The increasing importance of B2B content marketing for renewable energy businesses
From years of successful marketing for global Renewable Energy businesses, we wanted to share our insights for creating engaging, shareable, and long lasting content that will give any Renewable Energy business a competitive advantage. No matter if you're in Solar, EVs, Hydrogen, Wind, Wave etc, the following will help your business gain more marketing attention and create growth.
Creating B2B content in the fast-evolving renewable industry
Creating content in a fast-evolving industry like Renewable Energy poses unique challenges compared to more established industries. With rapid progression and innovation, it becomes difficult to create long-lasting and accurate content. To maximise the longevity of content in the Renewables industry, strategic planning is a must.
Anticipating future updates and advancements during the content creation stage allows for the incorporation of flexible elements that can be easily updated without starting from scratch.
While we highly recommend strategic long-term thinking and planning to maximise your content's impact and ROI in a fast-evolving industry like Renewable Energy, it's equally crucial to recognise the power of creating content with speed to market in mind.
This combination of strategic planning and agile content creation allows brands to adapt to the industry's rapid progression, maintain accuracy, and capture attention by swiftly delivering timely and relevant content.
Stop trying to be all things to all people
Embrace the power of a narrowed focus and strategic content planning to maximise your impact. Trying to cater to everyone often dilutes your message and indicates room for improvement in your content strategy.
Creating and sharing content has never been easier, but competition for our attention is unprecedented! So, knowing who your audience is and what motivates their actions will help you to make better content creation decisions which will give you the ability to have more impact and more audience engagement.
Why human-centered marketing outshines traditional B2B strategies
At KLIQ Interactive, we prioritise Human-Centered Marketing over traditional B2B strategies, recognising the significance of thoroughly identifying and understanding our audience or Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This approach not only enhances Content Marketing and Strategy but also provides a deeper understanding of our ICP, which enables improved effective communication of our solutions tailored to their specific needs and challenges.
To better understand our ICP, it's essential to go beyond mere identification and delve into their motivations, goals, aspirations, pain points, challenges, and what stage of the buyer’s journey they are in.
By gathering comprehensive insights about our target audience, we can create content that resonates with their needs, addresses their pain points, and effectively conveys our ability to provide the solutions they seek. This human-centric approach establishes stronger connections, builds trust, and positions us as a trusted partner in overcoming their challenges.
Here is an example of how a traditional B2B approach differs from a Human-Centered Marketing approach:
Challenge:
The marketing team is challenged with persuading decision-makers such as Building Managers & Owners, Facility Managers and Operations Managers to adopt EV smart charging facilities in their building. They face difficulties in generating interest and building trust with these key stakeholders.
Traditional B2B Strategy Approach:
In a conventional B2B strategy, the marketing team would focus on the smart charger features, technical specifications, and cost-effectiveness. They would target decision-makers (Facility Managers, Building Managers, Owners) with rational value propositions, emphasising energy efficiency, EV compatibility, cost savings, reduced maintenance, and environmental impact.
Human-Centred Marketing Approach:
A Human-Centred Marketing approach prioritises understanding decision-makers needs, motivations, and challenges, tailoring marketing efforts accordingly. The team conducts research, engaging with the target audience to uncover specific pain points, goals, and desires related to smart charger adoption.
For instance, they conduct surveys or interviews to better understand and address concerns about installation complexities, impact on infrastructure, or disruption to daily operations. They explore benefits that resonate, such as attracting environmentally conscious tenants, enhancing tenant satisfaction, and positioning the building as sustainable and forward-thinking. By empathising with decision-makers and addressing their unique concerns, the marketing team establishes trust, builds meaningful connections, and drives adoption of smart chargers.
6 marketing strategies that should be included in your renewable energy B2B content strategy
1. Building industry influence through blogging
Blogs are an excellent content marketing platform for Renewable Energy businesses as they allow for in-depth exploration of industry topics, establish thought leadership, attract organic traffic through SEO, and have the ability to engage and build a better target audience. Blogs can provide a platform to educate, inform, and connect with readers, ultimately driving brand awareness and fostering trust.
Best practice: Renew Economy, Australia's most read website focusing on clean energy news and analysis
2. Establishing thought leadership with LinkedIn
LinkedIn and a well-planned LinkedIn content calendar offer invaluable content opportunities for Renewable businesses. LinkedIn provides a platform to establish thought leadership, foster connections with industry experts, attract higher calibre team members and enhance your brand’s credibility.
With a content calendar, businesses can strategically schedule and share relevant posts, maximise engagement, build an audience, expand their reach, and effectively connect with the Renewable Energy community.
Best practice: Tesla, Global leader in Electric Motor Vehicle Manufacturing - LinkedIn Page
3. Leverage desired actions with your landing page content architecture
Optimising your landing pages with clear call-to-actions with your ICP in mind is a powerful content strategy for Renewable Energy businesses. It ensures that visitors are guided towards desired actions, such as subscribing, using industry tools, requesting quotes, downloading resources etc. This enhances user experience, increases lead generation, improves SEO performance and drives conversions. Ultimately it maximises the impact of your website and content efforts. It may take some testing and learning but it’s worth the time investment to optimise your landing pages.
Best practice: Lightsource bp, Australia's largest solar developer and owner - "Partner With Us" landing page
4. Creating value resources with gated content like whitepapers
Whitepapers are in-depth reports that provide valuable insights, analysis, and solutions to industry-specific challenges. By showcasing expertise and thought leadership, white papers establish your credibility, attract target audiences, and foster brand trust. They also serve as powerful lead magnets that generate qualified leads for your business.
Best practice: Orsted, world's largest developer of offshore wind power - Whitepapers on Corporate website
5. Establish social proof with client testimonials
Testimonials can play a crucial role in your businesses. They provide social proof and validate the effectiveness and credibility of your products or services.
Potential customers are more likely to trust the experiences and opinions of others who have benefited from your renewable solutions.
Testimonials can be strategically used to help address any doubts that potential customers may have, which will help to reduce their purchase resistance. Additionally, positive testimonials can enhance your brand reputation, differentiate you from competitors, and attract new customers seeking reliable and trustworthy renewable energy solutions.
Best practice: JET Charge - Australia's leader in EV charging
6. Education via video helps explain complex topics
The Renewable Energy industry often works with technology that can be complex to understand. Especially for the average person, video is a great way to market and explain what different products and services are. Video not only simplifies complex concepts but also has the power to position your brand as a market leader. It allows you to showcase your expertise, demonstrate your innovative solutions, and establish credibility in the industry. Moreover, video has a higher retention rate compared to other content formats, making it and your brand more memorable for audiences. By incorporating video into your content strategy, you can effectively educate and engage your target audience while leaving a lasting impression that strengthens brand recognition and recall.
Best practice: Electric Viking, An Australian Tech based channel with the latest EV news and reviews - YouTube Channel
Measuring your B2B content marketing success
To assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, it's crucial to have a measurable approach. By tracking content engagement rates and implementing a digital marketing funnel, you can determine your return on investment (ROI). KLIQmetrics™️ offers a customizable data analytics dashboard that provides real-time insights across multiple marketing platforms, enabling you to measure, analyse, and optimise your digital marketing performance.
If you’re interested in learning how we can help your business reach its growth potential through content marketing, book a complimentary consultation with our renewable energy marketing experts at KLIQ to leverage our industry insights and expertise.
