When the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) announced Ontario’s new Excess Soil Regulation in December 2019, we recognized that the industry would have challenges operating in the new regulatory environment. In anticipation of it taking effect on January 1, 2021, we saw an opportunity to be there for our clients, offering guidance and best practice expertise. To leverage the opportunity, we recommended a three-pronged marketing strategy: educate, nurture, and advise. As a result, we launched the GET THE DIRT! Navigating Ontario’s Excess Soil Regulations with the goal to raise awareness of Golder’s capabilities in soil management and to generate leads.

We knew our competitors would also react, so we used clear and direct messaging to foster confidence and trust on a complex subject. Our creative marketing approach included:

• Marketing automation targeting existing clients using lead scoring.
• Curated page with a countdown timer, thought leadership articles, project profiles, on-demand webinar, interactive tool breaking down the regulation’s terminology; and eBook covering all aspects of the regulation.
• Strong social media to generate awareness with well-defined content marketing plan. Capitalized on an under-utilized hashtag #ExcessSoil to generate conversation where little existed prior, this allowed us to become a source of truth on the subject.
• In-person (before COVID-19) and virtual events.
• Internal communications to raise awareness and promote cross-selling.

The campaign was a huge success resulting in 50 leads, 25 client presentations, 6 projects, 40 qualified leads, and approximately $500K in revenue, and has been featured firmwide as a case study.