At CMO Series Live 2025, Elizabeth Gooch, Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer at McDermott Will & Emery discussed the use of data and client feedback in shaping marketing strategies and measuring success, highlighting the importance of aligning marketing efforts with tangible business outcomes, whilst arming the audience with key advice on how to build effective data programs themselves.

Key takeaways:

Learning the best place to start and joining the dots of what you already know

Liz takes a foundational approach to problem-solving, sharing that “You have to have a hypothesis, and it has to be proven or debunked based on data”. 

A practical starting point involves analyzing existing successful client profiles: "You start with the good client, and you take the data and then use that to tell the compelling story, and then you just take the little wins and grow from there".

Her overarching advice for any problem, big or small, is to first define the problem and desired outcome: “You have to start with 'what's the hypothesis', what are you trying to solve or what is the behavior you're trying to compel, and then break it down”.

Recognizing how inspiration can come from inside and outside the industry 

Sometimes, inspiration comes from observing clients' own internal practices: “I've had one situation where I tried to get a group of partners to do something, and they would not engage till I said, do you know that your clients all do this in their own strategy, and that moved the needle”.

The firm also looks internally at their own top performers to learn best practices, looking at their top rainmakers and considering what they are doing differently from the rest of their partnership. This allows them to identify and replicate successful behaviors.

Identifying the content that clients engage with most and knowing how to capitalize on that

Client perspective is inherently powerful in driving change within the firm, and direct client feedback can reveal opportunities for your firm. 

Consistent, meaningful engagement leads to success, Liz shared: “Partners who engage their market a minimum of two times a week with meaningful engagement are more successful”.

Best practice advice for engaging partners to give you data 

Understanding the psychology of lawyers, who are "precedent-driven," helps compel them to adopt new behaviors. The role of the Business Development team in this is to connect the dots and then help enforce and support the discipline.  

Liz finishes by sharing that a gradual approach, starting with willing partners, is effective: “There's always partners who get it, and you start with those partners.” This builds internal champions for data adoption.