The LMA Tech West Conference, held Jan. 31 – Feb. 1 in San Francisco, featured many thought-provoking discussions. Hats off to conference chairs Eric Armstrong, Stefanie Marrone, Clayton Dodds and Adam Stock for organizing a successful event. If you couldn’t attend LMA Tech West, keep an eye out for our full conference recap which will feature key takeaways from each panel.
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| 2018 Conference Chair
Eric Armstrong Client Services Manager, Fenwick & West LLP (Mountain View, CA)
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2018 Programming Committee Chair
Stefanie Marrone Director of Business Development & Marketing, Tarter Krinsky & Drogin (New York, NY)
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| 2018 Communications Committee Chair
Clayton Dodds Director of Marketing, Law Offices of Peter N. Brewer (Palo Alto, CA) |
2018 Sponsorships Committee Chair
Adam Stock Chief Marketing Officer, Allen Matkins (San Francisco, CA)
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Throughout the conference, insights on tailoring new technologies to your firm, using content-sharing platforms (such as blogs and social media) to build a trustworthy personal brand and emphasizing customer service were discussed in detail. The following 10 marketing strategy themes emerged:
- Embrace social media. Approximately 75% of the time, your lawyers’ LinkedIn profiles will be among the top three search results for their name. Within the legal industry, LinkedIn is the most important social media platform, but Twitter, YouTube and even Facebook can be used effectively to build credibility and win clients.
- Put an SEO strategy in place—now. Regardless of the practice area, prospects are searching for legal services online. Increase the likelihood your firm will be found – understand and apply the basics of SEO: keyword placement, meta descriptions, a mobile friendly website, external linking, local search, etc. If your firm doesn’t have an SEO-savvy marketer, outsource it.
- Use data to outperform intuition & tribal knowledge. Firms need to be methodical about gathering, understanding and acting on data. Take advantage of the information data provides to solve problems, make sound decisions in real time and remain competitive.
- Leverage content across multiple platforms. Given all the thought, time and research that goes into creating content, your firm is missing out if you only promote it through one or two channels. Publishing to Twitter, LinkedIn, your website blog and one or two additional channels will create a snowball effect, compounding returns on your effort.
- Incorporate multimedia in your content strategy. Readers and even scanners are becoming listeners and viewers. Short videos, infographics and podcasts are becoming indispensable in the competition for first page search engine rankings and prospects’ attention.
- Engage lawyers in business development efforts. Lawyers in general are not natural marketers, but they have skills and other qualities that complement business development. Getting them excited about content creation and involving them in the sales process is a challenge that requires understanding your firm’s culture, but it pays dividends.
- Customize your business development strategy. There’s not one marketing technology solution or business development strategy that’s a fit for every firm. Yes, this makes marketing strategy implementation more complex, but as a principle it has to be respected. Know thy firm.
- Converge marketing, technology & management for profitability. Digital technologies such as customer relationship management (CRM), client surveying, business intelligence platforms, booking software and other tools have become vital to running a law practice.
- Use AI to glean valuable industry information. AI – or artificial intelligence – is already having a huge impact on the legal industry. Your firm can also use it to reduce client attrition, better understand prospects’ behavior and identify high-opportunity relationships.
- Instill a client service mindset. Shift away from the traditional billable hour model and consider offering alternative fee arrangements to put more focus on client satisfaction and retention.
