Editorial Articles

Chris Neville, Head of Direct and Database Marketing at Anglian Group talks to Figaro about the role of mobile and social media within the company's marketing strategy

Chris Neville is happy to describe Anglian as a slightly difficult client for their digital partner Latitude. That's not because the company, who provide double glazing, conservatories and other home improvements, has been slow to embrace digital. Instead, explains Neville, Anglian's audience is drawn from a slightly older demographic who have not, traditionally, been early adopters of new technology. It's an issue plenty of companies will be familiar with. But, explains Neville, patterns of usage among older consumers are changing rapidly and social media and mobile are now fully integrated into their marketing mix.

"Mobile is important," says Neville. "Though we have to split it very carefully between smartphones and tablets, given that the majority of tablets never actually leave the house. There are two challenges for a company like us. One is we have to have a mobile form because we're collecting people's names and addresses and phone numbers so we can call them back at a time that's convenient to them. So with smartphones you need an input screen that's very finger friendly, to use that rather horrible term. But we're also finding through research that people are starting to use longer search terms. So whereas before they might have searched for 'conservatory', now they might use a term like 'Victorian-style conservatories in Cheshire.' We have to respond to that and that's where local search comes in, because we can service that enquiry, but we need to pick it up as part of the paid search or even as organic search."

So with mobile, is part of the strategy cutting down the barriers to entry? "Yes," says Neville. "It's getting the information from the customer with as little time spent on it by them as possible. In terms of a mobile site it's also necessary to show the relevant product features, because increasingly we find that we have two types of customer. We have those that enquire on the basis of pure visuals, so we need images that are adapted to mobile. But equally there are a lot people just researching the product, so we need to have technical information as well. So while we may lead with some hero images of our products, we have to have technical backup on the site.

"The customer journey – and this may be exacerbated by the economic climate – is longer now. People seem to be more considering of their purchases. So you may find that someone may have seen a display advertisement, they'll then do an organic search, they may respond to a PPC ad, they may do a direct brand search, or a combination of all those things. In order to monitor that we're tagging each of those click using the Tagman system so that we're able to determine what the customer journey is as far as we possibly can."

Marketers may fret over the precise nature and value of engagement on social media, but Neville boils its value down to two key factors: recommendations and complaints. It's a pragmatic approach which suits social's role within Anglian's overall strategy.

"The key to a social media strategy is you can't go into it in a small way," he says. "You have to monitor all social media. Today we may be using Facebook, but it may change to Twitter, Google+, there are all sorts of channels available to people now. So you have to monitor them all. Obviously it's nice to have general chatter about your product or your brand, but we're probably not the type of company that's going to stimulate that. We're not a fashion brand, and we're not small purchase either. It's quite a sizeable purchase. So we find that most people go onto social media for one of two reasons. Either because they have had a bad experience which we hope to turn round, or they've had a very good experience and are recommending to family and friends."

So as we head into 2012, will the great strength of social be as a form of CRM? "Yes. I strongly believe that social media is one of the fastest growing advertising channels that there is. And it comes with the best form of advertising – which is simply that people can recommend to friends."