BOC
Data-driven marketing and analytics strategy for industrial gas supplier
As the largest supplier of industrial gases and equipment in the UK, BOC is one of the most well-known names in the gas industry. But with such market penetration, further growth in the ecommerce sector was difficult. With Cyber-Duck’s help, together we would introduce an integrated marketing campaign to increase ecommerce sales in 2016-17.
Key stats
105%
increase in revenue
151%
increase in transactions
42%
increase in ecommerce conversion rate
Objectives
As part of the Linde Group, BOC dominates the industrial gas and equipment market in the UK. Operating since 1886, they have over 70 years in retail stores and a competitive call-to-purchase offer. Their continued success is all down to their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, but they required a helping hand to leap into the digital age.
After launching an ecommerce store and app in 2012, customers could purchase products and manage their accounts online. However, not enough customers were taking up this opportunity. Our aim was to create and execute a long-term marketing strategy; by driving the digital transformation of BOC, we could raise their ecommerce store’s performance across the board. Across 2016-2017, our objectives were to:
- Increase customer awareness of the ecommerce store, raising engageement from new and existing customers.
- Drive customers to shift online, bringing balance to traditional and digital conversion touchpoints.
- Triple the percentage of transactions from their ecommerce store by December 2016.
Meticulous Research
Cyber-Duck prioritises the experience of the user to power digital transformation. So as always, we began our marketing strategy with meticulous research. By interviewing stakeholders, we uncovered BOC’s target audience, value proposition and market positioning for the ecommerce store. Key personas were defined by blending keyword, data and trend analysis with interview insights from a cross-section of users.
These personas were threefold: small-to-medium sized enterprises, buyers, and laboratories. We also audited all existing content to identify which pieces performed well historically. Then, we correlated all our findings to compile a robust marketing strategy, with planned tactics that specifically targeted buyers and laboratories. This research would allow us to design ads with the greatest chance of a good ROI.
Once we had defined personas for BOC, it was time to unleash our creativity. During our creative workshops, we ensured all material would meet agreed business goals for BOC. We then tested material with real users.
For instance, using cutting-edge UX recommendations, we tracked user journeys to see how users engaged with marketing material and what they made of the home page. We compared the original designs to our own variations and found that users engaged better with the variations. After implementing the changes, such as introducing a more prominent search bar, there was a 4.1% increase in the conversion rate of the homepage as a direct result of A/B testing.
Marketing Campaigns and Analytics
A major aspect of our service was paid marketing campaigns. We collaborated with BOC to determine a series of creative advertisements to use. These digital offerings would be spread across the internet, using a variety of techniques.
On the one hand, we utilised pay-per-click (PPC) and programmatic campaigns to improve the rankings of BOC and encourage more click throughs. By A/B testing these ads, we saw how users reacted to the content and were then able to improve it to encourage greater engagement.
All PPC content we created for BOC was extremely targeted – through A/B testing and keyword research – to maximise user engagement. We also ensured all content had a single, clear CTA to encourage greater interest among users.
You can’t have a digital marketing campaign without using the latest and most innovative technology. That’s why we brought Google Tag Manager to BOC – an intuitive and cost effective tool marketers can use to track user behaviour without needing copious amounts of developer time once implemented.
For BOC, we created a large amount of JavaScript variables, advanced URL tracking and segmentation, custom dimensions, cross-device tracking and much more besides to provide a clear picture of how users engaged with BOC’s ecommerce store. Through understanding user behaviour, we could bring exciting changes to BOC’s marketing output to better engage with users.
Outcomes
By focussing on buyers and laboratories, our marketing campaign for BOC managed to encourage those larger purchasers to use BOC more frequently in 2016-2017. In just seven months, we doubled the amount of transactions BOC was receiving through its ecommerce store.
Comparing Jan – Dec 2016, there was a 57% increase in new visitor sessions. Teaming good UX with remarketing campaigns, returning visitors increased by 111.2%. PPC was especially effective, with a 1,416% increase in transactions through this channel.
It’s through the combination of creativity and research that we achieved these results for BOC. What’s more, the marketing tactics we used and taught to BOC are still in use today. Our marketing campaign with BOC was nominated for two awards in 2017. These included Campaign Effectiveness with the Wirehive 100 Awards and Performance Marketing with the UK Agency Awards.
Key stats
105%
increase in revenue
151%
increase in transactions
42%
increase in ecommerce conversion rate