Podcast Episode 185: Is the Digital Experience Critical for Law Firms?

In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 Podcast, Guy is joined by Gary McRae to discuss the importance of the digital experience for law firms. Gary McRae is the global digital lead for Baker McKenzie. He ensures Baker McKenzie’s digital strategy aligns with its overall business objectives. He also leads the company’s channels, digital marketing, web development, social media, and martech initiatives.

1. Gary McRae Career Track 

Gary’s very first career was at Scotland Yard as a police officer where he worked in homicide as a detective for a number of years. Later, he moved to the stateside where he began a new job in the healthcare industry. From those two jobs, he picked up marketing where he would eventually start his own business before residing in Singapore and working with Baker McKenzie for nearly six years now. 

2. The Biggest Surprise When Working and Leading Digital Marketing for a Law Firm like Baker McKenzie

The number of stakeholders that are involved in decision-making. When it comes to building a digital strategy, there are a lot of people who need to be involved and engaged. This can be good because there is a lot of insight, but it does slow things down. 

3. Is the Digital Experience Critical for Law Firms?

Lawyers are still closing deals by having strong relationships, and buyers for legal services or any kind of professional service won’t change their buying behavior just because it’s B2B. This means that the experience has to be as good as what customers are being exposed to and that many professional services are often confused by their journey. 

4. Is Digital Experience and User Experience the Same Thing?

From a technical perspective, everyone is comfortable with the user experience. It is about getting from point A to point B, but the digital experience is about bringing together all the different channels. Social media experiences must carry over from LinkedIn to wherever they land and beyond, rather than being limited to a single page. 

5. Making Sure That the Omni-Channel Experience is the Same

It is important for the digital team on the website to collaborate on the message, visual identity, and language of the landing page. 

An example of a site lacking this is when an external search on a consumer site leads to a random page that had nothing to do with the deal. The external search was done by two different people with different responsibilities but didn’t talk to each other about it. This disconnection from one platform to another is important to avoid. Our online experiences are expected to be smooth and make sense.

6. Where Do You Start When Trying to Improve the Client Experience? 

The data generally tells us that stakeholders are interested in the content and localized information on our country page, which is almost the same in all of our locations. This shows that it eventually comes back to a relationship. People are engaging in localized content because they are at the bottom of the funnel and have seen our leadership. They have also seen our maps on pages, which show where people are going and what they are clicking on. This was when they were confined first. Adopting the page requires testing it with what people are actually doing, as evidenced by the photographs of users’ experiences on LinkedIn. It is not the data that should be taken into account, but rather the experience people are seeking.

Takeaway: 

Talk to client-facing colleagues and get client feedback. Immerse yourself in the channels’ data to get actionable insights. 

You can find Gary McRae on Linkedin & Twitter and on his Website. 

Check out our newest ebook, The Law Firm Guide to Podcasting, here.