Editor’s note: Madeline Jacobson is marketing manager at computer software firm Bloomfire, Austin, Texas.
Do you feel like it’s an uphill battle to distribute your research beyond the line manager who commissioned it? If you do, you’re in good company. A 2015 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study found that 80 percent of client-side customer insights professionals struggle to get the full attention of senior business leaders and earn recognition as a strategic partner.
To become a strategic partner – and ideally, a source of competitive advantage – your customer insights team must develop strategies to get your research in front of a larger audience. Below are several steps you can take to reach more stakeholders and prove the value of your insights.
1. Take inventory of the stakeholders you support
BCG reports that the most mature customer insights functions are proactive in distributing their research to stakeholders across their companies. To increase the maturity of your team, you should be thinking about how your research and insights can add value beyond the marketing department.
Start by mapping out your company stakeholders by function and level of interest in customer insights. Consider how your team’s efforts can align with each stakeholder’s goals and the overall business objectives. Next, meet with each stakeholder to determine how customer insights can help them meet their goals and how you can better communicate your research.
2. Be consistent in your communication
When you meet with stakeholders across different teams, come up with a consistent process for sharing your research. For example, you might agree to send out a weekly insights newsletter or schedule a bi-weekly in-person update with team leaders. Having a process in place will help other teams know when to expect updates – and help your team get information in front of the right audience at the right time.
3. Customize your reports
When you share your research, the first thing stakeholders want to know is what’s in it for them. Keep your stakeholders invested by tailoring your reports to their function. Clearly outline how your research affects the work of their department and how it can be used to make improvements going forward.
Take a step back and make sure the level of detail in your report is appropriate to the stakeholder. As former Conagra Insights Manager Diana Powell points out, the key details of the report should be “apparent to someone who hasn’t been as intimately involved with the project as you have.”
4. Make it easy to find your research
Don’t make your stakeholders work to find the research that’s relevant to them. In addition to proactively sharing new insights across departments, you should make sure your stakeholders can access existing research whenever they need it.
Look for a platform that lets you house research across a wide range of file types (PowerPoints, video, audio, etc.) in one central, easy-to-search place. Once you’ve chosen a platform, work with your team to develop a repeatable process for sharing new insights. For example, you might ask CI team members to upload their research with a key image and a short summary explaining how the information impacts the business.
Consider holding brief training sessions to help other teams learn how to find the research they need. By making the barrier to access as low as possible, you’ll increase the number of people across your organization who engage with your research.
5. Ask for feedback and refine
The steps above should help your CI team align your research with the goals of your stakeholders and develop a process to maximize the impact of your insights across departments. However, your process will likely need some fine-tuning.
Ask your stakeholders for feedback on your research distribution process and make adjustments as needed. As you refine your process and get better at connecting business leaders with valuable insights, you can begin working with stakeholders to move CI initiatives up the business agenda.