Putting data to work: An interview with Ben Eatwell, CMO at Weploy
Nathan (Nate) Kinch
Practical ethics, organisational trust, nature inspired governance
I recently read an article titled, Why GDPR is the blueprint marketers need to be customer-led, an interview with Adam Corey, Tealium’s Global CMO. Unsurprisingly the interview covers the topics you might expect; the value of trust, customer’s controlling their data, data mapping exercises and harnessing first party data.
Each of these topics is deeply relevant to our work. In fact, we’ve been thinking a lot about how brands can develop deeper, more meaningful and more situationally relevant relationships with their customers for quite some time.
But this ain’t the easiest task marketers and product people are faced with. There are a bunch of regulatory, technological and behavioural challenges to grapple with. Sometimes it doesn’t go so well…
Given the fact we view this challenge as a huge opportunity for brand’s who really do practice customer centricity, I reached out to the team at Weploy to chat more about how they’re thinking about this challenge, how they’re using data and how their platform is being designed for the human beings they intend to serve. Very kindly Weploy’s CMO, Ben Eatwell, invested some of his time in our interview series.
Here’s what Ben had to say.
Nathan: "...I love data and don’t understand how anyone can create a strategy without a spreadsheet". That comes straight from your LinkedIn bio. What's your view on how data practices are evolving? How are stronger privacy regulations and more consumer control changing the way you lead the marketing function of Weploy?
Ben: It’s slightly different in the B2C world, but in B2B I’ve always been maniacally focused on relevance and value. I think marketing falls down when you rely too heavily on data to target without prioritising these two essential elements. We had some of the strictest controls on how we use data at LinkedIn and I’ve brought that privacy first approach to Weploy.
Nathan: As a platform or marketplace, your ability to deliver your value proposition is heavily reliant on data. Can you talk a little about the data culture at Weploy?
Ben: As a marketplace that matches candidates to the right jobs, data is essential. Having said that we take a considered approach to what data is vital, we don’t need to collect everything, and in fact too many data points can lead to fuzzy outcomes. In terms of culture, we have different levels of data that restricts who can access and how it can be used – in a nutshell, we value customer data in the same way we value our customers – cynically using data to try and squeeze more margin or revenue is never a sustainable business model.
Nathan: I saw a really interesting stat recently that showed how the marketing technology ecosystem developed between 2011 and 2017. There's been an explosion of products, from about 150 to over 5,000. Can you talk a little about how you discover, test and implement the right services to enable your marketing strategy?
Ben: It’s a minefield; there are so many solutions out there it can be difficult to know where to start. My first point of call is to speak with my network. Getting on the phone other marketing leaders who have assessed and used the tools I’m exploring. The only rule to buying marketing software is know exactly the outcome you’re after before you start any research. From there have tunnel vision on delivering the result/solution you’re after. Don’t ever start with software and try and work out your goals – that’s the recipe for disaster.
Nathan: How do you and the marketing team at Weploy collaborate with the rest of the business? Which teams do you work most closely with?
Ben: My role at Weploy is broader than just the marketing team, I look after growth and marketplace which also encompasses product. So outside of the sales and the supply side of the business, the team I work most closely with is engineering, trying to bring the research and insights we have in customer facing roles to inform and direct what our product should look like now and in the future.
Nathan: Something I like about Weploy's approach is that you try and match profiles to needs, rather than matching candidates to hiring managers. As far as I understand this is an attempt to remove certain biases from the decision-making and matching process. I assume it also decreases the average time to achieve a match and approve a gig. Can you talk a little about this practice, why it exists and the value it has created?
Ben: As you say it’s designed to match the right capability to the right roles. Not only does this speed up the time to fill a role dramatically (11 seconds on average) but also removes unconscious bias that is inherent in the recruitment process. To be accepted as a Weployee, there’s a 6 stage vetting process that includes a face to face interview as well as we cognitive, skills and psychometric testing – this gives us the data points so we can match the right talent to the right roles. Originally it was designed to provide consistent quality, but it also improves diversity of opportunity. I can’t count how many stories I’ve heard where a Weployer has hired a Weployee full time and say that they would likely have never got through their own standard recruitment process but are now a highly valued member of the team.
Nathan: Lastly, let's get practical. What are the three things modern marketers need to be doing today to balance the needs of the business whilst respecting and protecting their customer's right to privacy?
Ben: Map out what data that is essential to deliver value to your customers and what is just nice to have. For every data point that falls into the latter make the business case to why it’s necessary, more often than not it doesn’t add up. Be clear about how you will use your customers data, again if it’s necessary in order to provide value, there’s rarely an issue. And finally make sure to communicate internally that data is about a customer, a person. It’s not random digits and needs to be valued as much as a person.
Ben’s absolutely right; data tells a story about real human beings. It’s more than its binary form.
I’ve written about this a bunch before. In fact, something I’ve proposed is that designers (broad definition encompassing the people responsible for designing and delivering value propositions) have an added responsibility to help make it easy for their customers to control the information they do and don’t share. Marketers fall into this category.
But this isn’t a doom and gloom story. Quite the opposite actually. Data sharing has a massive value potential, both personally, economically and societally. The challenge we’re now faced with is finding ways to ethically and securely use data so we can make a small part of someone’s life fundamentally cheaper, faster, easier and better.
The role of the marketer is clearly evolving. In my opinion this is an exciting evolution.
Now over to you. How are you using data within a marketing context? What are you learning? Is there anything specifically you’re struggling with? What questions would you ask Ben?
This is a discussion worth having, so let’s keep it flowing. Feel free to comment, tag and share.
Until next time.