DIGITAL MARKETING CONFERENCE
Speaker Spotlight: Mary Harper, Head of Customer and Digital Marketing at Standard Life
Mary Harper has over 15 years’ experience in digital and has spent time as a developer. She tells us about putting the customer first, humanising brand communications and staying inspired
It can be tricky for B2B and financial services companies to find the right tone on social media. How do you approach social channels at Standard Life, and what are your objectives? MARY HARPER: We approach social in a similar way to other digital channels: they are absolutely customer-led. We think about what our customers consume, who they engage with, and we monitor what they respond to. We carry out ‘active listening’ and respond. We have a core thought- leadership plan and also a responsive plan. That means we can join and contribute to conversations. The core thought- leadership plan is based around customer interests and ‘seasonability’, where we proactively initiate conversations. The responsive plan allows us to join and contribute to live conversations using active listening techniques.
Personalisation has been one of 2015’s most prominent buzzwords. What role does it play in Standard Life’s digital strategy? MH: It started with humanisation - we wanted to co-create everything we do with customers as an antidote to the more traditional communications
approach in financial services. We are now refining this based on actual behaviours to achieve more relevance using technologies such as multivariate testing, propensity modelling and real-time targeting. It’s early days, but has huge support and we’re progressing a programme of work to improve our capability and effectiveness.
What do you see as the biggest challenge and/or opportunity facing digital marketers in your
innovative networks are really fuelling the economy now
sector over the next year? MH: It’s perhaps a bit of a cliché, but as digital continues to evolve, it is hard to know what techniques to make mainstream versus what’s a fad or an experiment. This will remain a challenge, particularly when resources aren’t infinite. Knowing what’s relatively mature and using effective attribution modelling to gauge what’s working really helps, as does allowing space to experiment with the new. We’re big believers in the ‘test and learn’ approach.
If you were able now to offer a piece of advice to yourself at the very start of your career in digital, what would it be? MH: I’ve been blessed to have
Tech, start-ups and
worked with extremely inspiring and innovative people my entire career. Perhaps in hindsight I would advise myself to have been bolder sooner. To have tried more things, pushed harder and have had greater entrepreneurial experience, although I have been involved with start-ups, including my own business. Tech, start-ups and innovative networks are really fuelling the economy now. In hindsight, I’d have liked to have been more integrated with this movement.
Looking back over your career so far, is there any one project, campaign or venture that you’re particularly proud of? MH: It would have to be starting a business at 30 with a three month old baby in tow. I left a very promising ‘Big 4’ career when my business partner and I saw a gap in the market for digital. Second to that would be my role at Standard Life which is also new territory for me in a market that had potential but was relatively untested ground. Great fun.
This is a hugely exciting time,
where tools and techniques continue to mature and new capability keeps emerging. Digital and mobile-first business models and entrepreneurs who can apply them effectively are now a reality, creating an amazing, creative, disruptive ecosystem that is improving lives and empowering and connecting people all over the world. It’s not all plain sailing – it can be exhausting, in fact – but I love it and am inspired by it every single day.
standardlife.co.uk
31 issue 26 november 2015
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