Rad Propulsion: Social Media

RAD Propulsion is a UK company founded by experts in electric and marine technology, who are pioneers in building sustainable electric propulsion systems for the boating industry.

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Brief

RAD’s main mission was to increase brand exposure across platforms. As a company with highly specialised products with limited stock availability, gaining visibility within the industry was key as it gained momentum with its production.

Challenges & Solutions

Brand awareness in a niche industry

The boating industry is vast and international, but the electric boating industry is much more granular than that. Our challenge was to grow brand awareness with the right audiences and reach those individuals who are passionate about electric boating and in order to do so we had to have a very targeted approach to be successful.

Changing attitudes within the boating industry

By nature, RAD are innovators and their products are forward-thinking sustainable outboard motors that are changing the way that boats have been operating for hundreds of years. This in itself is a challenge, where RAD’s mission to change attitudes towards sustainable practices has been met with resistance at times and it is the job of the social media platforms to manage these setbacks and encourage their followers/potential audience to get ‘on board’ with one of RAD’s missions – sustainability on the water.

High spec-technical products

We work with companies who are experts (engineers, designers, scientists) in their chosen fields and when we take a client on, we have to immerse ourselves in their world which we don’t have direct experience in. Whether that be using specific terminology, understanding particular specifications or abiding by industry rules and regulations. With an integrated approach & feedback from our clients – we can mutually collaborate on post ideas, social media strategies, initiatives. We have found that this collaborative approach has paid off – where over time, we now have solid branding – in terms of our creatives/graphics, a specific tone of voice, certain buzzwords - making this a natural practice for us when representing the client on social media platforms.

Our Approach

Due to the nature of being a startup, RAD has been going through constant and fast-paced changes in the year we have worked with them. Initially, we started with a broader approach to organic social media, opting for monthly grid themes with curated infographics touching on the wider subject of boating, the environment, and sustainability, in hopes of diversifying and growing RAD’s following. However, as the brand narrowed down on their goals, guidelines and company tone of voice, we helped work with the team to develop a more flexible approach to posting online.

Instead of trying to reach a wider audience with more accessible post topics, we homed in on RAD’s field of expertise and used social media platforms as a way to show off their core product and the company developments. We now have a broad subject matter with posts relating to design, testing, sustainability goals, production, innovation, robotics, industry partnerships, securing of grants, trade show attendance, guest speaker opportunities and much more. With this more “RAD-centric” approach, we helped our client grow from 0 to over 500 followers and generate high-quality business leads via direct messages.

Later, we diversified our social channels and began helping RAD with their LinkedIn activity – a platform they had a very strong following on already. Through more professionally worded captions and more B2B style content, we have been able to help RAD achieve continued growth with their most recent video being their top-performing post ever, driving nearly 400 likes, 22 comments, and 15 reposts.

Through consistent branding, collaboration with other companies in the field, and audience building (paid engagement tactics) we’ve managed to acquire a great following from the small, but very passionate individuals within this field. Now RAD has evolved further, we have an abundance of post and collaboration opportunities across social media platforms where we are tailoring original content based on the audience’s behaviour.

Results

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Quote

“Having worked with Talking Stick for just over a year, we can confidently say we are in ‘safe hands’ when it comes to our digital marketing. We’re seeing significant traffic growth due to ongoing SEO efforts and are also reaping the benefits of organic social management, building more awareness for our brand. We couldn’t be happier with these results as a direct collaborative effort from the team. We truly see Talking Stick as an extension of our in-house marketing department and are looking forward to further business growth with TSD onboard.” Vicki Realff, Head of Marketing