Breedon is one of the largest construction materials suppliers in the UK and Ireland, supporting the construction industry with the essential materials needed to build the places where we live and work, play and in-between. It provides services such as contract surfacing and highway maintenance operations to a broad range of customers. Many of its projects, involve social assets, including a crucial flood defence barrier in Lincolnshire and a new, low carbon asphalt on the Scottish network.
The company asked for our help as it needed to prime its website to support its ambitious growth goals. The brief also included creating a new digital identity that would resonate with its wide-ranging stakeholders –from investors, government agencies and community organisations to construction contractors and other business customers.
Our approach was to create an award-winning, single site to bring disparate local and product-focused sites together and make sure the web content met the needs of all the different audiences.
We interviewed over 30 of Breedon’s people across its quarries, road building sites, facilities and offices to identify what made the business unique and what the stakeholder needs were. This shaped our strategy for the website and enabled us to prioritise engaging content such as ‘Day in the Life’ profiles which give prospective employees an authentic glimpse into Breedon, and case studies embedded within product and services pages that showcase key client projects to prospective new customers.
The investor relations section was key, as Breedon is a listed company. So we brought the investor relations section in line with best practice, ensuring reports were easily accessible and the case for investment was elevated.
Building the world sustainably is a key strategic intent for Breedon and sustainable products are increasingly important to their customers and potential employees. The approach to sustainability, and the key pillars of Planet, People and Places, evidence this commitment. Breedon's 2030 targets for Planet, People and Places feature prominently on the sustainability homepage. The site also promotes the sustainable ‘Balance’ range of products.
To help Breedon’s site capture time-poor B2B audiences’ attention, we introduced ‘megapane’ navigation, which allows them to quickly access every product in a single click. We also configured the content to be geo-targeted to users, so every visitor is presented with relevant local products and services. We linked to related products at the end of each page to optimise cross-selling opportunities. Finally, we added features such as links to relevant sales contacts and interactive product calculators to help customers scope out their orders.
Our work considered each page down to the small details. For example, we realised Breedon’s visitors found it hard to locate one of its quarry sites through digital maps, so we added its What3Words location to the solutions page.
Our digital services helped Breedon increase organic search traffic by 60% and attract 29% more overall traffic. Analytics show that our engagement score is now at over 50%, and there have been over 18,000 product/report downloads and over 1,000 new contacts in the seven months since go live.
Their new corporate website has already won gold in two categories at The Stevie® Awards 2023 – these are part of the International Business Awards, recognising excellence and achievement in business across the world.
