Founded in 2008 as Construction Materials Online, CMO Group PLC is the UK’s largest online-only retailer of building materials, serving both professional trade and DIY customers.
As part of CMO’s ongoing development and expansion, the company implemented an ambitious and impactful brand refresh of all eight of its existing online superstores. This has seen CMO Trade, the merchant’s successful trade account service, rebranded to become BUILDING SUPERSTORE to better reflect the breadth of its product offering. BUILDING SUPERSTORE allows purchases to be made across all the individual superstores, along with a support package that has been specifically developed for professional builders, contractors, and developers.
With a new look and a new name, it was vital that a robust brand awareness campaign was implemented and we were more than happy to lend a hand!
Working closely with CMO’s in-house marketing team, we devised a digital brand positioning campaign that ran across multiple channels and combined earned, paid, and owned content streams.
Social Media – The refresh and management of the LinkedIn page that was previously underutilised. This involved bio optimisation, content creation, consistent posting, social media graphics, community engagement, and targeted sponsored ads.
Content Campaign – To highlight how much time and money could be saved by choosing an online retailer rather than a traditional merchant, a series of LinkedIn articles were created. The ‘Take Your Time Back with BUILDING SUPERSTORE’ content campaign offered advice on how this extra time could be used to better plan your next project, undertake training, or take time to improve well-being.
Digital Advertising – An inline MPU advert ran on Professional Builder’s website, which is one of the leading publications aimed at the general building trade. Supporting editorial content was also secured on the website throughout the campaign.
Media Outreach – A mix of news and product-based stories, as well as generic advisory guides, were used to reinforce BUILDING SUPERSTORE’s expertise.
Through a targeted media relations campaign, over 30 pieces of press coverage were secured in construction trade publications, resulting in 63 backlinks to the website. This was supported by digital advertising, which ran from April to the end of July, and resulted in:
As a result of all marketing activity, including in-house managed e-marketing, SEO and PPC, plus the Harris Creative led social media, content marketing and media outreach activity, throughout the duration of the campaign BUILDING SUPERSTORE has seen a 101% increase in web traffic and a 253% increase in new website users. Our social media activity also helped to create an identity and a community for BUILDING SUPERSTORE. Focusing on LinkedIn, we saw followers increase by over 700%, with an organic engagement rate of 8%.
The content marketing element of the campaign aimed to highlight the benefits of choosing an online builders’ merchant. This key message was communicated via social media and underpinned the series of LinkedIn articles that showcased how contractors can save time and money by purchasing materials online and sharing helpful tips and advice. In total, five LinkedIn articles were published, resulting in over 378 views.
This campaign ran alongside extensive marketing activity that was managed and executed by the in-house team, and close collaboration was key. Overall, in-house research by CMO has shown that brand awareness of BUILDING SUPERSTORE is over 77%, which is an increase of 27% from where CMO Trade awareness was recorded.
Commenting on the campaign, CMO’s chief marketing officer Ben Hodson said: “This was an ambitious and long-term project for us and one that has undoubtedly benefited from the support of the Harris Creative team. The dedicated social media and PR campaign has yielded impressive results and has given us a strong foundation on which to continue building our BUILDING SUPERSTORE brand.”