Agile Law Firm Marketing: Why It’s More Important Now than Ever
COVID-19 is accelerating the pace of change at law firm marketing departments all across the world. Overnight, law firm marketers have had to quickly adjust to the new remote work reality, learning to both lead and manage virtual teams. This is not an easy feat and a lot of marketers are still struggling.
To combat today’s obstacles and ensure that productivity and quality do not suffer with remote, socially distanced teams, we suggest adopting an agile marketing framework. By implementing the tenets of agile marketing and agile project management to manage virtual teams, and execute and refine marketing campaigns, your team will not only survive, but thrive in today’s new world. There is no doubt that in uncertain times, where adaptability is key, agile marketing is more relevant than ever. In this post, we’ll define and dive into the principles of agile marketing for law firms.
What is Agile Marketing?
Workfront defines agile marketing in the following way:
“At its core, agile marketing is a tactical marketing approach in which teams identify and focus their collective efforts on high-value projects, complete those projects cooperatively, measure their impact, and then continuously and incrementally improve the results over time.”
Agile Marketing is a Fluid Approach to Legal Marketing
Essentially, it means that the world is moving quickly, and if you want to be successful, your marketing efforts need to move fast too. Agile marketing gives legal marketers a more fluid approach to marketing, with a focus on completing activities and then going back and optimizing. This mindset requires speed, adaptability, decisiveness, and trust in your team. In fact, trust is essential. Smart agile marketers trust themselves and their team to make good decisions and react to situations in real time. This is critical since today’s quickly evolving market requires the ability to shift messages or methods on short notice. See : Tips for a Successful Law Firm Social Media Strategy Amid COVID-19.
You can build brand equity over time as well as pivot your strategy to avoid damage to your brand. This is important in today’s unprecedented times. Firms need to market what they stand for and believe in. What do you promote, and what do you ignore? Where do you take a stand, and what is that stance?
Knowing content is king, it’s important to distribute material through various channels that aligns with your firm’s view on larger issues. That goes beyond email or a blog – consider videos, podcasts, webinars, white papers, etc. Agile is particularly helpful in this regard, since you can always adjust your strategy or tactics to react to current realities. Remember that respect and trust are real assets with future clients – so the more you can build brand equity that relays your values, the better off your law firm will be. Agile marketing helps you get there. An editorial calendar can help you in these efforts. The plan should keep track of themes, goals, and titles. The objective isn’t to plot out your content for the next 24 months, but to give intentional thought to the content you produce and how it ties back to overall goals and brand equity. See: Tips on Adjusting Your Law Firm’s Content Marketing Strategy During COVID-19.
Tips for Agile Performance
There is an “Eighty percent” rule common in agile marketing that allows teams to implement measures, complete them, and then retrace steps to optimize and adapt them.
Presence and Perception are Essential
Remember that presence and perception are essential. What’s most important is being perceived as a leader. How much marketing you do doesn’t need to depend on your budget. Thought leadership, participating in virtual events, attending virtual conferences, appearing as a guest on someone’s podcast, etc. – you can market beyond your budget by maintaining communications consistently.
Keep in mind that in today’s digital landscape, brand presence is strongly linked to your social media presence. By building your own personal brand and establishing a social media following, you can enhance your reputation as an attorney, build trust with current and prospective clients, and generate new opportunities for your practice. But you don’t need to have a social presence on every single platform, rather, you need to be present on those that matter. For more social media tips and tricks, watch our on-demand webinar: How Lawyers Can Use Social Media to Build Their Brand & Grow Their Practice.
Adapt a Data-driven Approach with a Focus on Testing and Optimizing
Another important component is analyzing data to understand opportunities and adopting content that’s in line with current trends. Data-driven marketing is key in this area. We believe all modern marketing teams need data to guide their efforts, but agile teams are really and truly driven by their data (otherwise how would they know if their efforts were successful?). Agile teams ensure all of their work can be measured, and they rely on empirical evidence to make decisions.
Furthermore, running tests is critical to developing content in response to changing needs and opportunities. A key component of a successful agile strategy is getting content out there, analyzing the response, and then optimizing for better results in the next round. You can quickly see what resonates and what information people are trying to obtain regarding the pandemic, BLM, or during the shadow of a potential recession.
The same idea is befitting for any paid advertising, whether it is paid social or Google Ads. Your law firm may want to modify its campaign messaging or update its Google Ad target keywords. By continuously optimizing your firm’s paid campaigns to coincide with social and economic trends, you’ll be able to make the most of your digital marketing budget and increase conversions.
Takeaway
Given the fast-paced nature of digital marketing and the disruptions we are facing in today’s new world, agile methodologies are more important now than ever. With so much uncertainty that may affect your campaigns, maintaining an agile marketing framework will help your team be more proactive, adjusting tactics as you go and optimizing along the way to best inform and interest prospects.
Our team at Good2bSocial uses agile marketing as an agency and we also have experience helping law firms and companies in the legal industry adopt an agile methodology for their marketing departments. Contact us today to find out how we can help you reap the rewards of this innovative form of project management.
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