Marketing legal and professional services - Claire Scaramanga

Marketing for professional and sensitive services - Claire Scaramanga transcript

[Upbeat intro music]

Emma King

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Scaramanga podcast and today I'm joined by my boss, no pressure, and Scaramanga's Client Services Director Claire Scaramanga.

On today's episode we're going to be talking about marketing for professional services and I suppose the first question to kick it off Claire is, tell us a little bit about Scaramanga Marketing and working with professional service clients.

Claire Scaramanga

So yes so we're coming up to 25 years of Scaramanga now. We're a marketing agency and the niche that we found for ourselves is very much
around marketing business to business (B2B) services and I think, probably most of the time they're quite complex services, so they require specialist knowledge from us and a very different approach to product marketing.

So some examples of some of the clients we work with in the services and professional services area: we've worked in enforcement and debt recovery for 15 years now with High Court Enforcement Group and their four brands. So that's High Court Enforcement and the Sheriff's Office, Excel Civil Enforcement and the National Eviction Team, all quite different aspects of enforcement.

We've also got clients in business energy which has been over the last two, two and a half years has been an exceptionally dynamic sector, there has been so much going on with all of the price increases and different ways of buying energy that our clients been working with that we've been marketing on.

We also work in areas such as university level research integrity, managed IT and some clients in the banking sector and association in the banking sector.

So you know all of those clients are they require their services to be marketed in a very specific way and to do that we spend a lot of time really getting to know our clients and their industries because we're creating content.

So to add value we need to be knowing and understanding how their sector works and what it's about so that we can agree topics with the client but that we can undertake research and create that technical content so that we're adding value to the client that—they are obviously checking our work—but that the amount of changes that are required are minimal because we have invested in learning about their sector and their industry.

Yeah, so you know it's around adding value running marketing in the social media campaigns and delivering results. That's what we do!

Emma King

I have to say sending off content and then it comes back and it's just signed is the best feeling.

Claire Scaramanga

It is, it is.

Emma King

It's so nice because you're like yep I know I'm talking about!

How do you think how does marketing professional services differ from other sectors?

Claire Scaramanga

So I think marketing services generally is quite different to product marketing. You know, a product something... it's tangible. You can touch it, you can see it, you can take a car for a test drive. You can be in a shop looking at TVs and decide which one's got the best picture. You can make those direct comparisons.

But services are totally intangible and until you experience it you don't really know what you're buying, and so it's so important to build that confidence and reassurance and trust for the prospective buyer.

So obviously that's true for us as a marketing agency but it's very true for any organization that's selling services and that's a lot of what we're doing with our marketing for our clients, is building that trust.

Often also with quite complex services the buyer might need a degree of education, you know, understanding and learning about what the service is because if A: you don't know you need something and B: you don't know the service exists...

Emma King

Yeah.

Claire Scaramanga

You can't buy it! So it's really important that, you know, a lot of educating the market needs to go on sometimes and understand how that service can benefit your business and I think those two factors around, you know, the building confidence and reassurance and trust on the one hand, and then that education and awareness raising on the other, they're both very highly, very relevant factors for professional services.

So, you know, a lot of the marketing activity we do for professional services firms is about sharing knowledge and expertise that at the same time promotes what the firm does and why they are the thought leaders and why they're the experts in this field. In other words, why they should be the
number one choice for anyone looking to buy those services.

Emma King

Yeah and that rolls nicely into our next question: How important are case studies and examples of work because I hadn't actually done a case study before I came to Scaramanga so that was a huge learning curve for me but
they're extremely important and I suppose, yeah, how important are they?

Claire Scaramanga

As humans we like stories. We relate to stories, well, we are natural storytellers and a case study can tell that story and it can paint a picture and it's a perfect example to showcase what has been done and to bring out facts and points and things that will address potentially, obviously, the pain points that their client had and how they resolved them. But those pain points might also be ones that their prospective clients have too.

I mentioned earlier about services being intangible and not really knowing whether or not you're buying the right thing until you've experienced it. That can cause some anxiety so as much as you can do in your marketing to reduce that anxiety around purchase really helps, and case studies especially if they're supported by data and statistics, help reduce that anxiety and really help the sales process. They generate some tangibility which is important.

