Marketing Campaign - Commercial EV Van

Marketing Campaign – Commercial EV Van

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$780,000

Sales Revenue

Van Orders

9,270

Campaign Reach

Overview and Background

Project Description

ADOMANI, a publicly traded (ADOM) supplier of all-electric commercial logistic vans and trucks, had an inventory of electric logistic vans they needed to move (sale) to bring in additional electric truck inventory.

The sales team was already traversing the country, showcasing the all-electric logistics van. However, the cost to send salespeople into the field and transport the demo van across the country would outpace the ROI.

The team needed a better marketing strategy to reach their target audience that did not cost more than the potential profits.

Defining a new target audience and customer.

The Approach

We already knew our target demographic for our top-selling segment, electric school buses. After all, ADOMANI helped pioneer the all-electric drivetrain for Blue Bird School buses.

While school districts use vans to transport students, food, and equipment, we were looking to expand our market segment into other industries while still marketing commercial EV vans to our base market segment. Plus, we had an established relationship with transportation directors, and the purchase of new all-electric logistic vans still required board approval which had a long sales cycle.

Thus, we needed to identify a new customer segment willing to pay the higher premium for an all-electric logistics van over the counterpart, an internal combustion engine van, at a fraction of the cost.

How we solved it

Results

The campaign resulted in a total of $780,000 in revenue for the sale of EV logistic vans. We began with inventory that needed selling. ADOMANI was one of the only EV firms with production models in stock. Delivery was not an issue, but convincing customers that the EV choice was the best long-term solution to their logistics needs at a higher price point was the main obstacle that we overcame.

A look at our slidedeck.

Developing the Marketing Strategy

Phase 1: Competitor and Customer Research

Phase 2: Marketing Communications and Growth Strategy Development

Phase 3: Tactical Marketing Implementation

Phase 4: Measure and Reporting

Phase 5: Optimization

Sample slide deck for EV van marketing implementation campaign

Phase 1: Competitor and Customer Research

Because I was moving outside of our core target audience, I implemented a team meeting to brainstorm likely markets for the all-electric logistics van. Due to our electric logistic van’s payload capacity and ability to transport products up to 130 miles on a single charge, we narrowed the new target market down to a few final selections that did not require long hauling. Further research conducted by me into the industry data and growth potential yielded the last-mile delivery market. This market was booming at the time, and COVID-19 continued to fuel its growth because online deliveries were increasing due to stay-at-home orders. Last-mile carriers were growing in numbers, while class 8 long-haul interstate logistic trucks were decreasing.

Three factors helped push us toward the new last-mile market segmentation. They included data that supported the higher percentage of trucks compared to other vehicles in the sector. Also, data showed that consumers were the most significant consumption of logistics and that we were already marketing heavily in three states with EV funding programs: California, New York, and Florida.

New Buyer Persona Development

With entrance into a new market sector, we had to rethink our ideal customer. Through research of niché websites, customer surveys and sales team customer intel, we developed a primary buyer persona of our potential ideal last-mile logistics customer along with several secondary buyer personas that identified the key influencers in the B2B buying process.

Through discovery, we learned that our potential buyers are more active, younger customers who valued environmental issues and struggled to balance the cost of operations — due to high fuel costs and maintenance — with profits.

Phase 2: Marketing Communication and Growth Strategy

The marketing communications strategy for this EV campaign was two-fold: create a bottom-funnel messaging campaign to influence customer purchases and quickly drive sales through key communication channels. On the other hand, we needed to develop our positioning strategy to create long-term growth and brand awareness by crafting upper-funnel marketing messaging that ensured future sales.

Phase 3: Tactical Marketing Implementation

We used industry-specific email lists and our in-house organic lists — from our landing pages and sales team — to deploy DRIP campaign messages once every three weeks.

Our team emailed potential customers content that helped bring awareness to the EV products and provide the necessary credibility and specifications for the customer to make informed buying decisions.

In addition to our digital marketing approach, other marketing tactics included:

Direct Mail messages
Trade Show participation
National Ride and Drives with the sales team and demo vehicles
Press Releases and awareness

Phase 4: Measure and Reporting

We established a weekly reporting process and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure direct mail and digital channel success. The KPIs were a roadmap to increasing lead generation weekly — for the campaign’s duration — by adjusting our marketing message and visuals through A/B split testing.

Phase 5: Optimization

Through the marketing campaign, we discovered insights into a new market that demanded the all-electric logistics van. As a result, we optimized product pages to meet our SEO needs for the latest industry, and we developed new landing pages to capture their leads.