The Electric Car Scheme

The Marketing Team at The Electric Car Scheme has been honoured with nominations for two UK Digital Growth awards: B2B Website of the Year and Internal Marketing Team of the Year. This recognition is a testament to our hard work and dedication – we are thrilled to be nominated!

As you may know, switching to an electric car is one of the most impactful ways to support a net-zero future. We strive to make this transition as affordable and straightforward as possible. Through salary sacrifice, employees can save 30-60% on any electric car by opting for a reduced salary in exchange for an electric vehicle, making this option accessible to everyone. Despite the desire to support a net-zero future, barriers such as lack of information, access, high prices, and complexity hinder progress. The slow pace of achieving net zero is a significant issue, as each tonne of carbon emissions contributes to climate change for centuries.

Every company in the UK can assist their employees on their journey to net zero by offering The Electric Car Scheme as an employee benefit. For electric car salary sacrifice to be widely adopted, it must be a ‘no-brainer.’ That’s why The Electric Car Scheme is cost-neutral for employers to set up and run. Employers are protected if the car needs to be returned early, and the scheme is designed to be hassle-free with a simple setup, straightforward reporting, and 5-star customer service. Offering this cost-neutral benefit allows employees to access the most affordable way to switch to an electric car. Together, we are accelerating our efforts to tackle climate change by empowering others to make sustainable choices.

The Marketing Team at The Electric Car Scheme

Our Marketing Team currently comprises three talented individuals: Gaurav Ahluwalia, Siddhant Malhotra, and Ellie Garratt. Gaurav joined us as Head of Growth and Marketing in February 2022 and was promoted to Marketing Director in January 2024. Ellie and Sid both became part of our team in September 2023, with Ellie starting as a Content Marketing Executive and Sid as a Marketing and Operations Analyst. As we continue to grow, we are excited to welcome Kyle Welch our new CRM Marketing Manager to our team.

Overcoming challenges at The Electric Car Scheme

As a start-up in the EV salary sacrifice space, we face challenges such as limited business awareness and understanding, consumer scepticism, and strong competition from brands like Octopus and Tusker. To address these, we have designed a user-friendly website with vibrant colours and clear call-to-action buttons, making it a lead-generation machine. Trust-building testimonials enhance our credibility.

We add value through strategic content targeting high-volume EV and salary sacrifice keywords, driving both conversation and SEO traffic. In February 2024, our blog views reached 12,993, with the Tesla Model 3 Highland article being the most popular. Tailored information for businesses aids understanding and facilitates bookings via a dedicated website section. Our blog and video content dispel EV myths and share driver experiences, with March 2024’s average website engagement time at 3 minutes and 23 seconds, above the industry average. Our website provides easy access to quotes and detailed content for all users. As a mission-driven provider, we share insights from our B-Corp journey through a dedicated page and webinar.

The Electric Car Scheme is B Corp Certified!

A prime example of the Marketing Team’s efforts at The Electric Car Scheme is our launch projects, where we promote the company’s new offerings and achievements. One of the most notable was the launch of our B Corp certification at the beginning of the year. This milestone marked the culmination of 18 months of dedicated work and demonstrated our commitment to being a company for good. The Marketing Team led this achievement, managing both the external and internal launch. This announcement was crucial as it aligned with our mission-driven brand and distinguished us as the first EV salary sacrifice provider to be B Corp-certified in a saturated market.

To ensure alignment across the company, we launched internal communications on “how we talk about being a B Corp,” providing guidelines for discussions about the certification with customers and stakeholders. We also updated marketing assets, refreshed materials for our business-facing and employee-facing teams, and revamped our email signatures.

Externally, we created a new webpage announcing our BCorp status and another focused on “The Electric Car Scheme’s impact,” sharing sustainability metrics such as CO2 savings and tree-planting equivalents. We collaborated with a videographer to produce a promotional video featuring our founders discussing the significance of being a BCorp, adding a dynamic and personal touch to the launch.

We sent promotional emails to our mailing list, inviting recipients to a webinar about our BCorp journey, which sold out with 240 registrations. The recorded webinar is now available on our website for those interested. We also coordinated with our HR team to update our careers materials to highlight our BCorp status, which is crucial for attracting talent aligned with our commitment to sustainable business practices.

This campaign exemplifies our Marketing Team’s ability to work collaboratively across channels, generating interest and building positive brand awareness. Despite being a small team of three in a competitive market with larger, more established companies like Tusker, Lex, and Octopus, we have made significant strides. One notable achievement is the growth of our SEO channel since Ellie Garratt joined, leading to nearly 600,000 impressions in organic search, enhancing our brand visibility and driving lead generation.

What the nomination means for the team.

“As Marketing Director at The Electric Car Scheme, I am proud of how far we have come and the team we have built. When I joined, I handled everything from performance marketing to website creation, which was a great challenge. It’s been rewarding to see how much we can achieve, and having Sid and Ellie on the team has allowed us to invest our efforts in many different areas. We’ve recently hired a CRM Marketing Manager, and I am excited to enhance our email marketing campaigns and really help our clients make the most of their new employee benefits. I am really excited about the future of The Electric Car Scheme and look forward to seeing where it goes!” – Gaurav Ahluwalia.

As a small team, we have created significant impact and demand for The Electric Car Scheme through idea experimentation and refining our target audiences. Being nominated for these two awards is a testament to our hard work and dedication. Despite being a small team, we have achieved a huge amount of success and growth for the company!