How we help cleantech companies show up for prospective customers through content marketing
The world of technology is evolving at a nearly immeasurable rate. In parallel, the need for smarter sustainability solutions is only growing more desperate. At FutureProof Content Co., we take a little bit of pressure off of our cleantech marketing clients by working with them to achieve what sometimes seems impossible — getting their website in front of more prospective customers. Here, we walk you through the steps we take to create robust, SEO-rich content for cleantech partners.
Develop the cleantech marketing strategy
You can’t improve upon what you don’t understand! The first step we take with clients before ever putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard!) is documenting and talking through the strategy. We ask new clients to fill out a pre-strategy meeting questionnaire, where they answer things like:
Who are your top three competitors?
What is your Ideal Customer Profile?
What products and/or services do you offer?
What are the current, timely trends in your industry?
Next, we’ll evaluate the responses, review the website, and pull keyword and search data. The findings will result in an initial three-month content strategy, typically focusing on the lowest hanging fruit first. Whether the client chooses to scale their content right away or start slow, we offer the right package to fit their needs. We will then meet with the client virtually to connect on the recommended strategy, make any tweaks during the conversation, and agree on next steps. We’re off to the races!
The three pillars of cleantech marketing content
Content serves a broad range of purposes depending on the context. For example, high-level, long-form blogs — also known as pillar pages in the context of being created in conjunction with shorter, related blogs — can drive tons of new relevant search traffic to your website due to its helpful, keyword-rich structure. On the other hand, mid-funnel content like case studies or product feature deep-dives can be a great follow-up to a sales conversation or in an email nurture series.
But beyond the range of top, middle and bottom funnel content, we use a three-pillar framework when advising our clients on a content strategy:
Pillar 1: Trendy
The first pillar is trendiness. This relates to content answering a question of the moment, a topic or theme that’s making buzz throughout the industry and most importantly — rising in search volume. This one is crucial; without a well-rounded marketing strategy that includes on and off-site SEO-rich content that speaks to topics your target audience resonates with and finds interesting or educational, you won’t land at the top of the right people’s Google results.
An example of content that would fall into the “trendy” category is a press release; it’s specific to a time and place for your business, and shares exciting information that’s most relevant to your audience at that very moment.
Pillar 2: Timeless
Another pillar content should satisfy is timelessness. First, it should be pointed out that all content can’t fit neatly into all pillars at once. Timelessness is almost the opposite of trendiness, yet shares some similarities. It’s important to never lose sight of the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to your content strategy, especially in the competitive cleantech market. Timeless content might include blogs about the fundamentals of your industry, the reasons you exist as a solution, and other things that likely will never change (but still have a lot of search traffic!)
Pillar 3: Thought leadership
The third pillar is an interesting one — it’s thought leadership. While similar to trendy content, thought leadership is a bit more personal and controversial. It’s content that takes a stand and makes a point at the right moment for your industry.
It might include an opinion or a stance from your company president. A great place for thought leadership content to be cross-posted is on LinkedIn; this builds an authentic connection with your company’s followers and organically ties your company to the broader industry conversation.
Deliver the content
Now that the strategy has been established with the client, we get to work! Over the course of the next few months, FutureProof researches, drafts and delivers robust, thoughtful and search optimized content to our clients. With three rounds of edits build into our services, we take great care in delivering the highest quality stuff to our incredible clients (But - ahem - those changes aren’t usually needed at all)!
On a shared document, we provide access to all drafted content including sections for notes, status and other practical project management items. It’s then in the hands of our clients to publish to their site and share with the world!
Measure & assess content performance
Now that we’ve had a few months under our belt of productive content creation and publishing, it’s time to measure performance! We sit down with our clients for an hour review session. Clients get a deep dive into content performance, including early wins, areas of improvement and recommendations for what’s next. This session is usually a fun one! We get to celebrate our hard work thus far and share ideas for how to make the success even greater.
Seeing our cleantech clients get in front of more customers to build a more sustainable future with their solutions is what drives us each day. Through this collaborative — and fun! — partnership, we help you reach your most aggressive goals through content marketing, not slowing down until we deliver lasting impact.
FutureProof Content Co. is a hassle-free content marketing service for sustainability tech companies. Whether you’re just starting out on your content strategy or you’re a seasoned professional, we have an offering to fit your needs. See our services.
