My occasional reviews of marketing technology led me to talk to Jennifer Miller at Vuture about the latest developments in marketing and relationship management automation in professional services firms.
What is Vuture?
Vuture is a platform that works above CRM database systems including; LexisNexis InterAction, Salesforce, Dynamics, Peppermint and OnePlace, to act as a connector and help automate some of the client relationship management processes undertaken by marketing and business development staff and fee-earners.
It helps firms manage and streamline multi-channel or omni-channel marketing programmes to improve the overall client experience.
Nurturing relationships in professional services firms can be time consuming. Marketing and business development teams spend a lot of time creating content; videos, newsletters, alerts, seminars, webinars etc, that fee-earners need to share appropriately with those clients, prospects, contacts and referrers who are most likely to be interested.
Vuture’s core capabilities
Vuture is designed to streamline online relationship management activities during all the touch points of the client journey. It has a number of core components:
- Digest centre – A central store of all approved content (digital assets) that is available to share with clients and contacts. This could include newsletters, articles, blogs, event invitations, presentations, alerts and social media content. Fee-earners can view and select available materials and tailor them – approval processes are incorporated.
- Web sites – Vuture enables you to quickly develop and modify websites and microsites to support campaigns. Vuture has its own content management platform. There is detailed tracking information so that online client journeys can be analysed and optimised.
- Newsletters – There is the ability to design, build and modify newsletter templates and content. The internal approvals process is valued by marketing and business development staff as well as fee-earners.
- Email marketing – Vuture holds templates and content that can be easily accessed and modified by fee-earners to allow them to distribute tailored content to their networks. The dynamic content publishing – where after email sign-ups a cookie tracks client web activity – ensures clients receive timely information on topics of interest automatically. The module also has a preference and consent manager with audit trails to ensure data security and compliance. Vuture has two in-house General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) experts to ensure the system and its users remain compliant.
- Event management – It is possible to create a separate website for an event showing venue details and maps, programmes, speakers and other content. The system manages delegate bookings, contact forms, RSVPs, food and workshop options. Calendar invites are also provided. It has an app to allow online check-in and registration at the event. It manages the communication, measurement and follow-up processes.
- Alumni – Accountants make particular use of this module, which manages preferences, communications and events for groups of members and/or former employees.
- Web tracking – Vuture will track use of websites and emails across all devices and provide tracking information and analytics to help improve performance.
What are the benefits of Vuture?
The benefits depend on the nature of the firm using the system and its applications.
Leverage networks – Vuture provides the tools to make it easy to communicate regularly with vast networks of clients, contacts, prospects and referrers. So, in addition to supporting new business development, it helps existing client relationship management and internal cross-selling
Increase efficiency – By automating many processes it reduces the time spent by marketing and business development staff on back-office activities and fee-earner liaison. Fee-earners also find that it saves them time in communicating in a structured, appropriate and regular way with their clients and contacts.
Increase personalisation – As Vuture tracks when users are reading materials and visiting pages on websites, in real time, it can identify when clients and contacts are seeking information and on which topics. The events module allows preferences for communication methods and food allergies to be maintained.
Regulate contact – Once client and contact interests have been recorded, Vuture makes it quicker and easier to establish a suitably personalised and regular communications programme so that the firm and its services remain on their radar.
Increase compliance – Vuture provides an audit trail of opting-in and permissions to meet regulations such as the GDPR. Firms can also build in approval processes for other regulatory or internal processes to be sure that only approved material is released.
Improve targeting – The analytics within Vuture mean that it is possible to see what clients and contacts are interested in. The system can include automatic triggers so that, for example, when clients visit certain pages on the website they receive newsletters and other related content that are relevant. This is effectively the remarketing approach we see with sophisticated systems such as Google and Amazon.
Improve return on investment (ROI) – Although few professional services firms have sophisticated systems that allow client profitability, client lifetime value (CLT) and marketing effectiveness to be analysed in depth, Vuture has the ability to allow you to measure and improve effectiveness.
Of course, before Vuture can deliver these benefits there needs to be an advanced level of understanding about the appropriate relationship management strategies to deploy, established marketing and sales processes, good quality content, up-to-date information in a CRM, and engagement with and commitment from fee-earners.
Who uses Vuture?
Vuture is used by many law firms – 60 of the UK’s top 100 and over 50% of the US’s top 200. Three of the big four accountancy firms use the system as well as a handful of large property firms such as Savills. Typically, user law firms have over 100 partners although there are a few with 50 partners.
There is added interest in the system at present as firms recognise the impact of the new regulations on Data Protection with the advent of the GDPR in May 2018.
Increasingly, Vuture is being used by other service businesses such as private equity and other financial and investment markets – typically, those sectors where there is a reliance on the relationship management model.
My previous conversations with Vuture:
http://kimtasso.com/marketing-technology-vuture-tackles-social-media-verification-dynamic-content-and-extranets-made-easy/ (November 2012)
http://kimtasso.com/marketing-communications-technology-for-professional-firms/ (July 2009)
Further details are available: https://vutu.re/
