Ohio Organics Council Case Study

Marketing a USCC State Chapter with the Compost Toolshed.

Testimonial

Mary Wicks, OHOC Board Member

Tim Steckel and The Compost Marketing Agency have played a key role in helping the Ohio Organics Council (OHOC, a USCC state chapter) develop a larger presence in the composting world.

Tim designed the OHOC website, which provides information about the organization and its compost events. As importantly, it makes joining the OHOC and registration for events seamless.

The website is also integrated with the Compost Toolshed, a database that tracks members and event attendees as well as permitting addition of other contacts.

Tim has a collaborative approach and has worked with the OHOC board to make sure the website meets our needs.

He has also played a key role in setting up the Compost Toolshed database, creating tags, and generating automated messages as well as providing training to helping us to utilize it effectively.

Tim also provides new ideas and strategies for improving the OHOC’s communications and marketing the OHOC and its work. Tim’s commitment to expanding composting is contagious!

Testimonial

Angel Arroyo-Rodriguez, OHOC Board Member

Tim Steckel and his team at The Compost Marketing Agency have been a key service and partners for the Ohio Organics Council (OHOC).

They helped us establish a professional and useful website and give us great guidance on how to provide good content and continue maximizing the website. In addition, the website service includes contacts management tools and tools to develop members only content.

Tim is giving us lots of ideas on how to leverage these tools for increasing membership value. And he takes the time to guide us in learning how to use the tools.

We appreciate that Tim is always in the lookout for opportunities for the council. With his help OHOC was able to obtain a grant to develop and offer 5 educational events (Compost Cafe Live) in 2023-2025.

The team at The Compost Marketing Agency has produced and managed 4 of the events so far with much success. In fact, the quality and participation at the events have exceeded our expectations!

BTW, the video recordings are posted in our website, check them out.

In my experience, Tim not only cares about offering a quality service, but he personally cares about and is invested in our organization, which makes his guidance and recommendations even more valuable to us.

I absolutely recommend to any composting or organics recycling organization or business looking for marketing help to contact Tim and check out their services.

About Ohio Organics Council

The OHOC is the US Composting Council state chapter for Ohio.

The US Composting Council (USCC) exists to advance compost manufacturing, compost utilization, and organics recycling to benefit their members, society, and the environment.

The goals of the Ohio Organics Council are to influence legislation, train and educate industry professionals, facilitate dialogue for stakeholders and connect the composting industry in Ohio.

Digital Marketing Campaign Objectives

1.

Relaunch a website to represent organics recycling in Ohio

OHOC had an outdated website that was lacking functionality and wasn’t useful for the membership organization.

They decided to seek the help of Compost Marketing Agency.

2.

Increase the membership.

We set a goal to reactivate and increase membership on all levels.

3.

To create and execute digital marketing campaigns.

We are gearing campaigns towards multiple compost stakeholders. Uniting composters in the state chapter and raising awareness about composting towards legislators.

4.

Increase their reach and find audiences.

OHOC noticed that their reach wasn’t what it could have been and decided to seek the help of Compost Marketing Agency.

Achievements

Increased Activity

Our activities led to an increase in membership from 24 to 40 members.

We increased OHOC’s contacts from 200 to over 800 which led to a 50% increase in conference attendance.

Managed Website

The Ohio Organics Council was able to successfully set up a website using the Compost Toolshed, streamlining their website setup and making it easy for members to find the information they need upon arriving at the website.

You can visit it here:

www.ohioorganicscouncil.org

Workflow Automation

Creating event notifications is easy since OHOC is capable of adding countdowns for significant events on their site, along with a streamlined way to add details about the event to their home page.

Event pages are fully functional, with the capability to add an event schedule, registration links, and event flyers directly to the page.

Email Marketing

Email marketing efforts are equally effective since email campaigns can easily be set up with auto-responders, drip campaigns, follow up, and newsletters.

The email campaigns can be integrated with their customer database as well.

Workflow Automation

Creating event notifications is easy since OHOC is capable of adding countdowns for significant events on their site, along with a streamlined way to add details about the event to their home page.

Event pages are fully functional, with the capability to add an event schedule, registration links, and event flyers directly to the page.

The Compost Quality Spectrum. An event organized by the Compost Marketing Agency

Grant Conception and Execution of an Event Series

We envisioned an event series with livestreamed hybrid events. Our goal was to bring together the right people in the same place for networking, learning and connecting over composting and organics recycling in Ohio.

Securing the Foundation: 75% Grant Funding Success

We wrote and submitted a successful grant proposal for the Ohio EPA’s recycling and litter prevention grant, securing 75% of the funding for this comprehensive event series, with OHOC funding the remainder. This strategic approach enabled us to execute 5 educational events (3 live-streamed, 2 virtual) that reached stakeholders across Ohio.

Event Impact: Creating Connections That Build Infrastructure

Each event was designed to bring together the right people to advance organics recycling infrastructure:

“There Is No Away” Workshop – Cleveland Heights

A world café-style workshop featuring live-streamed panel discussions, three hours of collaborative problem-solving with mayors, SWD executives, and compost operators, plus real-time visual documentation by a live artist. The lasting impact: Multiple participants now offer food waste drop-off stations in partnership with local composters—proof that bringing stakeholders together sparks real infrastructure development. This 1.5-year journey from workshop to working drop-off stations shows that while building infrastructure takes time, creating the space to begin is the crucial first step.

The Compost Quality Spectrum – Marysville

Hosted 50+ stakeholders at Scott’s Miracle Gro’s R&D facility, featuring presentations on sourcing quality compost from 30+ locations nationwide, field testing demonstrations of 300+ compost samples with tomatoes, and persistent herbicide testing demonstrations.

Organics Recycling Gateways – Virtual

Showcased SWACO’s successful “Save More Than Food” campaign with municipal best practices toolkit, featured implementation stories from Rust Belt Riders on drop-off station success, and highlighted MetroSTOR’s infrastructure solutions for bin enclosures.