How do you stand out in a crowded fueling industry?
By becoming the go-to source of truth. That was the goal for Source North America, a major stocking distributor of equipment, parts, and materials for gas stations, convenience stores and petroleum and chemical handling facilities. They weren’t just looking to sell products — they wanted to own the conversation in their space.
Enter DeanHouston and a bold content play that would turn heads and shift perceptions.
Challenge
Source knew their customers were hungry for trustworthy, up-to-date information about fueling trends, regulations and market shifts. But they lacked a branded vehicle to consistently deliver that knowledge and position themselves as a thought leader.
They came to us with a vision: create a newsletter that informed, engaged and elevated their brand.
Strategy
We worked closely with Source’s VP of Marketing to launch SourceLine, a bi-monthly newsletter packed with high-value insights. But we didn’t stop there.
Instead of pumping out product plugs or tired promotions, we built every issue around real industry trends and emerging challenges — content their customers actually cared about.
- ✅ Bilingual format: printable PDF + digital web version
- ✅ Custom feature stories with SEO value
- ✅ Social media cross-promotion for maximum reach
- ✅ Email distribution with tested messaging and smart segmentation
And we positioned their VP of Marketing, Joe O’Brien, as a subject-matter expert — paving the way for regular bylines in trade publications like Fuels Market News.
“We opted to create the newsletter as a PDF to address a large cross-section of our audience,” said O’Brien. “For DeanHouston to take that and simultaneously make it a digital newsletter – it’s amazing how seamless the whole thing is. We could not do this without them and their expertise.”
Growth
The results speak volumes:
- 📈 Email open rates jumped from 11% to a consistent 36.6%
- 📈 Newsletter reach continues to expand with each issue
- 📈 Thought leadership is generating real-world visibility and leads
And when a newsletter feature caused an unexpected spike in traffic to a decades-old tool on their site? That was just another sign Source had become a true source for the industry.
“To this day, it stuns me how many random people even around the world find Ace Tank’s free chart builder and use it because we put an announcement about it in our newsletter,” added O’Brien.
Takeaway
When done right, content isn’t fluff — it’s fuel.
By building a newsletter that delivers insight over sales talk, Source has become a respected voice in the fueling industry. And with DeanHouston behind the strategy and execution, they’ve transformed consistent content into a competitive edge.