How to Break into Climate Tech as a Marketer

There has never been a more important time to spark rapid innovation in the most critical sectors of our economy. Fortunately for impact-driven job seekers, effective solutions already exist and the teams behind them are recruiting.

Climate tech is an umbrella term for the diverse range of companies developing technologies that are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, addressing the impacts of global climate change, and restoring a healthy and biodiverse environment.

For marketers who yearn to make a positive difference in the world, these companies present a fast-paced and well-rewarded career.

This guide covers what’s possible in climate tech and how to join an impactful team:

Marketing opportunities in climate tech
Leveraging your skills for success
Navigating the climate job market
Navigating the interview process
Understanding and negotiating your offer
Your first 100 days and beyond
Further reading

Marketing Opportunities in Climate Tech

For marketers, succeeding means effectively scaling the adoption of climate solutions. Understanding the niches within climate tech and marketing will help you specify your goal and differentiate yourself as a candidate.

Climate tech niches

Most climate tech companies focus on one main goal but touch all three:

Here are some of the sectors climate tech companies are developing solutions in:

Energy
Transportation
Industrial manufacturing
Data and analytics
Carbon removal
Finance
Agriculture
Land management
Education
Fashion
Waste and circularity

Typical tech marketing roles

Although every marketing team is different, most climate tech marketers focus their skills in one of these typical tech marketing domains:

Brand marketing tells the story of an organization, creating an emotional connection and portraying a clear brand identity that resonates with customers. It focuses on capturing new customers while reinforcing the brand at every touchpoint in the customer lifecycle.
Product marketing communicates the value and differentiation of the products, highlighting their impact and making them accessible to users. It involves packaging, pricing, and presenting features in a way that helps customers understand and appreciate the product.
Growth marketing focuses on acquiring and retaining customers through personalized messaging and channels. It leverages triggers and loops to bring customers into the product, ensuring they experience its value and encouraging ongoing usage and referrals.

Marketing leaders in climate tech combine all three marketing types to set strategic direction and ensure the smooth execution of marketing activities.

Once you’ve identified your preferred combination of climate tech niche + desired marketing role, consider updating your headline on LinkedIn accordingly. For example, “Product marketer in climate tech | EVs and Grid”.

Leveraging Your Skills for Success

To position yourself for success in interviews, it's important to identify, develop, and display the skills needed to achieve your target role’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and drive acquisition, retention, and revenue.

Here are some suggestions to help you do that:

What are you already good at? Consider your experience and the things you enjoy doing. Many skills are transferable for marketing, including writing, design, and social media content creation.
What are the responsibilities of your target role? Research job listings with similar titles and organizations. If you want to be a product marketer in the electric vehicle and energy niche, find marketing roles at those companies and begin tracking the stated qualifications, such as years of experience, tools/systems skills, strategy skills, knowledge of the market, implementation skills, and people management skills.
What are the responsibilities of potential teammates? During your research, keep a second list of the KPIs your potential manager and teammates would be responsible for. By anticipating the relationship between your target role and your teammates, you can better align your skill development and interview strategy to the needs of your interviewers.
What can you do right now to develop and share your skills? Consider creating content, taking courses, attending workshops or conferences, seeking mentorship, or gaining practical experience through paid internships or freelance projects.
How can you build credibility within your niche? Create a personal website or blog to showcase your projects, achievements, and thought leadership within your climate tech marketing niche. Actively engage on LinkedIn and in Slack communities by sharing relevant content, participating in discussions, and building a network within the industry. Tailor your resume, cover letter, and interview content to highlight your most relevant skills and experiences.

Navigating the Climate Job Market

There are a ton of resources available to climate job seekers and more are shared every day. Here are a few of the places I’d recommended beginning your job search at.

Job boards and communities

Work on Climate is a massive Slack community and resource center in climate tech.
Climatebase is a primary climate tech job board, newsletter, and community.
Climate People is a recruitment agency dedicated to climate-related careers. Also a great TikTok account!
Tech job boards like Built In, Wellfound, and Work at a Startup may also feature climate tech marketing roles.
This comprehensive and updated list of climate tech job boards created by naturetech.io. (Please email me if there’s a better one).

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great place to search for jobs and share valuable content that showcases your expertise, unique perspective, projects, and skills. Optimize your profile for recruiters.

Research

Some of the most interesting opportunities in climate tech aren’t on job boards or LinkedIn. Here are some ideas for search phrases or locations to find climate tech startups that may be recruiting:

“Top [carbon capture] startups” or similar niche lists.
“Climate tech funding” News tab on Google search results.
Climate tech startup accelerators like Elemental or Third Derivative.
Climate focused VC firms like Generate Capital.

Navigating the Interview Process

Tips to help you prepare for interviews, meet teams, and evaluate what you learn.

Preparing for the interview

Before your interview, conduct in-depth research on the company:

Stage and funding: Early-stage companies typically mean more agency and say in the company’s direction, more hats to wear, and less teammates or budget.
Impact potential: Assess the scientific validity and long-term effectiveness of the company’s climate solution.
Market, customers, and competitors: Research the company's target market, customer base, and key competitors to understand the company’s positioning and competitive advantage.
Company mission, vision, and values: Learn about the company's core mission, vision, and values, and the effectiveness of their brand.
Leadership team: Learn about the executive team and board of directors to understand their experience, qualifications, track records, and reputation within the industry; a strong leadership team is essential to success.
Team members: Current team members may be listed in the employees section of the company’s LinkedIn page. A diverse team with deep expertise in the target market is ideal.
Consider hopping into an expert office hours or mentorship call with someone familiar to the company vertical or market to gain an edge in understanding for your interviews.

