Author: Leslie Petry
Having spent the majority of my career in marketing, I've encountered diverse challenges, from nurturing Seed to Series C startups to driving growth in billion-dollar company divisions. Despite these varied landscapes, the core marketing questions persist: How do we pinpoint our audience, convey our unique values, and inspire action? These fundamental questions transcend industry nuances, whether you’re promoting hardware, software, or services.
Returning to the Climate Tech and Cleantech industries after a decade's absence, I've noticed an evolution in marketing approaches. While the fundamental challenges remain unchanged, the strategies to address them have evolved. As funding dynamics fluctuate, grasping the expected ROI of all marketing strategies and tactics is paramount.
Here are a few areas to explore as you build out your 2024 marketing strategies, align with Sales on revenue goals, and create content marketing assets that will move prospects through the funnel.
Beyond Delivering Sustainability Solutions - Drive Sustainability as a Company
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has become a popular term, but for developers in the renewable energy sector, it's about becoming a sustainable business, not just in name but in practice. This means actively engaging with the community, showcasing the individuals or companies driving innovation in the industry, and establishing yourself as an authentic voice and leader. It also means collaborating with partners along the value chain, which points to true progress and commitment. Take action to define your sustainability goals, create strategies, and transparently report progress while it's still new and forward learning before it becomes a mandate. Finally, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) authentically isn’t optional; it's foundational. Ultimately, actions speak louder than words. Embodying sustainability across organizational culture and operations builds a reputable brand that attracts partners and customers alike.
Scale Your Efforts - Be Bold, Be Different, Deliver Value
You need to create a content marketing machine starting with a solid foundation of core messaging and brand pillars, then wrap diverse content assets around this. We all love a great case study because it makes it real, but I’d also consider educational blogs, ebooks, white papers, and longer-form content that works to educate, inspire, and deliver your core messages in an authentic way. Think outside the box, educate, and teach while you inspire, and then deliver on what you’ve promised. The more you humanize your content, the more people will feel connected to your brand. To be honest, some of the best companies doing this today are selling to consumers, such as Patagonia, Seventh Generation, and Numi Tea. In their innovative messaging and marketing campaigns, they’ve captured mindshare and differentiated themselves from the pack. This presents an opportunity for our B2B clients to showcase their team’s dedication, passion, and impact while amplifying the positive change they’re driving in addressing the climate crisis.
Growth Wins Every Time - Embrace Metrics
I have seen a steady move from pure marketing that focused on awareness to growth marketing tied to program goals and results. Every company is different and will need to take its own journey down the metrics route, but aligning program goals and outcomes to dollars spent at the outset, before launch, will help prioritize marketing budgets and help you as a marketing leader not only influence the organization but be able to tie the value of your efforts back to true business value. Whether you’re interested in growing your social presence or driving leads down the funnel, create a common model or methodology with your partners in crime (Sales) so that you both agree on the goals, expected outcomes, and what success would look like. This forces buy-in from the beginning and almost always yields better results. This article from LinkedIn, “Marketing Metrics that Matter: How to Measure Your Success“ gives a pretty good overview of considerations and metrics to consider.
One of the things I love about working with twentytwo & brand is the collaboration with our clients. Many are early-stage start-ups or more established companies with small marketing teams who are looking for help across messaging and positioning, PR and communications, content marketing, social, and lead generation. All areas of expertise that we bring to the table…but the magic happens when we are able to provide the strategic consultation, guide on best practices given our collective 40+ years in the industry, and create really cool content and campaigns that generate results. In some cases, the results might be a social following, award recognition, or cold hard cash (in terms of revenue).
If you or your company are looking for an award-winning, full-service marketing agency to help you create a brand or build credibility and trust in the industry, please reach out. We’d love to build a tailored program just for you!
