Starlight Communications has been working with GreenTek for many years, delivering a mix of strategic marketing activities aimed at increasing opportunity and driving sales.

GreenTek’s core user base – greenkeepers and groundsmen – are extremely busy people. Constrained by time and weather they spend the summer months outside maintaining their sports turf, and the wetter, darker winter months repairing equipment and planning for the season ahead.

Given this seasonal window, we had to create seasonal marketing plans to match, with different communication strategies for different times of the year. This meant giving extra consideration to the marketing channels deployed.

To best engage with this busy audience we decided upon a targeted mix of email communications, social media, direct mailings and trade show exhibiting.

We developed a structured calendar of email activity, sending eShots to the customer base every fortnight to promote special offers, incentives, company news and new product information – content that we knew would engage with the target audience.

This objective of this was lead generation and to drive new enquiries into the business.

Based on previous market research we knew that greenkeepers would likely be having their tea break each day at 11am, so we coordinated the eShots to land at this time.

Since this was not a customer base that ‘sat at desks’ we ensured that the eShots were optimised for mobile phones with clear instructions and easy-to-follow calls to action.

Research also informed us that this target group were very active on social media, spending large amounts of time each day scrolling their feeds. In fact, we discovered a growing online community of greenkeepers and groundsmen who were very supportive of one another and eager to share maintenance tips and equipment success stories.

We wanted to tap into this community and be at the heart of the conversations.

The most popular social media platforms for this audience include Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn, so we devised a social media strategy to develop engaging content that would appear in these spaces.

This included posting customer testimonials and case studies, showing bite-size videos promoting specific product features and benefits, offering prize draws and competitions, and taking the lead on topical conversations about the latest industry developments – all with great success.

Printed literature has always been important to this audience; a physical catalogue that they could hold and read, pass around the shed and show their colleagues: an industry ‘bible’ to refer to.

We set about creating a new version of the catalogue: 48 pages of useful product information. But not just as a product guide, but also as a story guide – explaining the ‘story’ of GreenTek, its heritage, credentials and reputation within the industry. Enhancing the GreenTek brand, building trust, positioning as a market leader.

Printed on thick stock with a smart glossy cover, copies of the brochure were mailed to a database of key customers across the UK as part of a wider lead generation campaign, which was followed-up by timely phone calls and planned visits from the sales team.

We surveyed a large sample of GreenTek’s customer base to determine which gifts or goodies they would find most useful to help with their day-to-day work.

To help them plan tasks more effectively, the greenkeepers wanted a desk jotter calendar with dates and a large, clear notes section. And to assist with their work on the pitches they wanted a water bottle, rain gauges and measuring jugs.

These last two item were quite bespoke to order as branded merchandise, bu we managed to source some high quality, cost-effective options that fulfilled the brief perfectly – the branded gifts were sent to key customers as part of a wider retention strategy – they were thrilled to receive them!

Measurement is a crucial element of modern marketing to understand which communications, channels, messages and activities have worked, and which have not.

We collated the data and feedback from across all our marketing activities to create a bespoke dashboard which was reported to the Board of Directors for discussion each month.

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Starlight Communications has delivered exceptional work.
Jim’s personal approach is refreshing, taking great effort to understand our product, industry and customers.

Ian Ellis, Managing Director
GREENTEK SOLUTIONS LTD