Andy Cullwick
As well as heading up our marketing team, Andy Cullwick is also a member of our senior management team.
A marketer with almost twenty years’ experience, Andy joined First4Lawyers from the international automotive world at the start of 2014. Since arriving at our Huddersfield HQ, Andy has revolutionised our marketing approach.
As guardian of the First4Lawyers brand, he is responsible for lead generation across all of our panels. He is well-known to his colleagues for his unfaltering devotion to spreadsheets, which allow him to track in real-time just how well our marketing is performing.
“It’s incredible just how much marketing has transitioned over the past five years,” he explains.
“Previously you’d have to wait weeks before knowing how a campaign was performing, but with developments in analytics we are able to monitor performance by the hour, across most channels. This is particularly useful in looking at how certain expensive keywords are performing, allowing us to make adjustments in real-time and getting the maximum return on investment. There are hundreds of thousands of variants on some personal injury keywords and so a precise approach is essential, otherwise you’re just burning money.”
Andy says that TV advertising continues to be central to the First4Lawyers brand because of its ability to engender brand confidence. It’s a huge driver in getting customers to then engage with us through other channels.
There’s also been significant investment in Andy’s team at our Huddersfield HQ. Andy leads specialist teams across paid search, web, analytics, B2B and B2C PR and social media and B2B marketing.
“We’ve attracted talented people into the business and work with some creative agencies to make sure we’re getting the most out of our panel firm’s budgets.”
Alongside Qamar Anwar, managing director of First4Lawyers, Andy is also a passionate spokesperson on the changing personal injury landscape, earning him the moniker of “Mr Angry” amongst his colleagues, particularly in relation to insurers’ behaviour.
As Group Director of Marketing, one of Andy’s priorities is the continuing evolution of the website: “Our website is top priority as it’s where the real engagement with our brand starts, so it’s essential it meets the needs of today’s consumer,” he says.
The business has implemented a ‘Mobile First’ strategy, which has resulted in increased enquiries and conversion rates. “Mobile and tablet users account for 64% of our online visitors. It’s how people want to search and buy, so we have to continually review the customer journey and develop new content accordingly, to ensure we can meet our aim of providing a best in class mobile experience.”
Andy is also passionate about keeping up to date with the raft of new technologies emerging: “Artificial intelligence (AI) and voice search are already bringing further revolution across many sectors and the legal sector will be no different. We already have live chat through our website and are embracing AI within our digital marketing activity. Voice search by Google is fuelling demand from consumers who want an immediate service, and law firms need to get on board.”
Outside of work, Andy is a keen mountain biker and is leader of his son’s Cub Scout group. And while, we understand that cries of “Dyb, dyb, dyb” and “Dob, dob, dob” are largely confined to the annals of history, the avid collection of badges and awards by Scouts continues apace. We’re sure the group will soon have marketing badges sewn on their sleeves!
