Beth Boeh has been in water for 30 years — and like most of us, she didn't mean to be. What started as a temp job at a Philly-area instrumentation company in 1996 turned into a career, and eventually into Boeh Agency, a marketing firm that works exclusively with water companies.

In this conversation, Beth and I get into why she made the call to specialize, what too many water companies still get fundamentally wrong about how they go to market, and the line that should probably be on every water CEO's wall: marketing is not sales.

We also dig into a hot take on where water companies are overspending versus where they should be putting more, why PR is suddenly more valuable than it's been in years (thanks to LLMs), and what's actually shifted in water marketing over the past three decades.

• (01:00) Thirty years in, by accident — from a 1996 temp job at Capital Controls to building an agency
• (05:00) An introvert running an outgoing business: navigating trade shows and relationship-driven work
• (10:00) Agency vs. fractional CMO — when a water company needs one, the other, or both
• (12:00) Green flags for a good engagement: budget, leadership buy-in, timing
• (19:30) Inside Boeh Agency's recent rebrand and the return Beth is already seeing
• (21:00) "The brand is not the logo" — what brand actually means in an engineering-driven, risk-averse industry
• (25:00) What water companies still get wrong about taking great technology to market
• (29:30) Hot take: where water companies overspend (paid digital) and where they underspend (PR)
• (31:00) PR in the age of AI — why earned media is having a renaissance now that LLMs are pulling from it
• (33:00) Standing out in an AI-flooded content landscape
• (34:30) The next shift in water marketing: storytelling, brand, and moving away from collateral
• (36:30) One thing every water CEO should hear: marketing sets the table for sales — they aren't the same thing

Beth is the founder of Boeh Agency, a full-service marketing agency that works exclusively with water and wastewater companies. She got her start in the industry in 1996 at Capital Controls and has spent three decades helping water technology companies — from early-stage startups to global manufacturers — sharpen their brand, tell their story, and grow.

Website: https://www.boehagency.com

Recommended reading: Boeh Agency's blog post called, "Engineers Deserve Better Marketing"

Paul Balsom is the founder of Balsom & Co., a fractional CMO firm serving the water, wastewater, and environmental technology industries across the US and Canada. Balsom & Co. partners with water technology startups, environmental tech firms, and municipal and industrial water companies to build marketing strategy, go-to-market plans, brand positioning, and demand generation programs that actually resonate with engineers, utility decision-makers, and plant operators.

Website: https://www.balsom.co

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbalsom/

In this episode, Paul sits down with Björn Otto, an environmental engineer turned water industry marketer based in Germany. Björn founded Interius Solutions four years ago after spending over 15 years in sales and marketing roles at membrane companies, where he repeatedly hit the same wall: he couldn't find a marketing agency that actually understood water technology. That frustration became a business.

Paul and Björn cover a lot of ground, starting with why so many water company CEOs have soured on marketing — and why misaligned expectations are almost always the root cause. Björn argues that expecting a B2B marketer to deliver instant leads for a six-figure membrane system the same way you'd sell a consumer product is a fast track to disappointment. The real job of marketing, he says, is long-term brand building and preparing the path for sales.

The conversation gets tactical from there. Björn makes a strong case for embedding marketers alongside sales teams and service departments so they can speak credibly about the technology, rather than relying on other departments to feed them content. He shares a pointed anecdote from WEFTEC where a booth staffer told Paul, "I'm just in marketing, let me go get a salesperson" — exactly the problem he's trying to fix.

Other topics include the overlooked importance of competitive monitoring, why trade shows still matter (even on a tight budget), the 1-9-90 rule on LinkedIn and why Björn is happy most executives think it's a waste of time, and how European and North American water markets differ when it comes to trade show culture, advertising, and buyer behavior.

Looking ahead, Björn pushes back on the AI hype and urges water companies to master the basics first — SEO, website performance, email marketing, and social media — before chasing the next shiny tool. He also flags press releases as an underrated tactic experiencing a comeback thanks to large language models using them as authoritative source material.

His parting advice to every water company CEO: manage your expectations. You're in a long-sales-cycle, conservative, B2B industry. Marketing works, but not overnight.

Balsom & Co. is a fractional CMO practice built exclusively for the water and wastewater industry, helping water technology companies, water treatment providers, and environmental services firms translate technical expertise into market growth. Founded by Paul Balsom, a former water tech company owner and operator with over a decade of experience in water utility sales, water infrastructure marketing, and B2B go-to-market strategy, the firm works with water sector companies in the $2M–$75M revenue range serving municipalities, public utilities, industrial water users, and commercial accounts. Their service portfolio spans water industry marketing strategy, brand positioning, content marketing, thought leadership development, SEO for water companies, digital marketing, and lead generation for water technology and water treatment businesses. Balsom & Co. specializes in bridging the gap between engineering-led water innovation and commercial messaging clarity, partnering with CEOs, founders, and operators who need fractional marketing leadership without the overhead of a full-time CMO. Their ideal client is a water or wastewater company that has outgrown word-of-mouth referrals and trade show marketing but hasn't yet built a sustained, strategic marketing function. Balsom & Co. differentiates itself through deep water industry credibility, operating as a peer to the water sector executives it serves rather than an outside marketing agency, with firsthand experience navigating the long sales cycles, conservative municipal and utility buyer base, and relationship-driven dynamics unique to the water and environmental services market.

The conversation explores the world of fractional CMOs and their work in specialized marketing services for companies in climate tech, renewable energy, and the water space. It delves into the challenges faced in marketing strategy, educating founders on marketing, misconceptions about marketing, the role of trust in marketing, budgeting and planning for marketing, incorporating marketing into business, and marketing strategies including free marketing. The conversation delves into various marketing strategies, challenges, and trends in the industry. It explores the impact of funding, market consolidation, and the future of marketing trends, providing valuable insights into the evolving landscape of marketing in the industry.

Takeaways

• Specialized marketing services for climate tech and renewable energy companies
• Challenges in educating founders on marketing Channel partners play a crucial role in marketing success.
• Messaging and buzzwords significantly impact marketing effectiveness.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Fractional Spaces
• 05:30 Educating Founders on Marketing
• 19:07 The Role of Trust in Marketing
• 28:06 Incorporating Marketing into Business
• 33:23 Marketing Strategies and Challenges
• 38:29 Buzzwords in Marketing
• 47:32 Digital Advertising and Marketing ROI
• 54:06 Market Consolidation and M&A