Data-driven marketing: 4 lessons professional services can learn from consumer products

With Kate Mackie , EY Global Marketing Director

On the surface, you may not think marketing consulting services for business transformation and marketing consumer goods have much in common. It’s true that in professional services, the buying process is complex, lengthy and highly personalized, while direct to consumer marketing is quicker and transactional. On the other hand, success in for both audiences has becoming increasingly data-driven, with organizations getting smarter and learning more about the respective buyer from every single interaction.

?We would argue that now, more than ever, there’s huge value to be gained by applying some business-to-consumer techniques – value for both the buyer and the seller. This is the journey we are embracing at EY.

Now, more than ever, there’s huge value to be gained by applying some business-to-consumer techniques – value for both the buyer and the seller. This is the journey we are embracing at EY.

In recent years, we’ve been undergoing a cultural shift to use data and analytics to inform and optimize our marketing. In a large Services business such as ours, human connections are where all lines to the customer intersect. Becoming more data-driven requires investment in the right technologies, data fluency, commitment from leadership and a mindset of learning from experience (including failures). It also requires the right balance of relationship-led insights and data-driven decision-making.

In our journey to create a measurable marketing impact, there are four things we’re grappling with at the moment, which may resonate with your current efforts. ?

Four lessons we’ve learned applying data-driven marketing to professional services:

1)?????Targeting high-value customers requires both human and data intelligence. Not every dollar is worth the same amount. How can you make sure that you focus on those of highest value, rather than spreading the net too wide? You need both qualitative audience insight and high-quality data intelligence to prioritize which customers and spend you pursue. This can be codified into detailed buyer insights and personas. By setting the buyer at the center and taking a digital-first approach, you can personalize the customers journey and nudge them through their own path to purchase. Doing this offers them valuable perspectives and information relevant to their own agendas. Multichannel marketing activities combined with buying behaviors and account priorities can be orchestrated to create value for the seller (a more comprehensive and unified view of customers) as well as for the buyer (a better experience and higher personalization).

2)?????Data and technology are game changers when it comes to getting the right message to the right person at the right time. Once you’ve identified which customers you want to pursue, data and technology can ramp up efficiency in targeting. How? By providing new ways to collect and correlate information that connects the dots, providing a unified, consistent view of the customer preferences and requirements. In large Services businesses, with their long buy and sell cycles, relationship building takes time and customization. Multiple lines of business deal directly with customers, and a single, comprehensive view of your customers is needed to connect across internal silos and map the entire customer journey. Data can also help to orchestrate and enable large, cross-functional teams throughout the lengthy marketing, sales and delivery cycle, and ensure everyone is “singing from the same hymn sheet.” ?Benefits for the buyer include reusing available data for multiple purposes, and leveraging data and technology to identify new patterns for value creation.

Data can help to orchestrate and enable large, cross-functional teams throughout the lengthy marketing, sales and delivery cycle in professional services, and ensure everyone is “singing from the same

hymn sheet.”

3)?????Demonstrating value from marketing isn’t easy, but it’s still the goal. Every business has its sceptics; it is incredibly powerful to be able to link marketing strategies and tactics to the bottom line. But return on investment is a blunt tool. The holy grail is marketing attribution. This is where marketing technology (martech) can help, provided they don’t come with rigid technology constraints.

When we look at marketing attribution in a Services organization there is often the need to align around the last conversation rather than last click. People must remain at the center of this process; we know trusted relationships absolutely drive customer demand. Data and technology offer new ways of enabling and accelerating this process and deepening our understanding of both buyer interest and buying signals. The right tools enable an organization to continually measure and learn from the last conversation. The technologies we are deploying enable an understanding of marketing-influenced opportunities as we move ever closer towards the direct link.

We know trusted relationships absolutely drive customer demand. Data and technology offer new ways of enabling and accelerating this process and deepening our understanding of both buyer interest and buying signals

4)?????A test and learn mindset: building on both positive and negative experiences to create future success. Embedding data and technology into the marketing process encourages organizations to take a cold, hard look at the facts. Marketeers often build careers putting their organization’s best foot forward and spinning the story. Combine this with the fact that Services businesses are built on relationships, and you have two barriers to looking at the data pragmatically and accepting what it tells us. Intuition and creativity can get you a long way, but you can get further by supplementing it with data. It’s encouraging to see marketing departments seizing the opportunity to conduct rigorous analysis, embrace learning from both failures and successes, and retire any programs that didn’t work. At EY, professionals conduct frank post-campaign debriefs based on robust KPIs, celebrating learning and supporting openness regardless of results. ???

Take your people with you

Data-driven marketing helps develop and maintain a long-term, win-win business relationship. While some consumer product strategies can be applied, it shouldn’t be a trivial imitation of business-to-consumer techniques.

On the journey to measure marketing influence on sales revenue, it is imperative that you take your people with you. The shift to data-driven marketing in professional services is as much cultural as technological, one that will build and grow over time with investment, improved data literacy and leadership commitment. It goes without saying that you will encounter resistance, which could jeopardize your investment. Just remember, the most pristine data and advanced marketing technology stacks are only as good as the people willing to use them – and the leadership teams willing to take on board their findings.

We envision data-driven marketing contributing to entirely new ways of working between buyers and sellers in professional services. The seller can help the buyer, through fact-based data-driven evidence, to identify and exploit new avenues of value creation. This will enable marketing in professional services to come to the fore, with a clear role to play as this symbiotic relationship matures. ?