Let me pose you a digital marketing challenge. You work in a marketplace crowded with competitors large and small. Your customers span college students to pensioners, working class to well-heeled, from aficionados to every-now-and-again consumers. They're willing to buy, but don't want to be sold to. You have brand outlets and an online store, but you also sell through retail chains and small shops. You are one of three people in the digital marketing department of a £50m-plus brand.
So the challenge: what digital channels do you use and how do you use them? How do you make the brand "cool"?
Welcome to the working world of Liz Cobbold, head of marketing at Adnams, the brewer, distiller, pubco, retailer and hotelier based in the Suffolk seaside town of Southwold.
"We are looking to engage with both our consumers and our B2B customers in a way that makes them feel connected to the Adnams brand and where we are from," said Liz, who explained the twin business objectives of sales growth and successful new product launches were her key aims.
"Social is currently our main focus and we have a dedicated in-house resource to manage this, including cover at evenings and weekends when a lot of the conversations, and of course enjoyment of our products, is taking place," she added.
"We use affiliates for our online shop and also a small amount of google AdWords activity, however this is focused on specific products or campaigns rather than at a brand level."
"Email is one of our other main channels and we find that communicating regularly with our customers with targeted offers is very effective."
Look for Adnams on Twitter and you'll find the main @adnams brand account with a 25,000-plus following. But you'll also find related Twitter accounts for each of the company's Cellar & Kitchen stores and hotels dotted around East Anglia and the South East.
Likewise on Facebook, there is a hub-and-spoke combination of a main brand page – with more than 6,400 likes – and pages for specific Adnams' store and hotel locations with smaller followings.
So how are those channels co-ordinated?
"Separate Twitter and Facebook accounts for our individual shops and hotels enables customers to talk directly with the appropriate teams," Liz said.
"These then get aggregated and shared also through the main Adnams social channels to increase brand awareness. We have a marketing plan where we highlight products and services across all channels; for example, when we launched our first whisky in December 2013, this was the main message across them all."
"Questions we get asked are usually where can customers find our products, for example, what pubs and bars, and other ingredient-type questions such as flavour, alcohol by volume (ABV) and so on."
A detailed editorial calendar helps to map the content strategy for the year.
"We have a week-by-week editorial calendar which is about both our own products and also relevant local and national events that we might comment on through our blogs. Of course we always have additional things that come up unexpectedly but we do go into great detail in planning our content. This is shared with the PR team."
"In terms of guidance for shops on best practice, it is part of our customer services manual and initial training. We highlight best practice every week in our store communications document and we set weekly social media targets for stores which are part of their key performance indicators."
"We tend to see a positive relationship between sales and the stores which are making the best use of social media."
The social accounts also have a consistent "approachable, friendly and down-to-earth" tone of voice.
"On a day-to-day basis we see the biggest sharing and interaction online from the non-sales led content; for example, pictures from Southwold, our home town, in the stormy weather or the beach in the summer," Liz added.
While Google+ is seen as delivering SEO value, there is also "dedicated research time" to exploring social trends and emerging channels.
"We always like to be first to the party!" said Liz. "However not all channels will be right for us, as a brewer and distiller we need to be wary of channels that appeal to children or teenagers and to ensure we are responsible in our marketing messages." So don't expect to see Adnams on Snapchat any time soon.
But if organic social activity appears to work, social advertising has been less successful.
"Facebook advertising has not worked at all for us, even with targeting," Liz said.
"We have re-focused this budget back on to affiliates and partner advertising which has generated good conversion rates and traffic."
One success was the #showmetheghostship campaign across Adnams' digital channels – but which also included the projection of a short film on the walls of the brewery.
"Commercially, our Ghost Ship campaign was very successful," Liz said.
"We wanted to transform our seasonal Halloween beer into a year-round bestseller and we achieved this through a digital campaign using a YouTube short film, Twitter competitions and a variety of online content. The beer is now our fastest-growing product and gets amazing customer feedback."
Having moved from beer to micro-distilling first gin and now whisky – and launched the Jack Brand of craft brewery-style bottle and keg beers last year – what's next for this 142-year-old brand?
"Whilst we are a well-established company one of our key values is that we are 'always evolving'," Liz said.
"Our history gives us a great back catalogue of content and stories to draw on."
Paul Hill is content director at Further Digital Marketing. You can follow him on Twitter paulhill_biz
Get more articles like this sent direct to your inbox by signing up for free membership to the Guardian Media Network – this content is brought to you by Guardian Professional.
