As a cleantech company you want to increase brand awareness and be able to maintain it. Often the best route to that is a total rebrand that transforms industry and audience awareness of who you are and what you do.
This is such a fast-moving sector that a brand that can clearly explain its offerings and convey their value is a must. You can’t expect your audience to be up on your technology, however groundbreaking it may be.
You need to present it in the best way you can: not just offer information, but put it in context and have enough of an impact to capture people’s attention.
Just the global clean energy technologies market alone is expected to soar to $423.7 billion by 2026, encompassing a huge array of brands and technologies.
But if you focus on your cleantech brand and seize every suitable opportunity to show off your products, services, and front-of-pack innovations, you can capture audience engagement and industry attention — and keep growing.
At New Perspective our teams work with cleantech firms every day to do just that. We function as close partners with our clients to implement winning, strategic approaches that elevate cleantech brand awareness and drive pipeline growth.
We’re doing it now with companies in cleantech industries like renewable energy, wind, sustainable manufacturing and agriculture, waste management, battery storage, carbon capture and green construction, to name a few. We’re as excited about the future as they are.
We also know how to help fast-moving companies get ahead in building brand awareness when everyone on deck is focused on business, operations, and growth. It’s understandable: we grew fast ourselves and empathize with the need for every team member to pull a lot of weight.
There simply may not be the bandwidth or person-power in house for creating a great brand campaign. But as we tell out clients, your company doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel.
You just need a super-capable, responsive partner with enough understanding of the cleantech industry to ask the right questions. You’re the experts in your field. You want a partner that’s the expert in theirs.
One case in point: When we partnered with Carbon Clean, a global leader in carbon capture and separation technology, their objective was to raise brand awareness and drive growth.
They were (and continue to be) on the rise, with no time to stand still: the brand had to reflect that, and the whole approach had to be flexible enough to accommodate news, milestones, and rollouts as they happened.
We implemented a strategic approach. Each component had plenty of room for the future, but together they would solidify strong brand awareness as a company that matters right now. On the to-do list:
- Rebranding
- Total website redesign
- Audience targeting and strategy
- Demand generation campaigns
Here are just some of the results:
- Carbon Clean successfully transformed industry perception and positioned themselves as a valued partner that offers innovative solutions for achieving net-zero carbon emissions.
- Millions of dollars were added to the pipeline value within 60 days.
- Organic traffic increased by 400%.
- Lead generation soared by 162%.
Know the challenges
Working with Carbon Clean, we didn’t just do a static campaign and then leave it be. We built a brand awareness engine that would sustain and ramp up over time. To ensure the company was well-positioned to stay ahead of common challenges to cleantech brands, we established a strong program of branding and content solutions.
Of course the approach was tailored to meet Carbon Clean’s needs. But these are challenges and solutions that can work for any firm in the field.
First, the challenges:
1. You need a better way to say ‘It’s better.’
Most cleantech products are complicated with their own unique process and design. We don’t really have to tell you that: You are changing the world as we know it and that’s not a simple thing.
But even the very notion of cleantech can be hard to explain. It’s not enough just to say “It’s better.” In an extremely crowded market. You need a compelling brand story to set yourself apart.
2. You need to clearly distinguish your technology.
Whether your technology is completely new and different, or built onto an existing technology but redefining and deploying it in new ways, you need to make its value clear.
One of Carbon Clean’s new rollouts was a modular carbon capture system for heavy industry in a radically small but efficient, expandable package. It used existing, proven technologies in new ways. The challenge was how to show how this new application truly changed the game.
3. You need to factor in change and growth while creating a stable brand.
Cleantech isn’t a stagnant market. Many firms are multitasking: innovating, testing and launching all at the same time. Constantly evolving regulations and standards can suddenly change the game or prompt a rush to a new finish line.
You need to create a solid brand presence without painting yourself into a corner when it comes to long-term relevance, which means being consistent but also being able to pivot with news as needed.
4. You need to prove your value as a disruptor with a difference.
Awareness isn’t enough. You need to build trust in your brand as an answer to a need. If you’re providing a new answer to an existing problem, you need to allay any doubts, undo misconceptions, and make it clear why your answer brings more value.
