Business to Business Marketing

Service: Business to Business Marketing | Sector: Public Sector | Industry: Biomass

Clients Brief

Forestry Commission Wales (FCW) is delivering the Wood Energy Business Scheme – a European-funded grant programme for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Wales to install woodfuel heating and electricity generation plant and to set up woodfuel supply businesses.

The solution

To project manage the Communication Plan raising awareness and generating grant applications form eligible businesses via a range of specified marketing activities including:

• Development and implementation of a promotional roadshow campaign- Clarifying the audience and communications methods
• Reaching the audience within a limited budgetKeeping the audience engaged and maintaining awareness of the benefits of wood energy and the grant scheme itself until the time when they are in a position to advise on/consider an installation
• Communicating quite complex (and sometimes hard to explain) eligibility criteria (working within State Aid and Structural Fund guidance as well as within the scope of the WEBS project objectives).

• Managing negative perceptions/realities surrounding availability of fuel; reliable technology; User friendliness; expertise in installation and maintenance of equipment
• Encouraging eligible businesses to apply for a WEBS 2 grant.Publicising the results and impact on the project.
• Determining and procuring the resources for the campaign
• Disseminating marketing best practice amongst the team
• Supporting the review and updating of printed promotional materials
• Monitoring delivery and quality control.

Marketing Targets

To achieve the 120 project application target exposure to 2592 organisations was required.

The Method

• The recruitment strategy for the events included a detailed analysis of the business segments with the propensity to take interest in wood fuelled heating solutions – those with high energy usage and/or access to raw wood for fuel self supply.
• Lists of such companies were specified and purchased. A direct mail exercise – postal and email – was undertaken.

• A further, novel approach to identifying potential grant applicants included Word of Mouth marketing. Applicants and prospects have opinions – and they are influenced by the opinions of their peer groups and others they have come to trust for advice. They no longer have to rely simply upon the views of people and organisations they already know – our networked world has made it easy for them to seek and share opinions on a global scale. The term “word of mouth” marketing is something of a quaint misnomer. One-to-one verbal communication is only one of its’ manifestations. The phrase is now commonly used to describe customer-to-customer communications across a variety of media that share a common characteristic – the participants have no direct personal economic interest in the information they are exchanging, simply a desire to share what they have learned for the common good, usually through social media.

Consideration was given to the culture of potential applicant organisations. For example, Wales already has over 1,300 companies in its rapidly growing environmental goods and services sector, which now employs 22,000 people and has a total annual turnover of £1.2 billion. Companies that demonstrate sound environmental performance, or where environmental policy is embedded, are more likely to be more open to the idea of wood fuel options and were targeted using a variety of social media; digital communication and press releases

Outcome

Target per event was 40 delegates; actual average attendance was 53 which exceeded target by around 27%.

At least 37 items of online coverage were secured – many as permanent listings of the grant availability on business support websites – e.g. Environment Agency and Flexible Support for Business.

Click here to view more Case Studies