5 Pitfalls Law Firms Should Avoid When Choosing New Marketing Technology Solutions

If you read our past post on what makes up a modern marketing technology stack, you know that there are thousands of platforms available to help with virtually every facet of running your law firm’s day-to-day marketing. Moreover, implementing, maintaining, and optimizing your law firm’s Marketing Technology Stack is not a simple, streamlined process. Unfortunately, too many law firms end up implementing technology that they don’t use because vendors over-promised. In general, there are 5 mistakes that we see law firms make when it comes to selecting and adopting marketing technology solutions. We’ll cover them here so that you can help your firm to avoid one of these pitfalls when considering new marketing technology.

You believe that integration will be easy

It’s a vendor’s job to promise that installation will be simple, and yet that’s almost never the case. Every law firm is different which means implementing new technology is more complex than what an outside vendor can understand from brief interactions. Make sure you drill down into the process and ask detailed questions on any platform. Ask vendors if they’ve worked with your specific systems before, and let them know if you have any custom code. Be sure to get references and take the time to call and discuss the potential platform. While there are some technologies that end up being easy to implement, you should know that those are the exception and not the rule. 

You get excited about too many new platforms

Perhaps you’ve just been at a legal tech conference and you come back invigorated about new technology options. Maybe you have a new marketing director at your firm who is eager to make some changes. Whatever the reason, firms often end up biting off more than they can chew when they try to implement multiple new systems at once. Every implementation requires resources from your teams, and those resources aren’t infinite. It’s important to scale into new technologies. We suggest building a long-term roadmap of the technology needs of your team, accounting for how long it will take to integrate each one and how they impact each other. Rank any new technology according to priority and need. When you do implement new systems, start slow and keep it simple – scale up to the full capabilities. 

You think that bigger is always better

Many law firms are only comfortable buying from the best known brands or the biggest names. Just remember that even the biggest brands have issues. For one thing, they tend to be more expensive. It can also be tricky to see how integrated each of their solutions really are. We suggest also looking at younger or smaller companies as well because they may offer better customer service (and you’re bound to have questions in the early adoption phase!) or they may have features better tailored to your firm’s needs. 

Your law firm’s internal teams are not aligned

It’s crucial to involve key stakeholders in the process of choosing technology that affects them. Beyond the marketing team, consider who might need input on any platforms. Business development, client service and secretaries, your CIO or CFO, and others might be impacted by technology and should have a say. Anyone who will ultimately be an end user should have some say. It’s also essential to have your technology team on board and ensure the proper resources will be allocated to an installation. Make sure the entire team involved is on board and engaged from the very beginning or you could potentially waste months not using the technology you pay monthly for. 

You assume the job is finished after implementation

Most advanced technologies require more than financial investments – they take time. Technology can only go so far, it’s essential that you provide the right training and tools to help your team make the most of the technology you’ve invested in. Training, onboarding, and ongoing support is a critical component of seeing success in any marketing technology that you implement. Otherwise, you’ll have wasted dollars on platforms that your team doesn’t know how to use.

Related: How to Assess Your Law Firm’s Marketing Technology Stack

Takeaway

The fact is that there are plenty of marketing technologies out there that can help law firm marketing teams do their jobs more effectively. It’s important to invest the proper time and effort into implementing any new system in order to see a return on investment (ROI). 

We offer marketing technology consulting, implementation and training to help law firms ensure they’re not wasting money sitting on new technologies that they can’t use. If you’re considering a new marketing technology, it’s worth consulting an experienced team. Contact us today for help.