Back

PM Forum - New York

Making the most impact with your marketing dollars.

The Forum in New York held their October event at the offices of Ernst & Young LLP, and more than 40 members attended. Julie Barrett of Deutsche Bank AG acted as moderator, and the panelists included Maureen Migliazzo of KPMG, Jane Hewson of Weil, Gotshal & Manges and John Mustin of marketing consultancy MMB.

The session focused on four major themes:

Using Key Performance Indicators: The panel all agreed that finding a cause and effect relationship between a firm's marketing programs and its sales was difficult, if not impossible, to uncover. Instead of that approach, the panelists stressed that marketers need to gain agreement with the professionals they support on the specific outcomes or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that would determine if a marketing program is a success.

Migliazzo explained that, disappointingly, many commonly used KPIs - such as how many clients were on the distribution list of a thought leadership article - do little to show an impact on growing the business. Rather, a firm might garner information from its clients on the usefulness of that article. Mustin added that one benefit of many of the newer technologies, such as websites, is that they provide KPIs that are easy to gather and report to management.

Enabling our professionals: Both Migliazzo and Hewson concurred that it is critical for marketers to enable the professionals in our firms. One of the most effective methods, Migliazzo argued, is 'Internal Marketing.' By educating fee-earners about the firms services, thought leadership and other available resources, they can then reach out to their clients with this information, and are better able to identify opportunities. Intranets and conference calls were mentioned as common ways to facilitate this process.

Another way to enable, Hewson suggested, was improving the social skills of the professionals. Unfortunately, she said, this is politically difficult to broach in many firms and, is thus often left by the wayside.

Integrating New Tactics: Mustin asserted that firms should consider a wider range of marketing tactics, including new media options. Many firms are hesitant, he said, to begin using tactics such as facebook.com, myspace.com and corporate blogs, which often complement the more established tactics quite well.

Migliazzo and Hewson stated that marketers do need to look more at using these technologies. Migliazzo noted that KPMG had enjoyed some success using blogs but getting the postings through their approval process was challenging. She believes that it is important for firms to hire younger marketers - a practice at her firm - who are often more comfortable with newer technologies.

Shifting Our Thinking Mustin made a final key point, stating that marketers need to shift the way we think and speak about our budgets. While we generally use the words 'marketing spend,' we need to view our budgets as 'investments' - and make that case to the fee-earners as well.

Mistina D. Bates
Market It Write!

Back