Why climate tech marketing teams should outsource their task list

Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should

Hello friends,

Meg here. Over the weekend I put my child through what can only be described as a potty training disaster. Like… verging on traumatic. For her — and me. Any magic bullet solutions I should know about? (Ha, ha… )

But in brighter news, I’ve graduated my 30-something self from a rickety old kitchen chair to…  *gasp* an actual office chair. Tentatively expecting my productivity to shoot through the roof 🧚, but I’ll let you know how it plays out.

Anyway, this week we’re talking about 4 important — but typically not urgent — tasks you should be delegating or outsourcing to someone who isn’t your founder, CEO, or lead marketer.

Let’s get into it.

Now, much of this will depend on your team’s unique skillsets and expertise. Some marketers really can do it all — from big-picture strategy to technical writing. But that doesn’t mean they should.

Many (most) climate tech teams are scrappy and under-resourced. Those in leadership roles need to place their focus where they can have the most impact.

Spoiler: tinkering on the back end of your site uploading blog posts isn’t it.

Here are 4 tasks that Amelia and I see climate tech teams struggle to keep afloat, and in most cases, would be better off handing off to someone else.

1 — Maintaining a compelling LinkedIn presence

In this past year, LinkedIn was the #1 platform for building brand awareness and initiating first touchpoints with prospects for our clients. It’s worth your attention.

A strong social media presence drives brand visibility and can help to build your credibility, but carving out time to consistently write and post content that reflects your brand, goes beyond surface-level insight, and makes prospects want to go deeper is no easy feat.

From what we’ve seen, teams either start strong and fizzle out — or settle with ‘just getting something up.’ Neither approach works.

2 — Running a content machine

Unless you’re one of the lucky few climate tech startups running with an in-house content team, you need help here. Great content systems have multiple entry points into the funnel, blend hard data with compelling narratives, take a strong POV, and can’t be easily replicated by your competitors.

Each piece is developed with A) a clear purpose and B) a distribution and follow-through plan.

But — producing this kind of content takes time and (a lot of) effort. It’s absolutely worth the investment, but from what we’ve seen, most teams don’t have the time or resources to do this properly in-house.

3 — Developing your brand messaging

This is one of those ongoing tasks where leadership absolutely needs to be involved. But past a certain point, leadership perspectives tend to transform from necessary and foundational to a bit of a bottleneck situation.

This is when an external set of eyes (you know that saying about ‘can’t read the label from inside the jar’?) from someone with a deep understanding of the climate tech landscape (and buying triggers along the corporate climate journey) can be transformative. We don’t use that word lightly.

Related: website copywriting projects, pitch decks, ad-hoc marketing campaigns

4 — Implementation on the backend

Let’s set the scene. Climate tech team hires external consultants for content marketing support. Great content gets submitted, but the climate tech team has no real systems in place to get the proper checks and approvals to keep the ball rolling.

Or maybe the team is quick to provide feedback, but it comes from seven different people and is fragmented with conflicting points of view.

OR — feedback and approvals go smoothly, but the draft starts to collect dust, getting pushed farther and farther to the bottom of someone’s inbox, never to see the light of day. ‘Cause let’s be real, logging into your website CMS and tinkering with formatting is a boring time-suck.

And it’s not how those in leadership roles should spend their time.

That’s all for today, folks. If your team struggles with delegating or outsourcing, I urge you to check out Dan Sullivan’s formula to achieve bigger goals: Who Not How.

It’s worth the read.