Social success for CMO Group PLC
What was the brief?
When we began working with CMO Group PLC – the UK’s largest online-only retailer of building materials – in September 2020, key aims included building brand awareness and driving more traffic to the websites of its five dedicated online superstores. Our remit includes the management of multiple platforms for Roofing Superstore, Insulation Superstore, Door Superstore, Drainage Superstore and CMO’s LinkedIn page.
From the beginning, it was clear to us that social media would play an important role in this strategy, and our social media team implemented an organic campaign which saw an immediate increase in reach and engagement. However, as we continued to build our relationship with CMO, we knew we could take these already impressive stats to the next level.
What did we do?
Once we started managing CMO’s social media channels in September 2020, we began to treat each store as its own separate entity – setting out clear content pillars and strategies for the social media accounts for each store. We successfully work alongside CMO’s graphic design team, briefing them on assets we love to promote across their social channels which they deliver every time. We started posting a combination of different types of posts to keep the audience engaged such as deals and offers, client testimonials, competitions, product guides and a series of posts in which people could give their opinion on the products.
Based on the impressive organic growth of CMO’s social media accounts, we advised that the company would be able to further build brand awareness and drive more traffic to its websites through paid social media advertising. As a result of this advice, CMO significantly increased its monthly social media fee in March 2021, and we now run an average of 16 adverts per month. Using a combination of videos, carousels and still images, we create ads that are tailored for specific audiences through sponsored content and dark ads that run outside of CMO’s social timelines.
What were the results?
Our organic social media strategy saw CMO’s social media accounts grow at a significant rate, with figures including:
• 400 per cent overall increase in reach and engagement
• 2,000 per cent increase in followers for Drainage Superstore
• 40,000 per cent increase in reach for Door Superstore
However, since implementing the paid social media campaign 18 months ago, reach and engagement as well as web traffic have increased exponentially:
• All stores combined now reach approximately 5 million people per month, compared to 300,000 per month in September 2020
• A 1,200 per cent increase in followers for Door Superstore
• An average of 30,000 clicks to CMO’s websites per month
• CMO’s social media channels receive a daily influx of customer questions
• At least a 30 per cent reach increase month on month
• Google Analytics shows that customers have now started to shop directly via social media links
Ben Hodson, brand director for CMO said:
“We’ve worked with Harris’ social media team for around two years. Karla and the team have quickly understood what makes our customers tick, which means that their campaign ideas always hit the mark, engagement is consistently high, while meeting our commercial objectives at the same time. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with her and the Harris team. We are very happy to recommend them.”