Marketing Spotlight: The Cool Strategies Behind EcoVadis’ Global Impact

In this article, we’re taking a look at EcoVadis’ marketing and sales strategies as of October 2024.

Why we do this series? Because we love a good challenge and want to help fellow marketers get inspired by companies that are doing things right and the right things. At the end of this article, we’ll share our favourite aspects of EcoVadis’ marketing approach.

(PS: If you need help, wink-wink, send us a message – we have Milk & Cookies and good strategies).

Note: This article is a bit longer than a typical social media post, but we believe the insights and strategies you’ll discover are well worth the time.

Understanding the company

EcoVadis is a sustainability intelligence company that helps businesses of all sizes meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. They help companies comply with ESG regulations, reduce GHG emissions, and improve their sustainability performance.

EcoVadis was founded in 2007 in Paris, where it has its headquarters, to “guide all companies toward a sustainable world.” At the time of the analysis, EcoVadis has 101K followers on LinkedIn and 1.756 associated members.

Let’s go into more details:

Brand promise

For the brand promise, EcoVadis gets to the point: “Global. Trusted. Actionable.” What can we say about their claim:

• It is concise: Uses just three words to communicate core value
• It builds credibility. Being global suggests adaptability to various market needs and preferences, making the brand more relatable to a wider audience. Trust is an important value—clients know they will receive what was promised without fail.
• It is memorable: 71% of B2B buyers remember messages with three key points better than those with more or fewer points

EcoVadis shows its international presence, as it operates in over 180 countries and covers more than 220 industries. The “Trusted” aspect of the brand promise is reinforced by EcoVadis’ rigorous methodology and adherence to international standards. The company has screened over 2 million companies and rated more than 130,000 businesses. Therefore we see they want to establish marketing authority using strategic elements: quantifiable reach, social proof (2M+ companies screened), expert positioning.

EcoVadis’ services

Their sustainability services are dedicated to two categories:

So they focus their solutions on Sustainable Supply Chain and on companies of any size in any industry.

We went deeper and analyzed this page, where they offer their services for the supply chain. We see that they emphasize why it is important to prioritize your sustainability supply chain practices. They cite influential and authoritative sources (Boomerang, WEF), which emphasize the importance of adopting sustainability processes.

More than that, their solutions are “built three key pillars which distinguish our approach”: Expertise, technology and program management. Of course, each of this pillars are further explained. We see some key aspect worth mentioning:

• EcoVadis emphasizes its global team of sustainability experts, positioning itself as a knowledge leader in the field.” The world’s leading sustainability experts are employed by EcoVadis around the world”;
• They expose a customer-first approach. The emphasis on scaling quickly for success might seems important to businesses of all sizes, particularly those looking to improve their sustainability performance: “Our primary goal is to give our customers an edge, to integrate seamlessly, and to scale quickly for success”
• EcoVadis also want to show they used personalisation in their services: “All EcoVadis solutions include a tailored service component”
• By stating that their primary goal is to “give our customers an edge,” EcoVadis positions its services as a strategic business tool, not just a compliance measure for ESG.

How do they differentiate themselves

It seems that they have a dedicated page for this question: “our impact”.

First, EcoVadis is a purpose-driven company “under French law” with a clear mission “to guide all companies toward a sustainable world”. They go into more detail and explain how they will do this: through guidance and support to their customers along their journey. EcoVadis even has an aspirational goal, which is, of course, part of their marketing strategy. By stating they “aspire to reach every company on the planet,” EcoVadis sets an extremely ambitious and far-reaching objective. This positions them as a company with a global vision and a desire to make a widespread impact.

In our next analysis, we’ll take a look into EcoVadis’s social media strategy, examining how they leverage their 101K+ LinkedIn following and other social platforms to: build thought leadership in the sustainability space and generate leads through content marketing. See you next time!

Want to chat more about implementing personalised strategies for your social media efforts? That’s what we’re here for! Drop us a line, and let’s figure out how to make your company grow.

EcoVadis’ Demand generation

This article will discuss their content marketing efforts. We hope you have already read our previous article on EcoVadis’ Social Media strategy. If not, do not worry, this is a stand alone article.

Let’s get into business.

