How to Assess Your Law Firm’s Marketing Technology Stack

Marketing technology has the power to both enable and hinder your law firm. Did you know there are over 7,000 marketing technologies out there? That’s an increase of 40% over last year alone – and there are more being developed all the time. With technologies growing – and our reliance on them increasing, especially in today’s remote environment – it’s crucial to understand the marketing technologies available and which are right for your law firm.

Every law firm marketing team has a marketing technology stack, even if they may not think of it in those terms. The stack is composed of core marketing tools such as a CRM system, marketing automation platform, and website solutions. Depending on the maturity of your firm, there might be several other solutions that add to your marketing technology stack. Whether you’re just beginning to assess technologies, or have dozens already, it’s a good idea to take stock of your marketing technology stack and make sure it’s optimal for your firm. Here are five steps we recommend law firms use to assess their marketing technology stack. 

5 Step Plan to Assess Your Law Firm’s Marketing Technology Stack

1. Plan

This is the time to define and document the needs and goals associated with your marketing technology. You want to make sure that whatever technology you’re using aligns with your overall firm objectives. Along with goals, look at what competencies you need to implement tactics that help you reach your goals – for example, lead management, marketing planning, content management, blogging, etc. Depending on your needs, this will lead to a list that might be large or small. 

2. Audit

Now that you have a clearer view of your needs and capabilities, you need to assess your current technologies. Have an understanding of any technologies your marketing or sales teams are currently using. Consider reaching out to additional stakeholders to make sure your list is comprehensive. At this point, you aren’t documenting any information beyond a list of solutions. 

3. Discover

Once you have a comprehensive list in front of you, it’s time to apply context. Conduct interviews with key stakeholders and users of the tools. Create a list of questions that you can ask each individual so you have uniform responses. You need to know who uses the technology, how they use it, what gaps they see (areas for improvement), what value the technology adds, and whether or not the technology works with other platforms and how. 

4. Assess

Here you are going to map your goals and needs against the capabilities of your technology stack. Ideally you will have lots of information and documentation from the previous steps. In this stage you want to make cross-platform connections, dive deeper into what the technologies do, and have a thorough understanding of how each solution works with the others. You are looking for 4 main areas: Gaps, Redundancies, Inconsistencies, and Underutilization. Allow plenty of time for this step, as the findings and conversations here will inform your next steps. 

5. Action

We suggest creating a visual diagram of your law firm’s marketing technology stack, highlighted against the goals and capabilities. Make sure to illustrate areas that need improvement and provide any documentation that supports those findings. If additional technologies are needed, you need a plan to gain buy-in and support.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself as You Assess Your Law Firm’s Marketing Technology Stack

It’s important to keep a few key concepts in mind as you go through the assessment process. We recommend asking yourself the following questions, and keeping the responses top of mind throughout every stage:

1. What are our goals?

It’s crucial that every technology platform is able to directly contribute to your needs. Always tie any capabilities back to the outcomes you are hoping to achieve. 

2. Does technology facilitate a single view of the client?

At the end of the day, you need to build relationships with clients and understand how they interact with your firm. Today’s digital tools are all geared toward providing this single view. Before adding new technology, make sure that any tools will contribute to that single view, rather than give your team more disconnected systems to log in and out of. 

3. Is the tracking real time?

Tracking technology helps you understand client and prospect behavior so that you can adjust your strategy. Real time tracking allows you to make smarter and more impactful decisions. Understanding trends as they happen will allow you to make more proactive decisions. 

Takeaway

There are so many marketing technology solutions available to law firms, it can feel overwhelming to assess your own stack or bring on new platforms. However, in order to make sure you’re optimizing your marketing efforts, making data-driven decisions, and keeping a cohesive view of your client, it’s essential to conduct a thorough assessment and see where you can improve your capabilities, or save time and resources by addressing gaps and redundancies. Follow the 5-phase plan above, always keeping in mind the 3 questions we posed, and you will have a great start on assessing your law firm’s marketing technology stack. 

Do you need help evaluating your martech stack? We have worked with many law firms and legal associations in helping them to select and implement the correct martech stacks that in turn help them achieve their business objectives. Contact us today for help.