And back to the challenge of staying ahead of changing regulations: you need a way to show you’re not only aware, but compliant — and the advantages your technology brings in that context.
The Solutions
Now here’s how we solve those challenges. Every firm is different so any brand awareness / rebranding campaign is going to have its own tailored list of solutions in terms of priority, need, objectives, and the nature of the company itself. But these solutions also address more than one challenge, and work together to truly deliver success.
1. Think long-term.
Brands aren’t built on one-and-done moves. While cleantech may be a relatively new field that’s having a very big moment right now, we see it as the future. We’re committed to our clients over the long term, and we help craft a brand or a rebrand that’s meant to last.
2. Be an active partner.
We always tell our clients that they’ll get out of it what they put into it — whether you’re a large global company with multiple locations and projects or a regional startup with one busy hub.
We keep the partnership energized with frequent check-ins, communications, meetings and alignment sessions. We build on a foundational phase of discovery, work fast, and stay present. We expect our clients to be present too: engaging, responsive partnerships over time drive the best results.
3. Learn your audience.
To make a mark in a vast and rapidly changing market you need to really know your target audience. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you can’t make a connection. If you don’t make a connection, you won’t be heard.
Our in-depth persona-building workshops identify the hypothetical personas that represent your target customers — their needs, wants, pain points and doubts.
4. Craft the message.
By understanding who you’re talking to and making that person real (it even helps to name them) you can craft, personalize, and tailor your messaging and your brand story to resonate.
We call our messaging workshops the Messaging House, and make sure clients feel at home during this critically important phase.
Hint: A great message comes from knowing what not to include as much as knowing what you really need to say.
We’ve also seen clients undergo an amazing revelation or two about what they really stand for. The messaging house gives you a chance to truly clarify your core values and mission.
5. Map a content strategy.
Your brand is only as compelling as the information and storytelling you put out there. We work with clients to create an array of content, such as long-form articles, interviews, videos, webcasts, podcasts, case studies, infographics, ebooks, social media, and more.
In every form, content has to educate, inspire and, at times, establish your role in your industry’s larger discussions.
It also needs to be accessible, informative, impressive and credible — and fit your target audience. It needs to consistently reflect your brand, in your voice, and feel unique to you. (It’s not ideal to simply tap into GenAI.)
With Carbon Clean, our content team collaborated with the firm’s subject matter experts, conducting research and interviews and presenting them as thought leaders.
We made sure its target audience had the knowledge they needed to make informed decisions. We built a cadence of content that fit the company’s objectives over time, but pivoted and refined as well to match industry or regulation changes, new products, and global developments.
6. Amplify your efforts.
To amplify your cleantech brand awareness efforts, embrace the power of inbound marketing. In the case of Carbon Clean, once we had developed target personas, we needed to solidify their audience’s perception of the company and its innovations, and engage their curiosity.
After all, you need people to want to learn more about your solution.
We worked together to craft an inbound marketing strategy based on leveraging powerful content to reach and engage prospective customers, and positioned Carbon Clean as an expert in the carbon capture space.
Then we harnessed SEO techniques to make sure every aspect of their content, from web pages to blog posts, was ranking high on search engines. And since we’re HubSpot platinum partners, we were able to best leverage the platform — including its Content Hub and other features — to vault demand generation.
7. Put yourself out there.
When our clients want to find more ways to make their brand known, we recommend forging partnerships with other companies or organizations in the cleantech sphere.
You’re all part of an incredible industry — and there are plenty of ways to tap into each other’s networks and audiences in order to increase your own visibility and credibility.
Cocreating content, guesting on podcasts, holding a webinar with a panel of experts and colleagues — there are countless ways to do this.
But use your PR engine to increase your exposure: leverage the opportunity to put yourself in the news. Carbon Clean participated in industry events and conferences that certainly raised its brand profile, and presented its people as leaders in the cleantech world.
What we can do for your cleantech brand
We help cleantech brands reach full market potential every day: Carbon Clean is just one example of many. We know that success comes from a strategic, data-driven approach, a commitment to educating your target audience, and the willingness to get in the trenches with a partner you can count on.
We can be that partner. We can help you overcome the challenges facing cleantech brands as they forge a better future. We know the world’s future depends on your future. Reach out and let’s see what we can accomplish together.