EcoVadi’s blog and articles

Their blog is part of their Resources category, which means … yes they have many resources except the blog (webinars, events, academy, etc.). We will talk about them, do not worry.

Form the first look we can see that EcoVadis has robust content marketing strategy that effectively positions them as a thought leader in the field of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Their content primarily targets businesses and professionals in the sustainability, procurement, and supply chain management sectors.

When entering their blog section, we can see immediately a CTA encouraging useers to read their articles “Read Article”. If course, we can see they put their witepapers in this section as well.

But as we scroll down a bit, we can see a CTA to follow them on social media, huh! We liked this idea.

They do not seem to have a posting frequency, sometimes they post only 3 blog articles, sometimes 1 and sometimes 5. We have also noticed that their articles have a medium to long length and their tone of voice is mostly professional. They also include visualisation for their SEO efforts and they see to focus on qualitative content (long, detailed articles, including statistics).

Of course, at the end of the article, they conclude with a sales pitch and a CTA.

The level of seniority varies across the articles. Some articles are more technical and detailed, targeting professionals with a deep understanding of sustainability concepts. Others are more general and introductory, aimed at a broader audience.

Several articles address regulatory compliance issues, such as the EU’s CSRD and the CBAM, making them relevant to companies operating in these regions.

What we also like is that they have a small preview on what the article is about, to help readers decide if they want to read the article:

Academy

In EcoVadis‘ academy they provide online courses on sustainability topics. Their targets are: companies and trading partners.

They come to fill out a gap “Most companies lack the in-house sustainability knowledge needed to meet the needs of the changing business and regulatory environment”, and their purpose here is to help companies “close the gap” though their education and training on 4 key ESG pillars: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement.

The main CTA of this page is “SUBSCRIBE NOW”. This CTA send leads on their pricing page.

We see they bring strong arguments for the importance if their academy. By highlighting that “40% of workers will need reskilling to perform sustainability-focused jobs well,” EcoVadis is showing a significant skills gap in the workforce. This statistic, from WEF bring credibility to their Academy as the answer to this need.

EcoVadis presents their Academy as the answer to this pressing need. By stating that “Meaningful improvement starts with closing the sustainability skills gap,” they position their offering as essential for companies looking to stay competitive and compliant in an increasingly sustainability-focused business environment. The tone of voice is professional, informative, and encouraging. The language is easy to understand.

They also use some “strong words” to attract the leads:

• “Expert” – shows the depth of knowledge and skills offered by EcoVadis Academy.
• “Meaningful improvement” – Highlights the potential impact of sustainability training on businesses.
• “Sustainability knowledge” – Focus on building expertise in sustainability.
• “Navigating your sustainability journey” – Might say that EcoVadis Academy can guide businesses through the complexities of sustainability.

Other CTAs include “Watch video” for webinars and “Read Article” for blog posts.

Customer stories

Customer stories are in general a good demand generation tactic. We see that EcoVadis has multiples stories, reaching to different industries (and lead can tick what industry are their interested in). This is very good because it shows respect for the leads’ time.

Let’s take, for example, the Tech industry. Here they have 7 customer stories, both in form of video or just text. The length of the case study varies, from 8 to 30 pages. The leads can choose to download the customer story for free or to read it from their website.

The structure of the case study:

1. Presenting the company and it’s sustainability journey (the partnership with EcoVadis);
2. The measures the clients implements under EcoVadis’ guidance;
3. What is the client’s goal;
4. Results and Outputs;
5. About EcoVadis;
6. CTA: “Learn more on ecovadis.com, Twitter or LinkedIn.”

Other customer stories have different structure, such as:

We see that in their case studies also add many statistics to build on their credibility and reinforce the importance of their services. Most of the time, as it is normal, the resources they share have authority.

For example, “As many as 93% of respondents to a recent McKinsey survey of tech executives stated that they plan to make their supply chains more resilient”, or “ A typical company’s supply chain accounts for over 80% of its greenhouse gas emissions, making the supply chain a key lever in the battle against climate change:

Resources center

Their Resource Center is composed of different types of content: videos and text. The content pillars here are: Insights for my supply chain, Insights for my business, Recommendations, and Solution explainers.

