Background
Eleven Content was enlisted to create educational and promotional content for the 2026 Environmental Services & Solutions (ESS) Expo, the UK’s largest trade show for environmental and sustainable management professionals.
The expo, an umbrella event featuring seven co-located industry shows, lets suppliers across waste, energy, water and air quality, land remediation, geotechnical engineering, and more showcase their technologies and services to prospective customers and partners.
Our remit included a challenge familiar to many ESS exhibitors: turning complex technical and regulatory subjects into credible, accessible content that engages knowledgeable audiences and helps prospective customers understand the solutions.
Our partnership began in late May, with show registration set to open on 3 June. ESS Expo 2026 ultimately welcomed more than 15,000 attendees from 7,300+ companies across 69 countries, with a programme featuring more than 400 expert speakers.
The strategy
Using a combination of search data, audience insights, and a review of expo speakers’ expertise, we developed a multichannel strategy that combined:
- Search-led articles about environmental topics with established keyword demand and achievable ranking difficulty, like scrap metal pricing and contaminated land remediation, designed to build lasting visibility in Google and AI search.
- Distribution-led content featuring speaker insights on timely industry topics, such as decarbonisation, desalination, and UK Clean Air Zones (CAZ), designed for social sharing through ESS Expo’s channels and speakers’ networks.
- Hybrid assets that combine relevant search demand with social promotion opportunities, such as our UK Net Zero Strategy Guide, which paired a searchable topic with practical guidance for ESS Expo’s business audience.
The goal was to drive registrations for the upcoming ESS Expo, build brand awareness and AI search visibility beyond the 2026 event, and create quality assets to promote the expo in 2027 and beyond.
The approach
To ensure content quality, we sourced writers who could speak credibly to ESS Expo’s highly knowledgeable audience. We searched our existing database, conducted targeted research, and reached out to prospects on LinkedIn, prioritising writers with strong sustainability profiles and environmental sector experience.
This team ultimately included:
- Michael Willoughby, a British journalist with more than 20 years’ experience in B2B communications. He previously worked as a staff writer for OnOffice and Building magazines, covering sustainability, construction, architecture, engineering and the built environment, and as a communications manager for Willmott Dixon’s Re-Thinking (sustainability) department.
- Angeliki Tsolka, a sustainability professional with more than 13 years of experience. She formerly worked as a UK waste management consultant and on major infrastructure, energy, industrial, and urban regeneration projects, supporting clients through sustainability-focused assessments, reporting, and regulatory compliance.
- Ritika Strauss, a writer focused on climate technology, energy systems, and sustainability. She’s worked with Breakthrough Energy, Soracom, Renew Home, and other environmental sector brands on content that explores the innovators, ideas, and technologies helping build more resilient systems.
Next, we identified and interviewed ESS Expo speakers who could provide technical insights and first-hand examples for our search-led articles. Their contributions connected our writers’ research with practical industry experience, giving readers perspectives beyond a summary of existing sources.
For our distribution-led roundtables, we interviewed speakers, exhibitors, and industry experts through written questionnaires, then distilled their responses into compelling roundtable articles and LinkedIn posts that showcased their expertise and gave them valuable content to share with their networks.
This approach brought multiple industry perspectives into the programme while creating opportunities to reach relevant audiences through the contributors.
The results
Over the four-month engagement, Eleven’s team of content strategists, expert writers, and editors provided:
- A comprehensive technical audit of the ESS Expo website
- A content strategy and four-month editorial calendar
- 6 long-form articles optimised for traditional and AI search
- 2 written roundtables featuring insights from over two dozen ESS Expo speakers
- 2 downloadable eBooks offering practical guidance for businesses while capturing email leads
- 45 promotional LinkedIn posts for ESS Expo and its co-located shows’ pages
- Uploading services to ensure new content published promptly
These assets drove thousands of visits to the ESS Expo website and encouraged numerous social shares and likes across LinkedIn.
>>SEE OUR WORK: Download the UK Environmental Compliance Toolkit we created ahead of ESS Expo.
In addition, our content programme gave ESS Expo a lasting base to strengthen its authority in the environmental sector and grow its visibility across traditional and AI search long past the 2026 event.
As part of the expo’s larger marketing efforts, it also helped attract 15,000+ attendees and 7,300+ companies, and showcased ESS’s expert speakers’ work.
Turn your environmental expertise into content that wins customers
For environmental businesses, our ESS Expo partnership demonstrates how we turn specialist knowledge into content that prospective customers can find, understand, and use.
We bring together experienced sector writers, expert interviews, and search-informed distribution to help businesses explain complex services and build visibility with relevant audiences.
Want to put your environmental expertise to work in your content marketing? Contact Eleven today to build a programme around your services, specialists, and expertise.
