Podcast Ep. 154: Marketing Analytics Trends at Law Firms

In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 podcast, Guy Is joined by Jason Kennedy. Jason is a marketing operations consultant at Calibrate Strategies, a leading marketing operations consultancy in the legal sector. He is also the former in-house director of marketing operations at an envelope 100 firm. Jason is currently finishing his master’s degree in marketing analytics at the University of Alabama. Today Jason joins us to discuss the ins and outs of legal marketing analytics.

1. How did you adapt your skillset to fit marketing analytics? 

I was finishing up my MBA in the spring of ‘19 and I got introduced to statistics. All the data was fascinating, extracting all that data and using it to make real business decisions. I worked on the mark side of things for years and I was never exposed to those kinds of concepts and what the data can do for you. It set off a light bulb for me and I said to my statistics professor I need to learn everything I can about this because this is where marketing is going. He recommended I look into a marketing analytics master’s and try to fill in the gaps in my skill set. 

2. What trends are you seeing in legal marketing that relates to analytics?

I think what happened with the pandemic, since everything shut down the lawyers lost their typical way of driving business. There were no meetings, no coffees, no big sponsorship events with large clients. The marketing department said, let’s see what we’ve got since none of our usual avenues are available to us. Legal marketers have to look into if they’re actually thinking and acting strategically. Are they getting the returns they expected? I think the trend will continue to move in this data-driven marketing direction, that means bringing in more data analysts or analytics professionals. It’s more of an investment on the technical side. 

3. What are the biggest challenges right now when it comes to legal marketing analytics?

I think the biggest challenge is not knowing where it started. You had those disparate systems that you brought in to do some very specific things such as CRM or email marketing. Maybe you even have something like AI. But to get this kind of data-driven marketing you need to have a well-oiled machine. All the data and people have to be harmonized right to get the data to properly move across systems. Right now, getting access to all the data is a big headache. How will we get all the data tied together to get to where we need to go? 

4. What tools are being used to deal with said challenges?

The main one, you could call it a tool, would be a custom data warehouse. It could be a true sequel database, it could be a data lake hosted in a cloud somewhere, it could be a custom fit to whatever your particular needs are from a data perspective. So I think having a tool to help address all that disparate data and the systems that don’t talk together well, like having some sort of centralized database where you can pull all the data points you need is crucial. Maybe potentially some phone calls and exchange data. If you want to get real fancy, like how we’re emailing stuff through outlook, I’ve got all the stuff kind of put together in a nice structured database that shows who has what relationship with what firm, who is engaging with our content, who is attending our events and most importantly, what does all this stuff mean from an opportunity perspective. And then the next step is who’s actually flipping a client and how much money is coming in? A centralized database is a must as it pulls the data you need and leaves out what you don’t. 

Takeaway: 

The pandemic made it so the legal industry had to find a new way of marketing themselves and generating new leads. Finding ways to use data-driven marketing tactics can be complex, but the key is knowing what data to use for each particular situation. In the next couple of years, having a thorough understanding of legal marketing analytics will be crucial to any successful firm. 

You can find Jason Kennedy on LinkedIn or at Calibrate Strategies.