Each of these sections have dedicated pages where they write niched content. For example, for the “Insights for my supply chain” category. This section focuses on the various solutions EcoVadis offers to suppliers, including sustainability intelligence, risk mapping, sustainability ratings, and regulatory compliance tools.

The category “Insights for my business”. In this section we see:

• EcoVadis Subscriptions: This pillar focuses on the different subscription plans offered by EcoVadis – basically they the benefits and features of each. This way they help the leads take a faster decision (the price is one of the most important factor in making an acquisition, so the better it is explained the better it is understood and accepted. It’s important to explain a price.)
• EcoVadis Value: This pillar show the value proposition of EcoVadis for companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (XS companies).
• EcoVadis Assessments: This pillar addresses how EcoVadis assessments can help companies improve their sustainability performance and gain insights into their supply chains.
• Sustainability Resources: This pillar provides additional resources, such as articles, videos, and podcasts, related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Research from Gartner shows that B2B buyers spend only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers when considering a purchase. The rest of their time is spent researching independently or online. EcoVadis has adapted to this reality by creating self-service content that guides prospects through their decision-making process.

Conclusions

Their demand generation efforts are focused on B2B buyers and EcoVadis understood they need both education and reassurance (reinforcing their success through copywriting) before making decisions. Through their content, EcoVadis wants to position itself as a thought leader in sustainability. Why is this important? According to Edelman’s research, 52% and 54% of B2B decision-makers and C-suite leaders consistently consume thought-leadership content. More than that, 7/10 decision-makers say they are very likely to think more positively about organizations that consistently produce high-quality thought leadership.

One of the most impressive aspects of their strategy is how they’ve created different content depths for different audience needs. From quick-read blog posts to in-depth academy courses, they’re meeting their audience wherever they are in their journey. This is particularly important in the sustainability sector, where companies often need varying levels of guidance depending on their maturity level.

Recommendations – For people who read and want to learn from this, not for the company we analyze

• It is important to tell people why they should join anything (being a newsletter, etc.) Clearly articulating what subscribers will gain from your newsletter—such as exclusive content, industry insights, or special offers—helps to establish its value. Our email should not be perceived as spams at all, but only and added value. A new email from us is a new gain for your.
• Following EcoVadis’ examples, companies could focus on becoming educational resources for their markets. This doesn’t mean just creating more content – it means creating the right content that truly helps your audience understand and solve their challenges.
• Consider a mix of content depths, from quick reads (for SEO especially) to complex guides for offering value. Consider regular updates that reflect industry changes and new regulations and material that helps readers solve real problems, not just promotional content.

The most interesting aspect of EcoVadis’ approach is how they’ve balanced lead generation with value delivery. Their gated content strategy works because they first demonstrate value through freely available content. According to DemandGen Report, 47% of buyers view 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative.

But we will talk about their lead generation strategies in the next article. Say close!

If you need help with any of the above, contact us to learn more about how we can help you achieve it.

Lead generation

This is the last part of the EcoVadis marketing spotlight series, where we discuss their lead generation efforts. To learn more about their content marketing and the strategies behind it, please visit our previous article on EcoVadis’ demand generation efforts.

Now let’s begin with the analysis.

EcoVadis’ landing pages

One of their most important landing pages is the “assessment process”, for which companies must register.

When clicking the green CTA, the leads are sent on a dedicated landing page.

We believe this landing page might also be used as a newsletter by the way it is described (detailed insights for compliance, improvement and acceleration on your sustainability journey.) To register, the leads are required to input their details, including the business email and company name.

Let’s talk about the copy of this landing page:

• The headline states the value proposition if they register: “detailed insights for compliance, improvement, and acceleration in sustainability.”
• Builds credibility by mentioning their experience (“over 100,000 companies assessed”)
• The mention of tailored subscription plans emphasizes the flexibility and affordability of the platform, and this makes it more attractive – “Subscription plans tailored to your company’s needs”.
• Closes with a low-commitment offer (free preview). More than that, with the email addresses, leads can be further nurtured.

Downloadable Materials from EcoVadis

For their lead generation efforts, they are using white papers as a lead magnet.

For example: here

Gating strategy.

Not everything is locked behind a form – and that’s intentional. They’ve created what we might call a “value ladder” of content:

• Free content serves as trust-building material;
• Strategic white papers require registration with strong CTA.