Typical tech interview process

Some climate tech startups interview up to 4 or 5 times.

Here are some types of calls you could end up on throughout your interview process:

Screening call
Direct manager interview
Technical interview
Panel interview
Executive interview

If you have published content related to the skills needed for this role, be sure to share a link in the chat near the end of each interview. By showcasing your content, you can differentiate yourself from other candidates and demonstrate the value you can bring to the team and company.

Also, keep in mind the responsibilities and KPIs of the individuals you’re meeting, and be sure to adjust your approach to their most relevant needs.

Meeting the team and evaluating what you learn

There are a few key things you try to learn as you’re meeting your potential teammates:

Company culture: Ask questions that give you insight into the way employees collaborate, especially cross-functionally, to understand the team’s culture and dynamics.
Resource availability: Learn who develops and approves the marketing budget for the company and for the role you’re interviewing for, and what a typical budget could be.
Growth objectives: Investigate the company's current growth objectives to anticipate how your role would contribute to success and how quickly you can expect additional resources or teammates.

Goal alignment: Inquire about the existence and maintenance of company-wide objectives and key results (OKRs), quarterly and annual.
Role need: Learn about the reasons why the role you’re interviewing for was posted and how each interviewer is expecting to engage with this role.

Depending on your desired situation, evaluating these aspects of a potential team should help you understand what marketing for this company could be like.

Understanding and Negotiating Your Offer

Offers at tech companies typically include more than other organization types. Here’s a brief overview of total compensation, stocks, and negotiating your offer.

Total compensation

Total compensation encompasses the complete value of benefits and perks you will receive as part of your employment. It goes beyond your base salary and can include:

Health insurance
Retirement benefits
Vacation time / PTO
Bonuses, commissions, and incentives
Equity (stock options, RSUs)
Perks like flexible work arrangements, wellness programs, and/or professional development opportunities.

Stocks

If your job offer includes stock options, key considerations include:

Stock option offer: Understand the basics of the stock offer, including the exercise price and the number of shares you can purchase.
Vesting schedule: Review the vesting schedule, which outlines when and how your stock options become available for exercise.
Restrictions and conditions: Be aware of any restrictions or conditions associated with the stock options, such as lock-up periods or performance targets.

Negotiating successfully

Some tips for compensation negotiation:

Preparation: Research similar salaries for the role title and industry, understand your own value and priorities, and establish clear boundaries regarding what you are willing to accept.
Value proposition: Highlight your relevant skills and experiences that align with the position and company, emphasizing the unique value you bring to the role.
Job title: Consider the value of requesting a more preferable job title immediately or conditionally upon early positive performance reviews.
Flexibility and compromise: Remain open to compromise and flexible in exploring alternative solutions, aiming to find a mutually beneficial agreement.

Your First 100 Days and Beyond

The first few months of your new position are a fantastic opportunity to learn, build relationships with your teammates, and make tangible contributions towards the company's mission.

Creating a 100-day plan

Your 100-day plan will help you make an impact by identifying key deliverables and building relationships with your teammates:

Deliverables: Review your job description and identify the key milestones or deliverables you can achieve within your first 100 days. Create a strategic roadmap to get yourself from where you’re at to where you need to be to succeed.
Relationship building: Identify the key stakeholders of your deliverables. This may include marketing or cross-functional team members. Set up recurring meetings with them to learn more about the organization, stay aligned on resource needs, and provide value however you can.

Keep your plan simple as you’re about to learn a lot very quickly and will adjust your goals and priorities within the next few months.

Keys to success in marketing a climate tech company

Based on personal experiences and lessons learned, there are several keys to success in the climate tech marketing space:

Stay focused on the company's mission: Succeeding at marketing means accelerating the adoption of a critical climate solution. Aligning your efforts and decisions with the company's mission will increase your success.
Learn continuously and stay adaptive: Tech teams in general are very fast-paced and demand continuous learning and quick adaptation. Be prepared to learn, pivot, and embrace new challenges while wearing multiple hats.
Understand startup success: To excel in your role, strive to understand what makes a startup successful. Keep up with industry trends, best practices, and emerging strategies within your vertical.
Deepen climate solutions knowledge: Climate tech marketing requires a very strong understanding of your company’s product and market. Continuously educate yourself by attending industry events like webinars and workshops and learning from the subject matter experts (SMEs) on your team.
Emphasize teamwork: Collaborating, especially cross-functionally, is crucial to marketing success in climate tech. Foster strong relationships, promote open communication, and actively contribute to organizational objectives.
Measure success: Effectively track and attribute your success in growing acquisition, engagement, retention, and revenue. This will help you take a scientific approach to marketing, and will be a valuable asset during performance reviews.

Remember, your first 100 days are just the beginning, and your team will likely anticipate that it will take some time for you to fully understand the company’s market, customers, products, and internal dynamics.

If you have any questions or need additional assistance, feel free to reach out. Good luck on your journey!