Now in an ideal world you'll talk about who the client is. In a really ideal world you'll get a testimonial from them. In the perfect world you'll get a video testimonial from the client which is brilliant! But you know, some organizations don't want their name out there, particularly if the service that they've purchased was something that they don't really want the world to know that they had that issue and that they needed that professional advice and support so sometimes you have to be sensitive and appreciate that, you know.... (inaudible).

I mean with with some of the clients I mentioned earlier that we work with, you know, they have contractual agreements which they cannot announce that they're working with that particular organization, so obviously case studies have to be anonymized.

Emma King

Yeah.

Claire Scaramanga

And you know sometimes you might create a case study that talks about a service that you've done, that you've worked on for various different clients, and you bring different examples together but I think there's still... even if you don't mention the client by name, the act of doing the case study and putting that out there really is a very good marketing tool.

Emma King

Yeah, I actually really enjoy reading them even like the ones before I started working at the agency. I think you learn a lot just from reading the case study itself even if you're in the team.

So my next question would be how can professional service firms manage reputation management.

Claire Scaramanga

Yes. So I think, you know, a professional services firm, you know, solicitor, an accountant, an architect or whatever they might be, reputation is probably their most important asset. And I think probably the hardest thing these days is is the advent of social media in terms of protecting management.

Yeah

Because the conversation has moved outside the control of the firm. And that is a challenge for any brand marketing because, you know, you can control what you put out there and you do need to. You need to reinforce skills, expertise, credentials and build your brand story on social media. I'm talking to someone who knows more about social media than I do!

[Laughter]

But I think you do need to also really closely monitor what's being said about your brand and how you respond to it and I think that's an area where professional services firms don't always keep on top of that enough.

You know there are a lot of examples out there of businesses in lots of different sectors who've lost brand equity by ignoring social media commentary or by responding it to it too late or inappropriately. So yeah, it's not easy.

You know, I mean I've mentioned our clients in the debt recovery and enforcement sector and debt is probably one of the most emotive issues. I mean there's a very strong correlation between mental health issues and debt, you know, debt causing mental health problems and mental health issues causing debt, it works both ways and so, you know, we do find that to manage the reputation we have to be very sensitive around the communication and the marketing that we put out.

But I mean you're the expert on social media, so what would you what would you answer to be managing that reputation on social media?

Emma King

I think from my experience it's been on the board. Like you said like checking and being reactive and I think one of the things that we do which is really important is when people message like through Facebook messenger—and it could be with something really like minor query—but it could change their whole experience. Or it could be something that, you know, they're really stressed about and they need to get done right now and, you know, you know how to reply and get them having a good experience so that they, you know, they might leave positive feedback and not have, you know, a bad experience with them.

Content wise, like you said, you have to reinforce what skills and expertise a client can offer and that's what, for me, writing copy starts with: what is a customer's pain point? And how can that professional service fix what they, you know, their pain point is? Basically. So that they click on that post and they go "oh yeah, that's what I need. I found what I need now."

Claire Scaramanga

Yeah, yeah. I mean one example that comes to mind is I studied languages at university many years ago. Never really used them in work until I did a couple of months ago actually when we had somebody who contacted... I think it was... I think it was through Facebook messenger, might have been LinkedIn, but I think it was Facebook and they had a UK debt and they were in... Columbia?

Emma King

Oh I remember this now, yeah.

Claire Scaramanga

I think it was Columbia. yeah. And they had found somebody online who unfortunately for them turned out to be a fraudulent company but had a similar name to our clients so they they reached out to us and just had this back and forth dialogue that went on for quite a few messages in Spanish helping them. Speaking to the senior management team in our client organization to understand from them a little bit. asking:

"I think this is a fraudulent company do you know about them?" "Yes we do, yes they are fraudulent."

And being able to direct this woman who was understandably quite stressed and had paid a lot of money for this fraudulent service to point her in the right direction and to get some guidance and advice and yeah, it was good to be able to help her with that.

Emma King

I was going to say, your languages came in handy!

Claire Scaramanga

Eventually, yes!