They have white papers for each industry:

How does it work? The leads click on their industry of interest, then they encounter a CTA “Download the business case study”. After clicking, they are sent on the specific landing page to input their contact details. At the bottom of the page, the leads can see other recommended white-papers and they can choose to download them. We see that that also have a CTA “read item” and a small description.

Webinars and Events

EcoVadis offers on-demand webinars for which leads must register to access them. This is exactly the same strategy used for white papers. Even the page structure is the same (recommendations at the bottom of the page).

In terms of frequency, they host around 2-4 webinars a month. We do not know how long the webinars are, but we know from the webinar descriptions that they dedicate 10 minutes to answering questions.

Their webinar approach deserves special attention:

• The dedicated Q&A time (10 minutes) shows they understand the importance of interaction;
• Their urgency messaging (“The clock is ticking”) creates FOMO without being aggressive;
• The registration process mirrors their white paper approach, creating consistency in user experience.

Paid ads

EcoVadis relies on paid ads, having until now (October 2024) 883 ads on LinkedIn.

Their ads are mostly for sending leads on dedicated landing pages which cover a specific topic. For example: “Maximize ROI with Sustainable Procurement Strategies”.

We see it from here:

But the main goals of these landing pages is to actually send the leads to the EcoVadis’ website. In the right corner there is a CTA “GO TO ECOVADIS.COM”.

What impression do we have about this landing page? it is mostly a sales pitch:

“Gone are the days when procurement was solely about cost efficiency. Today, it’s the backbone of corporate responsibility and sustainability, bridging the gap between external partners and internal stakeholders. With EcoVadis and SAP Ariba, your organization can implement sustainable procurement best practices to ensure every layer of your supply chain adheres to sustainable business practices. This integration allows you to meet sustainable procurement requirements, unlocking competitive advantages and boosting shareholder value creation.”

At the bottom of the page we see some resources. The page provides links to articles and reports on sustainable procurement.

This was just one example.

But for example, we have an add which show a bit more about their intentions, more exactly the targeting locations. See the image below.

When clicking on “learn more”, the leads are sent to a blog article. At the bottom of the page, there is a CTA to download a report (a lead magnet).

Several ads focus on the urgency of climate action and the role of supply chains in reducing emissions.

So:

• They’re invested in paid social, but only on professional networks (notably absent from Facebook);
• Ads focus on specific pain points rather than general brand awareness;
• Landing pages from ads often lead to educational content before pushing for conversion.

Recommendations

• Gate only your most valuable, in-depth content;
• Make sure the gated content delivers on its promised value;
• Develop a tiered content strategy: Create a clear hierarchy of content value, from freely accessible blog posts to gated premium research;
• The landing page should contain:
  • Clear value proposition
  • Clearly explaining the benefits of your services/products
  • Proof of expertise
  • Statistics
  • Flexibility in offerings

Conclusions

Strategy overview

What makes their strategy effective is an integration between different marketing channels:

• Educational content feeds into demand generation and lead generation;
• Thought leadership builds credibility for their services;
• Corporate responsibility reinforces their market position;
• Knowledge sharing supports their business goals.

Inspiration points

Sustainable Procurement Glossary – https://ecovadis.com/glossary/

• Philanthropy: EcoVadis shares its success with nonprofits operating on sustainability education, climate change, diversity equity & inclusion, decent work and economic growth. And is a signatory of Salesforce’s Pledge 1% initiative.
• Sustainable Procurement Glossary: Terms related to CSR, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), and sustainable procurement can be complex. A glossary provides clear definitions, making it easier for stakeholders to understand these concepts. But, more than that, a glossary can serve as valuable educational content and it can also improve search engine rankings for industry-related terms.
• EcoVadis Medals and Badges: Recognizing our Customers’ Achievements: As mentioned on their website this medals and badges “recognize eligible companies that have completed the EcoVadis assessment process and demonstrated a relatively strong management system that addresses sustainability criteria”. What is nice about this is that companies who received them, can promote it on social media and expose EcoVadis. Even EcoVadis says it: “EcoVadis customers who have an active Premium, Select, or Corporate subscription can promote their medal or badge publicly to share their achievements and inspire others”.

