, resulting in a positive outcome of implementing digital marketing in the field of green marketing and providing a proper method for it. The analysis also showed that the majority of research studies are empirical, with surveys being the most dominant type of data collection. It was found that most of papers had three or more authors, and they were distributed across different continents, with the highest percentage being from Europe.

The study’s outcomes provide a basis for identifying potential research directions and managerial implications that can be explored in future investigations.

The managerial implication for future research is to prioritize conducting more systematic literature reviews on green marketing and digital marketing, focusing on databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and JSTOR. This recommendation arises from the need to comprehensively track the evolution of research in these fields and gain a deeper understanding of the prevailing trends within the discipline. Furthermore, addressing the relative scarcity of articles exploring the intersection of green marketing and digital marketing in certain databases is crucial. Researchers can contribute valuable insights and enhance the knowledge base in these domains by devoting more attention to these databases.

Previous research has predominantly focused on investigating the methods and strategies that should be considered when implementing digital marketing to promote environmentally friendly products. However, there has been a dearth of studies specifically examining the challenges associated with utilizing digital marketing for promoting green products, and the challenges arising from its application within the realm of green marketing through digital media. Consequently, a significant research gap exists in comprehending the obstacles and difficulties encountered when employing digital marketing strategies to promote environmentally sustainable products.