Digital White Papers

37 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER MARKETING TECHNOLOGY Be a Marketing Automation Leader: Eight Best Practices for The Legal Sector MATT PARFITT Matt Parfitt is the President of Vuture, a professional service marketing communications technology. He helps firms design and implement ongoing marcomms programs. Matt is a regular speaker to legal marketing teams and is an active member and speaker at LMA events, and is currently serving on the LMA Northeast Board. 3. Integrate your systems effectively There is no single marketing automation system that will fit all needs. Integration of different platforms and technologies is required to get the job done. Your CRM needs to talk to your marketing automation soware, which should be connected to your marketing channels, and linked back to your tracking and analytics. This will demonstrate the return on marketing investment and ensure all systems talk to each other to provide enhanced reporting and forecasting, and drive revenue growth. 4. Deliver relevant communications when and where the client wants them According to a recent report, 74% of marketers said that targeted personalisation increases customer engagement 4 . Furthermore, segmented campaigns were found to increase revenue by 760% 5 . The combination of customer analytics and marketing automation will help to create a single view of the customer to share consistent and relevant communications, seamlessly, across all channels. This, in turn, creates relationships built on trust; driving loyalty, increasing retention and amplifying advocacy. 5. Share content that engages through storytelling Stories alter the brain's chemistry. Cortisol is released when aention is required; dopamine to aid complex learning, with the promise of a reward; and the neurochemical oxytocin, or the 'trust molecule', to promote empathy. These hormone-generating responses, respectively, take us through the funnel from top to boom and can be used to tell relevant stories for each stage of your client lifecycle to improve engagement rate and sales conversion 6 . Use digital tools to augment the narrative process through interactive storytelling and create more immersive, sensorial experiences for prospects and clients. 6. Optimise for mobile Average smartphone conversion rates are up 64% compared to the average desktop conversion rates 7 . Add to this that mobile optimisation is one of Google's main ranking signals and you have a compelling case to begin optimising. Websites and communications are, and will continue to be, accessed through mobile devices, so customer experiences must be tailored accordingly. And with Google taking the lead this is a trend that will continue to gather pace in 2018. 7. Adopt account-based marketing Account-based marketing demonstrated higher ROI than any other marketing activities, according to 97% of marketers 8 . Broad-brush, lead-based marketing is no longer sufficient or, indeed, efficient as a revenue driver on its own. With the capability to segment and sub-segment your audiences more effectively and personalise communications in real time, greater opportunities abound. Marketers can concentrate on high-value accounts with clear ROI, trim back resource waste and align more efficiently with Sales teams. 8. Collect the right client insights and score your leads Big data is a term many of us are familiar with. But we shouldn't dwell on complex big data, we must focus on the right data. Extracting customer insights provides us with client behaviour and preferences that helps us personalise experiences and engage with customers when and how they choose. Furthermore, create a lead scoring programme, with points allocated to different lead-based interactions, and you can establish automated triggers to deliver relevant communications and nurture prospects through the funnel more efficiently. ILTA MEGAN RYAN Megan Ryan is the Account Director of Vuture, a professional service marketing communications technology. She has worked with over 100 national and global firms to help them achieve their Marketing and Business Development goals, and effectively streamline their processes.

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