Recommendations for Digital Marketing Strategy

1. Most B2B want to be educated before buying. So consider creating practical implementation guides and highly relevant content. You should also consider creating content for each stage of the buying process (a marketing & sales funnel). A well-defined marketing (or sales) funnel helps you give them relevant information at the right time. Then the conversion is much more easier.
2. You should also design a lead generation system that:
   • Qualifies leads;
   • Nurtures relationships through valuable content;
   • Personalizes follow-up based on interests.

Why is this important? Statistics say that companies with mature lead generation processes generate 133% more revenue than average.

1. Make social responsibility part of your marketing. How can your company do this? document and share your impact and partner with relevant organizations. If you like a challenge, you can even involve your audience in initiatives.
2. And lastly, create content that works across channels: How?
   • Convert webinar content into blog posts;
   • Transform white papers into video series;
   • Repurpose case studies for social media;
   • Create podcast versions of written content.

If you need help with any of the above, contact us to learn more about how we can help you achieve it.

Ecovadis’ Social Media

Social Media

Leadership’ social media profile

Pierre-François Thaler, Co-founder and Co-CEO at EcoVadis.

Pierre-Francois Thaler has around 8.6K followers on LinkedIn, where he is not very active. The last post was 1 month ago and it wasn’t an original post. Mostly he reposts posts related to EcoVadis, such as new partnerships or M&A, new webinars, etc.

EcoVadis LinkedIn profile

Now let’s start analysing the company’s profile on Social Media.

EcoVadis has 101K followers on LinkedIn. On the “About us” page they have a simple and concise introducion on their company. Here they also took space to show some of their most important clients. They mention big name such as: J&J, L’Oreal, Unilever, etc. We can also see they reiterate their brand claim ”global, trusted and actionable”.

They share around 20 posts a month, and they post weekly. Their engagement is quite modest rarely reaching 100 likes & co. See yourself.

Their content pillars include: educational content, promotional content, Thought Leadership.

Featuring a CEO at a prominent event like Climate Week NYC builds credibility and positions EcoVadis as a thought leader in sustainability.

Content format:

Text and image, polls, text and video,

What is their strategy?

EcoVadis positions itself as a thought leader in sustainability by sharing insights on various topics like biodiversity loss, decarbonization, and upcoming regulations like CSRD.

They also choose to promite their new products releasesm like the Carbon Action Manager and Carbon Estimator, highlighting their benefits for businesses.

They often share their blog articles on LinkedIn.

We can notice that their tone of voice is quite friendly, and humane.

When it comes to encourage its audience to take an action, they use CTA such as: “Check out…”, “Dive into..”. However, we noticed that many times they do not have any CTA in place and thy just put the link at the end of post description (see the example with the Sustainability Performance Index – 8th edition).

One idea here: “Looking for a decarbonization strategy game changer? It’s officially here: The Carbon Estimator, a powerful addition to the Carbon Action Manager (CAM) enhances how enterprise companies and their suppliers engage in decarbonization. Learn more in the blog”:

• We think the that CTA here is a bit too simple, especially when is promoting the company’s new service. It could be improved by specifying what readers can expect to learn or gain from the blog post.

On LinkedIn they have 34 job openings, among which 4 are for sales position, most exactly for a cold-calling position. The requirements are “At least 1 year of experience in Sales Development, Lead Generation, Sales and/or Marketing”. Looking at their job postings, we can see they’re investing in sales development and lead generation (4 cold-calling positions open).

On Facebook EcoVadis has 4.9 followers, they post weekly (1 post per week is the frequency).

Here they post:

announcements regarding their recognisitions (SpendMatters50toKnow)., they share education content (whitepapers from their blogs), company culture and employee experience under the #lifeatecovadis, social initiatives. For a company like EcoVadis, which is focused on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and sustainability, social initiatives are aligning with their core values (promoting sustainability and ethical business practices).

We see that they share some of their posts from LinkedIn on Facebook (mostly the posts within the educational pillar).

Instagram

Yep, they’re on Instagram too!

