Insights

Preparing Your Clean Energy Business For In-Person Events

Julianne Waite
July 15, 2021

After a long year of virtual conferences, webinars, and Zoom meetings we are finally approaching a world where in-person events like solar conferences and renewable energy trade shows might be feasible. Is your clean energy business ready for its reintroduction to in-person events or have your business cards been doubling as levels for the wobbly TV dinner tray you’ve been using as a desk while you work from your couch?

Don’t let your competition outshine you in the marketing material department. Use this checklist to make sure you have everything you need to show up for in-person events in a big way.

Business Cards

This might sound obvious but you might be surprised at how many companies we’ve seen with either outdated business cards or no business cards at all when we first started working with them. This is especially true for businesses that launched in the past 12-14 months when the pandemic made meeting and handing things to strangers difficult.

But now that the world is reawakening from its lockdown slumber it is more important than ever that you and your team are equipped with beautifully branded, up-to-date business cards.

What do we mean by up-to-date?

  • Is the logo used on your card the most current version of your logo?
  • Are your website and phone number accurate?
  • Do your new team members have business cards?
  • Do staff members who got a promotion have cards that reflect their new title?
  • Do they look modern and professional?

Freshening up your team’s business cards is key to making a good first impression, whether you are at an event or just out in the world.

One-Pagers

One-pagers are great for summarizing your business in a succinct, tightly packaged, visually appealing way. Think of them as a written pitch for your company that should convey the following in one sleek, captivating page:

  • Your business’s name
  • What your business offers
  • How you deliver your offering
  • How you stand out from your competitors
  • Contact information

It can be hard to communicate everything you want to about your clean energy business on one physical page, especially if your business provides a new or complex product or service. But with attention spans being what they are today it is essential to explain your business’s value in a straightforward way.

Does your business already have a digital one-pager? Great! But is it ready for print? Sending collateral that was developed for digital to a printer often leads to subpar results. Our team can actually help you get your digital one-pager ready for print so you aren’t unpleasantly surprised by low resolution, cut off words, or any other common print tragedies.

Fact Sheets

Fact sheets can be a great compliment to your business’s one-pager as they provide background on your industry and/or shed light on the problem that your business solves.

For example, let’s say you are the founder of a public interest coalition advocating for policies that support electric vehicle adoption. In addition to your one-pager that outlines your mission, your vision, and your membership, your fact sheet might outline the benefits of EVs such as:

  • $632 average annual fuels savings (University of Michigan)
  • $113 billion avoided in climate impacts (American Lung Association)
  • $8,600 lower healthcare costs for society for each EV on the road (Science Direct)

In this scenario, laying out the benefits of electric vehicles provides a supporting framework for your mission to accelerate EV adoption. And while you likely wouldn’t carry a stack of fact sheets around with you the way you would your business cards, fact sheets are great to have on hand at trade show booths or conferences.

Brochures

Brochures can contain similar information to one-pagers but with a bit more detail and visual flare. While the goal with one-pagers is to be (sometimes painfully) short and to the point, brochures offer a bit more room to show off.

Things to consider including in your brochure include:

  • A 100-200 word description of your clean energy business
  • 3-5 bullets of industry background or benefits that your business offers
  • A infographic or 1-2 paragraphs explaining the details of your solution
  • Hi-res images of your solution at work dispersed throughout
  • A chart comparing your solution to your competitors
  • Contact information

While you have more room for content in your brochure than you do in your one-pager, it is still important to still be concise. Remember, you aren’t trying to describe every single detail about what you do and how here. Rather, the goal with your brochure is to deliver straightforward, digestible information about your business to people you might encounter at an in-person event such as a conference or a trade show.

Do you need help with your marketing materials?

If you need help developing any of the items on this checklist, DG+ is here to help. We offer custom design services specifically for clean energy businesses like yours.

Contact us today and hearn how we can help you stand out from the crowd at your next in-person event with stunning marketing materials.

Subscribe

Get the latest directly to you inbox.

Recommended read

Related posts

CONTACT

Say hello!

We’d love to hear about your project! Simply fill out the form and we will be in touch.