Congratulations, you’re a marketing superstar! You’re doing everything to keep your firm’s marketing in tip top shape. You've been reading Vable's blog, attending webinars, and creating some great blog posts, multimedia and infographics. Your social media is all pre-scheduled throughout the day. You are an organised marketing machine.
Though, wait a second. There’s something missing here. Your competitors are still managing to stay one step ahead of you. How are they doing it? Luckily the team here at Vable have got their spy glasses out to give you a sneaky peek at your competitors’ legal marketing tools.
Marketing and business development (MBD) and client relationship management (CRM) are central to the ongoing growth and success of any organisation. In order to differentiate their firms by producing meaningful content, BD and marketing teams need access to relevant and responsive current awareness.
They should always be aligning the needs of the client and role of the professional advisor, thinking strategically, and ensuring teams can work together for the benefit of the client. Who is your client? For any marketing campaign to be truly effective it needs to be targeting a specific persona - or client - and matching their current needs in a language they understand.
Failure to do so is the equivalent of speaking to a French chef in Japanese about engineering. It’s not going to be very effective. This is where media monitoring comes in. By monitoring your (potential) client's’ interests, needs and concerns your firm will become a "go-to" trusted advisor.
You’re far more likely to run a faster race if you can see the others racing alongside you. The same goes for business. Competitor intelligence enables you to see what your competitors are doing, how this is viewed by your target personas and what the latest legal industry trends are, providing you with invaluable support when it comes to staying ahead of the pack.
The competitive intelligence cycle begins with a scan of the environment that is wide enough to catch the beginnings of any trend, and efficient enough to track the trend as it gains traction.
Just like with media monitoring, a content aggregation platform can support you in simplifying your competitor intelligence. This time, instead of keyword searches, just enter your competitor names and wait for your alerts to roll in. Next time Company X is going to that conference you hadn’t heard about, you’ll be in the know and be right there with them.
Newsletters are an excellent marketing tool, both internally and externally. Client current awareness newsletters have evolved over the past 20 years and organisations owe it to themselves and their clients to be smart with email marketing. We are so used to sophisticated marketing campaigns, that second-rate efforts can be damaging.
It is hard work but if it is done right you are connecting with people in a more meaningful way. An email newsletter isn’t simply an electronic communication. It’s a chance to deepen your and your firm’s connection with your network on a personal level. Use that opportunity to its fullest and reveal the people behind your ‘must-read’ message.
It's not just your clients that need to keep up to date on the latest developments. It is imperative that business development teams know what’s happening regarding industry advances, lead updates and competitor developments. Simply by sharing internal newsletters, shared dashboards, and establishing an agile style meeting schedule, you can enhance the business development potential of your company.
Believe it or not, you are the greatest legal marketing resource you’ll ever know. Only you can decide whether to try out a new approach, for example, an external content management system. It is your expertise that will drive a campaign forward and identify new strategies.
We are communication experts with an unrivalled ability to process information and spot trends. Let your managers know you are an unequalled resource, ready to create, commission, research, design or inspire quality content across all platforms both internally and externally. We can really make a difference to the potential clients that we want to reach.
What other legal marketing tools are you using? We would love to hear from you.