Emma King

How have you dealt with working with sensitive information and how do you get the message in right when marketing?

Claire Scaramanga

So I think with messaging, I think it's always important to start with the brand values. I mean I think all marketing should start with really understanding the brand values and then building the messaging up from there.

And I think a part of that exercise is about the client voice. So what's the brand voice like, you know: what kind of terminology do we use? Where do we pitch it in terms of, you know, on various different ranges? You know, from super professional to super casual? Or do you use plain English or do you use more complex English? Do you use contractions of words or do you put them all in—whatever those things might be, getting that brand voice right and that has to come from understanding who the target market is because you need to talk to them in the voice that will resonate with them.

I think also then in terms of looking at sensitive information it's about working with a client to determine what their position is as a company on various points and then agreeing what will be promoted, what will be commented on, what the commentary is and what the style of the commentary is.

With one of our clients The Sheriff's Office, I pitched the idea of a TV show to the BBC a few years ago and it was commissioned, which was 'The Sheriff's are Coming'. It ran for eight years and you know, with the client and the BBC we worked together to work out what the editorial stance would be. The BBC was the perfect partner for this program because their editorial position was very much in line where we wanted to be. Channel 4 and Channel 5 have made other programs with other companies which have been more sensationalist and that really wasn't the brand voice that our client wanted.

So, you know, there were a few objectives, one was obviously to broaden the understanding of high court enforcement and how it can be used by anybody within UK society and also we wanted to change the dialogue away from debt all being about an issue for people who owe money but also talking about how creditors, particularly small businesses, are significantly impacted by bad debt. To the extent of sometimes putting them out of business.

But we wanted to also demonstrate that all of The Sheriff's Office enforcement agents followed the national standards correctly, treated all the debtors with courtesy and respect, and and that polite approach that was always taken. So we were able to put that face of the brand forward through the TV show which was very good because, you know, when you do something like that obviously the BBC has editorial control, but we were able to establish that how we jointly wanted that to work. That was very good.

And it was very successful! It shifted the debate towards the broader impact of debt and it made great TV!

Emma King

It did, I loved it!

Claire Scaramanga

31 million people watched it!

Emma King

Yeah, no that's incredible. And if you haven't watched it, watch it!

[Laughter}

And you mentioned technical content creation earlier. How important is that?

Claire Scaramanga

So yeah, I think it's, as I mentioned, it's about educating the prospective buyer and giving them confidence and trust and it's an important part of marketing professional services. And as I said, we do invest in learning about our clients and their industries so that we can do that focused research, you know, building on a good solid foundation of knowledge and understanding and we do start with really asking our clients to give us a really thorough briefing so that we have those excellent foundations and then we we build on those.

And I know I've talked about the enforcement industry quite a lot, but I I do find it incredibly interesting. I find the legislation interesting and the law interesting I I did want to have a career in law. I didn't follow that, I ended up marketing instead. But I do love the fact that this enables me to understand about legislation and how it works and market it.

You know the main legislation that governs their their world is the taking control of goods. There are a couple of different regulations and our client has a training team and their courses are endorsed by CILEX, which is the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, and I've undertaken their Level 2
qualifications a few years ago and just completed the Level 3 qualification in taking control of goods!

Emma King

Wow, look at you!

Claire Scaramanga

So I think, if nothing else, that certainly underlines a commitment to really understanding our clients industries in doing that. So I could become a certificated enforcement agent! But I probably won't.

Emma King

I'd actually pay to see you go on The Sheriff's are Coming, just because of your height!

[Laughter]

For anyone who doesn't know, Claire is quite short, especially next to me as well!

[Laughter]

Claire Scaramanga

Yep.

Emma King

That wraps it up really nicely. Thank you for coming on appreciate it and hopefully it gives everyone an insight into working with different clients and if you haven't already, sign up to our newsletter where you can find all the updates on our podcast, our clients, and also obviously go and listen to our podcast!

And yeah, we look forward to our next one and hopefully if you tune in make sure you look at the previous ones as well because we have a lot of top tips on social media and marketing.

So thank you again, Claire!

Claire Scaramanga

Thank you!

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