HACKALOGY PRACTITIONER SERIES:B2B Marketing for the Legal & Tech Sectors
Featuring Gillian Chan,B2B Digital Marketing Professional
Have you ever felt so passionate about the work you do, that you’re certain you’ll be doing more of the same, no matter what industry you land in? Well, you’re not alone. Gillian Chan, HACKALOGY’s first-ever speaker for our Practitioner Series knows exactly how you feel.
A seasoned B2B Digital Marketing professional, Gillian has transitioned from at least one industry to another—with relative ease and unflinching zest, so it seems. But you be the judge—just tap below to watch her candid yet insightful talk on B2B digital marketing for the Legal & Tech Sectors.
And do read on for some nuggets of experience-based wisdom and additional info we’ve thrown in!
HACKALOGY Practitioner Series: Who is it for?
We have a two-pronged goal to provide (1) the support that businesses, organisations, and other agencies need, and (2) the professional improvement and upskilling that digital marketers look for to get ahead in their career.
HACKALOGY’s Practitioner Series is designed for the latter, whether they’ve just embarked on a digital marketing career or experienced marketers who want to enrich and update their expertise on the field.
In her talk, Gillian could not have put it more succinctly, “I realised that the examples given by (previous) lecturers did not cover much B2B cases,” she reveals. In the course of her career, our speaker has proven that anyone can “transit from one entirely different industry to B2B digital marketing,” with the proper programme and guidance.
Is B2B marketing different across industries?
“YES” is Gillian’s short answer, and we agree. As B2B International puts it, B2B marketing is “about meeting the needs of other businesses, though ultimately the demand for the products made by these businesses is likely to be driven by (direct) consumers in their homes.” However, the goals and processes involved in B2B varies, depending on the industry and/or sector.
In Gillian’s case, for example, the legal sector deals in services and professional expertise while the tech sector (specifically the company she worked with), deals with selling software products. Although there are similarities in the objectives of digital marketing in these two sectors, a key difference is in the buyer persona(s) or target market/audience, and how best to engage them.
How is digital marketing used in the legal industry?
Gillian outlined five (5) key objectives in harnessing digital marketing for the legal sector: (1) Thought Leadership, (2) Content Marketing, (3) Branding Awareness, (4) Partnership Marketing, and (5) Internal Marketing, which may not be entirely digital in nature but equally crucial. We will touch on the first three, which are most relevant to digital marketing.
Marketing Insider’s Michael Brenner defines Thought Leadership as “a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience, and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience on a particular topic. It’s not pedigree. It’s not where you went to school.”
Digital marketing that is geared at building thought leadership entails crafting a unique personal branding, but it’s not about hard-selling your service or product, it’s establishing authority on the subject matter. Intensive research and experience-based analysis are key to convincing your target audience that you have knowledge that, indeed, no one else has.
“Content Marketing is the process of planning, creating, distributing, sharing, and publishing content to reach your target audience. It can boost factors like brand awareness, sales, reach, interactions, and loyalty,” according to Hubspot. And as Gillian explains as it pertains to the legal sector, content marketing’s practice areas are industry- and expertise-based.
In the case of CNP Law, where Gillian spent many years, content marketing focused initially on creating authoritative content regularly and consistently. As such, the firm produced an online newsletter, along with other types of content that are useful to clients and prospects. Likewise, direct mailing or email direct marketing (EDM) was mobilised to promote the content, which have also been repurposed for promotion on social media and other platforms.
Brand Awareness is about building trust, says Gillian, hitting the nail on the head. Beyond introducing yourself to your audience/target market, it’s about creating recall, so that when people are looking for a specific service/product, your business or organisation becomes the top-of-mind top choice.
Gillian’s approach to CNP Law’s branding awareness campaign started with a simple change of name. The firm formerly went by the name of its founder, which is challenging to pronounce for, especially for non-Chinese speaking people. Aside from its rebranding efforts, the firm increased participation in industry-wide legal ranking and awards initiatives; elicited reviews from clients and used those as social proof of competency; and conducted and published case studies.
