With products that have been established for more than 70 years, Owatrol have been a favourite amongst Professionals for a long time. Whether painting a kitchen, protecting a newly laid deck or renovating a luxury yacht, Owatrol have a range of market-leading solutions.
Traditionally selling only through trade resellers, Owatrol approached us in 2012 as they had launched a direct-to-consumer website to raise their profile and were looking for a complete overhaul as first year sales and visibility had been disappointing. The intention of the site was to reach a wider audience than they could get through their resellers, raise the overall Owatrol brand within the UK and also sell parts of the range that they had historically had trouble getting into traditional stores.
“The guys understood the needs of my business and worked hard to boost my sales. They now manage my entire online and offline marketing campaign, and it’s been a fantastic investment for us.”
Gary Coniam, Company Director
- Web Design
- Development
- Marketing
- Print Design
- Maintenance
- Support
Having already built good relationships with many retailers, both offline and online, it was important that a B2C website did not harm these business relationships. The aim instead was to reach new audiences, push the full range rather than just the core offering and raise the brand in general. We agreed to always hold RRP on the site, never discounting to allow other retailers to differentiate.
We identified that whilst Owatrol was well respected by professional painters and decorators, and widely used on large scale projects, it had very little impact on the home / DIY market. Current literature was aimed at professionals and so users with little knowledge of the industry had limited idea of the benefits of each product.
We re-launched the website just in time for the peak period of Spring / Summer 2012 and agreed to a retainer contract for 4 days per month of internet marketing and support work. We focused on writing a series of campaigns about basic care for decking, fencing, sheds etc. We re-wrote all the content for the entire range to make it more end-user friendly. We also created social media profiles and began engaging with end users. Within the first 12 months Owatrol had seen their investment returned 3 times over, after which they were keen to grow the partnership further – doubling their retainer with us.
The strategy has continued to be wildly successful, turning the B2C portion of the business into a significant arm and a sizeable source of profit for the company, whilst also allowing the traditional retailers to grow their sales as general brand awareness has grown.
Beyond the core content strategy, we also manage all print marketing material, the monthly email newsletter, all social media accounts, the company’s PPC campaign and even some of the customer enquiries. In addition to this, we also handle all technical aspects of the website, from hosting and payment processing, through to updates, back-ups and security.