The content on Instagram is generally more informal and focused on employee experiences and company culture, and it is similar with the on Facebook. They do post some similar stuff as on Facebook, but you won’t find any blog articles there. We like their presence here, because Instagram is a great way for companies to show their human side. Instagram is a visually driven platform, making it ideal for showcasing company culture, values, and behind-the-scenes moments. Imagine that worldwide, 1.4 billions people have an instagram account (in 2024), and it continues to grow. What does it mean for your business? more exposure, translating to more visibility, and the potential to attract new talent.

X / Twitter

EcoVadis maintains an active Twitter account with 5.3K followers. It’s their second most frequently used platform after LinkedIn, with multiple posts per week. While some content overlaps with LinkedIn, Twitter also features unique posts. However, their engagement on Twitter is relatively modest:

• Views: Posts typically receive fewer than 150 views
• Engagement: Posts usually get around 5 likes or other interactions

(Twitter has 586 million monthly active users as of 2024).

YouTube

The Youtube platform is not mentioned on their website and the last video is from 4 months ago. Their most popular videos are from 4-5 years ago. We see that most of the video have less than 10 seconds. After playing one of them we noticed they are purely promotional. They coney a message in a few seconds: “EcoVadis gives you the full sustainability picture however your business might scale.” So, EcoVadis’ approach to YouTube appears to be limited and not fully integrated into their current marketing strategy.

Social media strategy analysis for EcoVadis

Wee see that EcoVadis is investing into energy on the educational content pillar – Publishing whitepapers and blog content, which they distribute across social channels. While they could improve their CTAs (they often just drop links without strong calls-to-action), they might be trying to funnel social media traffic to conversion points.

Their lead generation seems to follow a classic B2B content marketing approach: Educational content → Capture interest → Drive to website → Convert leads. We see that, for example their whitepapers have a CTA at the bottom of the page. When clicking, the leads are redirected on their main homepage. But we will talk more about their Lead generation strategy in the next article.

Additionally, they promote articles that include links to their webinars, with a call to action (CTA) encouraging viewers to ‘watch now.’ Clicking on this CTA takes leads to a landing page where they are required to provide their contact information, including their business address, to ensure a more targeted lead generation process. They have a strong focus on establishing expertise before pushing their solutions. The fact that LinkedIn is their most active platform could indicate a preference for professional, industry-focused content, which often leans towards establishing expertise.

Their social media strategy shows an understanding of B2B buyer behavior, where education and trust-building are really important (for any industry) before any purchase decisions. However, there’s a gap in their engagement metrics compared to their follower count, which could mean that they might be better at attracting audience than engaging them. They also seem to use their educational content to show industry challenges (or opportunities) that their solutions can address.

Conclusions

EcoVadis is present and active on 4 platforms (LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram), with a clear focus on LinkedIn as their primary channel. Makes sense for a B2B sustainability ratings company to use it. They’re posting regularly (about 20 posts a month), which shows they’re committed to keeping their presence alive. With 4.9K followers, their Facebook is more about showing their human side. More about EcoVadi’s content marketing efforts in the next article.

Recommendations

In general brands have smaller engagement than the people behind the brands. And we said this before, people like to interact with people, that’s why they primarily use social. But as a brand, what you can might to it is have a very good CTA and a compelling message which accompanies it. You can also implement more interactive content formats (their polls show potential).

For limited interaction despite regular posting, these might be a solution. Of course, all the strategies might not work for all business, they have to be adapted.

• Implement social listening to identify trending topics
• Create more conversation-starting posts
• Develop a community management strategy
• Use more visual storytelling (especially for sustainability topics)
• Create smaller snippets on educational content to reach to a wider audience (unfortunately the attention span it is quite small nowadays).

Have you noticed that while you’re scrolling through LinkedIn, you stop at a post because it grabbed your attention immediately? Why is that? Matching the format to the message, be it videos, written text, Carousels, you name it does the thing.

Learn the strengths of each format, for example:

1. Videos for connection and in-depth insights
2. For quick and easy to grasp information.
3. Data, diagrams, charts, etc., for visual data and complex concepts.
4. Carousels for presenting info and stories.

Choose your format based on how you want to connect with your prospects.

But we will talk about their demand generation strategy and their content marketing efforts in the next article. We will talk about their blog articles / whitepapers (yes, they have many) and also about their Academy.

Want to chat more about implementing personalised strategies for your social media efforts? That’s what we’re here for! Drop us a line, and let’s figure out how to make your company grow.