We would like to add that search engine optimisation (SEO) can be leveraged, in beefing up online presence, especially at the startup phase of the business or company. As Gillian happily mentioned in her talk, CNP Law’s SEO efforts brought the firm to rank first in search engine results pages (SERP) for organic content on “cryptocurrency lawyers in Singapore.
How is digital marketing used in the tech industry?
After spending 15 years in the legal sector, Gillian shifted to digital marketing for the tech sector—a bold move that strengthened her skills and fueled her passion even more. For SoftwareRisk, specifically, Gillian had undertaken digital marketing initiatives involving Branding Awareness, Content Marketing, and Lead Generation.
A deep-dive into the company’s market was Gillian’s first order of business. “The main question you have to ask is (if) the product niche or widely used?” she explains. In the case of SoftwareRisk, the products offered are for the niche market—to assist clients in “leveraging the capabilities of automation in their operations through the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) software platform.”
Embarking on a brand awareness campaign, Gillian helped to establish SoftwareRisk as a secure and trusted brand, especially given the nature of its products. A reimagining of the company name was crucial—it used to be known as SecurityRisk, so “we were often mistaken for a cyber security company, which led to high bounce rates,” Gillian adds.
Subsequently, the company’s website was revamped for better UI/UX. Moreover, Gillian initiated efforts to increase the company’s participation in industry-relevant podcasts. By highlighting its founder’s story, the digital marketing efforts succeeded in giving the company a human face, which helps in increasing brand awareness and engaging more customers, according to Gillian.
Digital content marketing initiatives for SoftwareRisk focused on creating informational/educational articles, an online newsletter, and infographic that its customers would find useful. These are in addition to the on-demand webinars, eBooks, and videos. Product explainer videos were also created to educate the audience on product applications and benefits, among others.
Likewise, blogs and social media posts were produced on a regular basis by repurposing the digital content that was already available (articles, infographic, webinars, eBooks, videos, etc). This made content marketing both effective and sustainable in the long term. She also suggested incorporating QR codes in direct mailers or EDMs, for better tracking.
In terms of building social proof, the software company maintained a consistent brand voice and messaging in its engagements with online marketplaces, networks, and recommendation engines, including Capterra, Google Display Network (GDN), and GetApp.
Gillian focused on streamlining SoftwareRisk’s efforts at Lead Generation, which Hubspot aptly defines as “a solution that can save your business or organization from being that annoying, disruptive cold caller.” Her emphasis is on always being “on campaign” and “nurturing the flow” by directing its varied buyer personas to landing pages that are on-point with their buyer’s journey.
The TAKEAWAY
Whether it’s for the legal sector or the legal sector, the importance of digital marketing in B2B and organisational operations cannot be discounted. In today’s disruptive and ever-changing business landscape, websites, web searches, and direct mailers have become the main sources of information for business buyers. That in mind, Gillian shares her lessons learned in taking on the task of B2B digital marketing—efficiently, effectively, and with great results:
- Focusing on lead generation alone is a no, no, especially for new brands. Inbound marketing isn’t about generating a lot of content and blasting it out on social media
- Webinars work best with partnerships, by lending brand authority and credibility
- Understand where your target audience is consuming content (FB may not work well for all products/services, especially in terms of lead generation)
- Try out new methods that resonate with your target audience (demand generation through content syndication, paid search engine marketing (SEM), LinkedIn sponsored posts, Programmatic ABM, etc.)
If you haven’t by now, TAP HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO of the HACKALOGY Practitioner Series featuring Gillian Chan. And let her share with you more of her experiences with B2B Marketing for the Legal & Tech Sectors.
About Gilliian Chan
Gillian specialises in B2B marketing where she deals with omni-channel marketing to achieve the business objectives of her clients. This includes digital marketing (social, SEO, SEM, web analytics, emails), events (webinars, trade shows, conferences), direct mailers, and other digital marketing strategies to reach out to the target audience.
She enjoys the process of analysis, strategising and getting hands-on with brand development, especially for emerging brands as it gives her great satisfaction to help elevate the brand. Gillian also has a creative eye, which is integral for when she helps revamp websites to optimise the UX/UI experience, and work on the marketing collaterals to ensure consistency for the brands she manages.