The objective
At a time when demand is growing for innovative natural resource solutions that combine multiple environmental, economic, social and cultural outcomes, alongside generating positive financial returns, EnviroStrat is leading the industry. For the past 12 years, EnviroStrat has been working with organisations in New Zealand and around the world to provide impact-focused natural resource advisory and project development services.
We quickly realised EnviroStrat were doing great things, but they lacked a cohesive plan for telling their story and sharing their successes, so awareness of the good they were doing was limited to their network. EnviroStrat knew they could do better to leverage marketing to amplify their impact, though not how to approach it, which had resulted in a non-synergistic approach to date.
Objective was brought on board to apply our agile Marketing Stack, enabling EnviroStrat to have access to a team of specialists across the breadth and depth of marketing skills as and when needed, all unified under one strategy, approach and messaging.
Our approach
Aligning strategies
We worked alongside an independent lead to contribute to EnviroStrat’s business planning, enabling us to develop a deep understanding of their business and get clear on where they were headed. With an experienced Marketing Strategist at the reins, we confidently worked through target audience and competitor analysis to determine who they should be speaking to, what they should be saying and how to say it in order to effectively translate their business goals into marketing goals, strategy and implementation plans.
Content is king
It became abundantly clear that content was going to be our primary marketing tool. High-quality, unique content would enable EnviroStrat to create fact-based information around the shift to sustainable natural resource sectors and share details of their various services (thought leadership), alongside nurturing the long-term customer and stakeholder relationships necessary to activate the plans for their future.
Our Channel and Content Strategist implemented a conversation-lead content planning methodology. The strategic content planning framework identified how EnviroStrat could build communities and create spaces for conversation, collaboration and debate across a range of platforms to engage with key decision-makers from a broad range of industries and sectors. This ensured content was interesting and relevant for their audience, strategically aligned to their goals, and delivered on platforms used by their audience.
Website content
Our Copywriting Specialist got to work, with updating website content the first cab off the rank. Guided by a SEO framework, we refreshed content to remove the clutter that had crept in and highlight EnviroStrat’s uniqueness and specialist stills. We clearly set out how their services connect to a complete process and channeled the audience towards product positioning more tailored to their individual needs. We fleshed out existing case studies to showcase their range of specialist knowledge and how it had been applied to achieve results. We create blogs to articulate EnviroStrat’s thought leadership in the natural resource sector. In just six months we saw a 25% increase in website traffic.
Social content
LinkedIn was identified in our content planning framework as the social channel to initially focus on. EnviroStrat had an established profile, but posting had been sporadic and messaging was inconsistent across the company page and team profiles. Following a refresh of messaging we implemented a monthly content planning process. This enabled us to align post ideas to a conversation theme, with topics split across through leadership, case studies, service options, industry news and the specialist skills and experience of the team.
The benchmarks and stretch targets we set were blown out of the water within six months of managing their social content. We doubled their LinkedIn following and sparked conversations that resulted in sustaining an average 7.9% engagement rate.
Public relations and outreach content
When it came time for EnviroStrat to celebrate a project’s significant milestone, we were on hand to provide support. We worked with EnviroStrat and the project’s steering group to develop a headline grabbing media release and nurtured relationships with local and international journalists for follow up interviews.
The milestone, New Zealand’s first and largest hatchery-grown native Ecklonia radiata seaweed outplanting, received widespread attention, with 15 articles and interviews featuring in local print and online newspapers, magazines, radio and television programmes, international online publications and radio, and international industry titles.
The impact
This is a long-lead industry so our strategy and approach is designed to achieve incremental growth towards EnviroStrat’s long-term business goals. By leveraging our Marketing Stack and applying our skills and expertise at the right time, from strategy to implementation to measurement, we are delivering a cohesive approach that positions EnviroStrat on a global stage, enabling the kind of conversations needed to bring world-changing projects to life.
Objective has made a continued effort to understand and evolve with our business. Their personable and professional suite of experts across the marketing profession have a deep focus on strategy and results. Rob Smith, EnviroStrat COO