Supermarket Coverage Sweeps Digital Consultancy Off Its Feet

SEO audit report helps establish Reform’s retail thought leadership credentials in The Grocer

Introduction

Digital management consultancy Reform advises businesses on their digital strategy, helping them unlock their growth and revenue potential through digital.

The Challenge

Reform appointed Velvet PR to help boost its profile, demonstrate  thought leadership and highlight its top-level consultancy credentials among senior business audiences. A key new business target at a certain stage in its growth was the retail sector.

The PR campaign had to demonstrate the hands-on nature of Reform’s work while also highlighting its strategic approach to enhancing e-commerce and online business generally. This involved clearly positioning Reform as management consultants specialising in digital.

The Solution

Velvet identified the importance of the vertical media in targeting senior audiences in the retail sector. In discussions with Reform, it was identified that the consultancy was able to offer clients ‘digital audits’ that tracked, analysed and benchmarked their digital presence and activity against that of their competitors – a key part of due diligence.

Velvet targeted FMCG trade bible The Grocer to establish their interest in an SEO audit report conducted by Reform exploring the strategies of leading multiple retailers. After the report was produced, Velvet arranged for Reform to go through the findings with The Grocer in detail, creating ‘marks out of ten’ for each supermarket in different areas of search marketing.

The Approach

Velvet offered The Grocer exclusive access to the specially-commissioned audit of the main supermarket brands’ SEO performances. This tied in perfectly with an e-commerce feature the magazine was considering.
 

The Results

The audit became the focus of The Grocer‘s cover story feature on e-commerce and SEO, with Reform’s expertise and analysis used throughout the four-page lead article. The consultancy’s expert commentary was also used in the editor’s e-newsletter, an accompanying news article and a related feature on the rise of amazon.co.uk in the UK online grocery market.

The Grocer has since approached Reform for comment in other features involving digital, and has also asked if this audit of the supermarket brands could be conducted annually to create a regular, on-going trend report.

“Velvet has done an excellent job of demonstrating our thought leadership in key business and vertical media, and the huge feature in The Grocer was definitely the highlight of the campaign. It created a fruitful relationship with an important title and has positioned our business as an expert in the very crowded digital FMCG retail space.”

Lucy Mann, business development director, Reform