Ballard Power Systems is the world leader in hydrogen fuel cell technology. Their solutions for heavy duty fuel cell applications are poised to revolutionize commercial transport in a number of markets including public transit, rail, UAV, freight, and marine. They originally came to Red Rocket Creative Strategies to help establish thought leadership in the fuel cell sector and increase their visibility among public transit decision makers. Now, that mandate has expanded to include targeting decision makers in all of the industries mentioned above, as well as government policy makers in jurisdictions around the world. While many companies in Ballard’s situation might decide to refresh their website, we did not feel that was the best use of their marketing investment. We felt that the problem was that there was no compelling reason for anyone to repeatedly visit their site. Accordingly, we focused on developing strategies to engage with the world and draw traffic to their existing site.
After candid conversations with Ballard and researching their competitors, we felt Ballard needed a new tool kit to position themselves as thought leaders in the zero-emission space. They are the world leader in the space, but they needed to tell their story better. It was: Ballard has a proven solution that will meet the needs of commerical vehicle operators without compromising delivery of service.
We recommended an inbound marketing program, using blogs, social media, email, and premium content to engage the community. Ballard trusted Red Rocket with this bold move, knowing they could measure the system’s success and use feedback to refine and fine-tune their messaging.
Working with Ballard, we identified their industry’s key personas, then defined the types of content these personas seek. We wrote quality blogs based on the expertise of Ballard’s team, and supported the program on social media and through targeted email messages to their community. Everything was linked to content-specific landing pages that encouraged visitors to download Ballard’s high-value white papers and industry reports. The results were a significant increase in traffic to the company’s website and a surge in their social media network.
- Buyer Persona Development
- Content Strategy
- Search Engine Optimization
- Content Generation (Blogs, Social Media, Emails)
- Landing Page Design
Growing the social media network was essential: we needed people who would help us tell Ballard’s zero-emission story. In essence, they amplified Ballard’s voice. Not only did we connect with the general public, but we targeted influencers whose credibility and philosophy was aligned with Ballard’s plans to improve the world. We post frequently on Ballard’s Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts, researching and scheduling relevant content that appeals to their audience.
In the end, we wanted people to learn more about Ballard. This could only happen if they ended up visiting the website. Our inbound efforts also included blogs that were search engine optimized—containing keywords that were both aligned with Ballard’s brand and with the “language” of Ballard’s buyer personas.
As Ballard’s blog readership, email contacts, and social media community continued to grow, many in their community became brand advocates, enthusiastically sharing content with their own networks. This led to waves of new readers visiting the website.
Figures are Ballard Power Systems year over year during a 3 year period (Dec 16, 2022)
We had to ensure that Ballard’s team’s knowledge and expertise in the fuel cell space were properly expressed. As such, it was essential to develop high-quality, leading-edge blog content on the subject of zero-emission transport and shipping. The world is in transition to the hydrogen economy, and Ballard is uniquely positioned to help make that happen.
We leveraged Ballard’s relationships with experts in the hydrogen and sustainable transport industries—in the form of one-of-a-kind exclusive interviews published as blogs.
Blogs garnered high views with plenty of lively comments and social media shares from engaged readers. As a result, Ballard’s email subscriber list also grew exponentially and their leadership position extended beyond the industry. Total blog views to date: 516,433
During the past three years, we have been working closely with Red Rocket on our digital marketing campaigns leading to a spectacular increase in our website visitors and smarter presence on social media. Perry and his team have understood and embraced our company vision and market approach to create pertinent content through our weekly blogs and campaigns. They are fully engaged in our marketing strategy. While contributing with new ideas; they deliver top quality execution through the growing number of projects we have given them. I consider Red Rocket as part of our marketing team.
Nicolas Pocard
Director Marketing, Ballard Power Systems Inc.
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