Greentech companies can get a digital glowup thanks to this Delaware agency

Sometimes, when you’re fighting to save the world, promoting that work falls to the wayside.

That’s one reason that Wilmington-based digital agency Tapp Network exists — to help social sector nonprofits and companies make the biggest digital impact possible. This month, Tapp launched a new initiative called Tapp Green that focuses on greentech, a booming sector predicted to grow to $9.5 trillion by 2030. Like businesses and nonprofits in other social areas, greentech organizations struggle to keep up digitally, while often growing exponentially.

“We saw a lot of common denominators amongst all [greentech clients], where they’re trying to grow super fast,” Tapp cofounder Joe DiGiovanni told Technical.ly. “Their digital ecosystem is just not up to date.”

Tapp Network got its start in 2013 with the launch of websites for local nonprofit tech education orgs Tech Impact and Zip Code Wilmington. Nonprofits and startups often don’t have in-house marketing teams, but they need those services, sometimes more than they even realize. So, Tapp stepped in to fill the gap. As Tapp took on more greentech clients in the space, it made sense to focus an initiative on those clients’ niche needs.

So far, Tapp Green has about 25 public and private organizations on board as clients, with a combined market cap of over $5 billion, according to DiGiovanni. Clients include Solomon Community Solar, commercial recycling nonprofit Accelerating Circularity, the Building Decarbonization Coalition and automotive decarbonizer company Denso, most of which became clients before Tapp launched its green initiative.

Greentech clients spurred growth through word of mouth

Current clients are spread out across the U.S., most coming to Tapp Green through word of mouth. Despite being based in Wilmington, Tapp doesn’t have any Delaware greentechs on board yet. Still, Delaware’s growing greentech industry, including green hydrogen startup Versogen, decarbonization company Ardent and curbside EV charging startup Omnipotential Energy Partners, makes it a good fit for Delaware, says DiGiovanni.

“Delaware, like all states, is ramping up a lot of initiatives on climate, and we’re here to support that,” DiGiovanni said. “As we do more webinars and position papers, it will help position Delaware in this greentech space.”

One local client in the environmental wheelhouse is Delaware Pathways. The public education and workforce development program guides middle and high school students through dozens of career pathways, from computer science to allied health to agriculture. Through the Department of Education, the Pathways environmental literacy initiative will help guide students toward green jobs while connecting with the state’s science and social studies standards.

Tapp has also released a free greentech marketing playbook to help businesses in the sector use digital communication more effectively.

“There’s an opportunity there with all this funding coming in,” DiGiovanni said. “A lot of the Infrastructure Bill is going towards underserved communities. So to make a long story short, it really works well with our purpose-driven approach.”

Updated pn May 1 at 11:30 a.m.