greentech media case study

Building a New Revenue Stream at Greentech Media

Greentech Media is a business-to-business news and

market analysis site covering the clean energy industry,

including next generation electricity systems and energy

storage. Its audience includes anyone that works in that

ecosystem, from the technology vendors – hardware or

software vendors that build products that enable this

new energy future – to the buyers of that technology:

large electric utilities, solar developers, installers and

project developers, industry consultants, financiers.

Founded in 2007, GTM has grown to become the leading

source of information in the clean energy marketplace

and has historically maintained a healthy profitability

through a mix of digital advertising, research products,

and conferences.

In 2015, the company introduced a new premium content product, GTM Squared.

In this case study, read about how GTM:

• Revaluated its product offerings in the face of the changing realities and needs of online advertisers

• Conceived, marketed and launched a successful new revenue stream

• Operated its online initiatives leanly, through partnering with vendors and technologists that allow its internal team to maintain a laser focus on creating a new product for its readers and audience

About Greentech Media

Case Study Summary

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In business-to-business

media, if you’re doing it right,

you know your audience,

you’re focused, your goal is

not to be the size of BuzzFeed.

Rick ThompsonPresident and Co-Founder

Greentech Media

Greentech Media has a profitable three-pronged business model,

focusing on three revenue streams: research, conferences, and

digital media. Though the research and conference divisions

were doing very well, the media site struggled with the same

realities that many online publishers face: declining revenue

from online advertising despite a growing audience size.

“Over the years,” said Rick Thompson, president and co-founder,

“we’ve asked ourselves: How do we make the online media

portion of our company more successful financially, even as

display advertising continues to struggle?”

This driver led to the 2015 launch of GTM Squared, a

subscription service that offers exclusive content, including

research briefings, podcasts, and articles not available to visitors

of the free website. The product came about after a commitment

to improved audience analytics, customer research, and careful

selection of partners and vendors.

2007

60

BOSTON

NEW YORK

SAN FRANCISCO

WASHINGTON D.C.

RESEARCH

EVENTS

CONFERENCES

DIGITAL MEDIA

DATE FOUNDED

EMPLOYEES

LOCATIONS REVENUE SOURCES

COMPANY INFORMATION


Parse.ly is the Lingua

Franca amongst the

whole team. We’re all

looking at it; we’re all

looking at the same

numbers. We forward

our daily or weekly

updates around, and

we know that we’re all

seeing the same thing.

Nicholas RinaldiOnline Marketing Manager

Greentech Media

Using Parse.ly to Focus on the Audience

Long before Greentech Media hatched the idea of creating

premium content subscription, the digital team had used

Google Analytics to monitor the readership of the site. The

editorial staff, however, complained about accessibility to the

information: it was too complicated for each reporter to log in

individually, and group report emails only came on a monthly

basis through Excel. When the company rolled out Parse.ly in

2012, the dashboard’s focus on media and publishing helped

the editorial staff understand what types of stories were

resonating with the readers and audience.

Over time, GTM recognized what the team described as “a

burgeoning middle class” in its online audience. This was

partly due to the growth of renewable energy itself: as more

people entered the sector, it created a new segment of people

who weren’t necessarily top, C-level management, but were

still hungry for more information. These readers could use

information that would add more color than they could get

by just reading the news, but they did not need (and would

not pay for) the full, deep-dive market studies that Greentech

Media’s research arm provided. A subscription service at a

lower price than traditional market research offerings seemed

like a viable product offering for this group of readers.

SUBSCRIPTION BENEFITS

ACCESS TOPODCASTS

ACCESS TO ARTICLES

EVENT DISCOUNTS

LIVE STREAM OF CONFERENCES

RESEARCH BRIEFINGS

$249/year

GTM Squared Cost and Benefits


As the idea for the product developed, GTM asked questions and

gathered data that helped inform both the service and the eventual

go-to market strategy. Data in Parse.ly uncovered content-level interest.

For example, it became clear by looking at author level data that the

service could market access to certain reporters on staff. Referral data

helped pinpoint returning visitors that would be most likely to convert to

subscribers, and the team could target marketing on those channels.

GTM also made use of its large database of email subscribers by reaching

out to the readers with the highest click-through rates. These loyal

audience members were sent a customer survey that garnered a high

response rate by offering a discount to the future GTM Squared product.

At GTM, the small team running digital initiatives makes the most

of its resources. Instead of building all technologies in-house,

GTM carefully evaluated and chose partners to bolster the team’s

efficiency. Essential to the launch of GTM Squared, the team relied on

technology partners, including:

Parse.ly as its editorial analytics platform to help understand the

audience for product development and marketing.

Piano as the paywall software. Piano allowed Greentech Media

to build out the GTM Squared business model, providing the

digital team with the flexibility to try different offers and price

points while ensuring the subscriptions and gated content

functioned correctly.

Vector Media Group, as GTM’s long-standing development agency,

to implement any customization and ensure everything was

working correctly in coordination with the in-house digital team.

Working with these partners and others, the team successfully

launched GTM Squared along with a site redesign in September 2015.

Executing a Premium Content Solution with a Small, Lean Team


Launch Lessons and Deciding What’s Next?

Interviewed for This Case Study

There have been some early lessons GTM reported, many

having to do with what customers say they will and won’t pay

for, and what they actually will pay for. Overall, the subscription

service has quickly become a revenue driver for the nine-year-

old and profitable media site. The team is looking forward to

growing the membership even more in 2016.

“We’ve seen consistent subscriber growth, now into the

thousands, since launching the product and look forward

to enhancing it over time to provide continued value to our

customers,” said Thompson.

In addition to continuing to refine the offerings of GTM

Squared, the digital team is still focused on making sure

that its readership is seeing value in the free online articles,

and aligning those efforts with continued promotion of the

premium product. In that effort, the website will be improving

its recommended articles by using the Parse.ly API to power

recommendations through reader profiles.

“This is all of strategic importance to scale the offering,

ultimately enabling us to be less reliant on digital advertising

as a revenue source,” added Thompson.

This is all of strategic

importance to scale the

offering, ultimately enabling

us to be less reliant on digital

advertising as a revenue source.


Greentech Media

Interested in learning how understanding your audience better can help you discover new revenue sources? Contact Parse.ly today.


Greentech Media

Nicholas RinaldiOnline Marketing Manager

Greentech Media

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