crm databases in law firms - how to get a great one
TRANSCRIPT
CRM databases in
Law FirmsHow to get a great CRM
database Tip 1: How to find, improve and use your
data
Simon McNidderCRM Database ConsultantDatabase First Aid Limited
Contents• What do you want to achieve? • Where is your marketing information?• Typical data issues• How do you know the state of your data?• How to sell that ‘your list’ is the one to use• How to improve your central list / data• Typical benefits to expect from better data• Mining your newly segmented data• Real examples of using better data• Keeping your data in ‘Tip-Top’ condition
What do you want to achieve?Do you want to…• Spot work leads & opportunities?• Create targeting lists?• Send marketing emails and improve click rates?• Track & monitor leads• Understand your firm’s relationship with a client?
• What you do informs what data you get
Where is your marketing data?You have more data than you think, try looking here…• Accounting system• Marketing database(s)• Outlook contact files• Excel / Word lists• Stacks of Business Cards on desks • Website • Post-It note Sales Funnels on backs of doors• Social Media accounts • In your fee-earner’s head
Typical data issues• Fee-earners not sharing ‘their knowledge’• Missing basic details (name / email / address)• Missing targeting details (job title, interests)• Duplications • Typos• Missing contacts• Too many contacts
How to know the state of your data?
Just ask yourself a few questions. Worry if you score less than 3 yes’ • Can you easily see how many staff are involved with a client?• Can you spot if a client is ‘under or over communicated’ with?• Can you identify which services your clients are interested in?• Can you easily pull together a list of contacts interested in a topic?• Can you easily identify clients of one team who might be of interest to another?• Does your marketing data include your contact’s interests or responsibilities?• Do you frequently check for duplicated contacts?• Do you trust the data you are looking at?• Is your marketing data all in one list?• Are you getting over 8% click rates from your email marketing?
How to sell ‘your list’ is the one to use
CARROT• Answer “What’s in it for me”• More trustworthy & better quality information• Info their lists can’t give them (e.g. interests / history)• Less hassle for them in YOU keeping their data for them
STICK• Can’t get ‘click reports’ if don’t use
the firm’s official CRM software• Compliance with your firm’s ‘internal law’• Data Protection compliance
How to improve your central list• Find as many data sources as you can• Combine all your lists into one• Delete as many unwanted contacts as possible • Standardise the columns (e.g. all towns are in the same column)• Standardise the details (e.g. FD replace with Finance Director)• Check for typos• Append simple profiling details (e.g. who knows them, job area)• Ensure additional details from lists are included (e.g. mailing tags)• Add who knows each contact on your list• Check relevant data with fee-earners• Verify and enhance data with contacts themselves
Typical benefits great data gets you• You understand the relationship strength with clients • You see a history for contacts (e.g. event attendance)• Reduce list creation effort from days to minutes• Less unwanted contacts to wade through• Less errors and more trustworthy info• Data Protection compliance ease• Higher click rates to email campaigns• More responses & enquiries• Easier identification of opportunities• Clients get more relevant communications
Mining your newly segmented dataImagine you are running an event & want to invite the best contacts• You search your CRM Database / list for contacts you invited last year, or those with an interest in
the event’s topic. You add those contacts to your invite list.
• Then search again for contacts who have clicked in mailings about similar topics, or attended similar events. You add those to your invite list.
• Then, as you know that ‘x’ fee-earner specialises is a similar topic as your event, you add all the contacts they are listed as knowing to your invite list.
• From this combined list, you then exclude contact you don’t want. For instance, contacts not near your event, or without the job title including ‘Director or Head’ because you only want people who are in a position to purchasing your services at your event.
• There you go, a good list ready in about 15 minutes….
• (Or base event topics on what most contacts say interest them)
Real examples of using better data• 30% of contacts in a database verified their own
details and interests, which means it’s easier to create better quality lists when sending updates or event invitations• Being able to target meant a halving in the size of a
mailing list with it getting three times as many event delegate bookings
Keeping data in ‘Tip-Top’ condition• Be brutal with which contacts you delete • Be brutal on what data you delete • Tag your best contacts - and only manage them• Run monthly data integrity reports on ‘bad data’, &
mass-update, not daily checks & one-at-a-time updates• Spring Clean your database each year• Give fee-earners a twice yearly printout
of their contacts to verify their details• Run reports for appraisals
About Simon McNidder• 20+ years in-house experience of using CRM
Databases• 18 years in Professional Services• Won two CRM awards for database projects• Merged the CRM databases from five professional
service firm mergers and 100’s of lists• Masters degree in Strategic Marketing• Written numerous articles on CRM
