What’s In Your Law Firm Martech Stack?

As marketing and technology both evolve and become more entwined, new terms are coined to describe methods, systems, and concepts. One such term that you may have heard lately is “martech stack.” Sometimes when someone uses a phrase you’ve never heard before, you immediately know what it means — this is not one of those phrases. It’s a phrase that doesn’t do much to convey its own meaning. When asked about their martech stack, most people instantly ask, “What’s that?”

What Is a Martech Stack?

“Martech” is short for marketing technology. The term “stack” refers to “stacking” tools together to form a comprehensive marketing system. So, basically, your law firm’s martech stack is the collection of marketing tools you (or your marketing team) use to do everything from placing ads and posting on social media to gathering results and analyzing ROI.

What makes the modern martech stack different from what was happening just a few years ago, is organization and integration. Marketers aren’t just using one tool because it works well for email and another because it works well for social media. They are putting specific tools together to achieve specific overall results.

The rise of marketing technology is undeniable. Research conducted by Martech Today shows that in 2011 there were only about 150 companies developing marketing technologies. As of 2019, there were roughly 7,040 martech firms. That says a lot about the marketing industry and its strong desire to streamline processes.

What Makes a Modern Martech Stack?

The proper approach to marketing technology starts with defining your business requirements, understanding your existing processes and technologies, identifying the best technologies to achieve your marketing and business development objectives and then integrating your existing platforms. The exact tools that make up your martech stack will depend on how your firm operates and who your target clients are. For example, if your law firm generally works with individuals involved in criminal cases, your marketing needs probably aren’t going to be the same as a firm that works in some area of corporate law where the target clients are businesses. There are, however, some technologies that should be considered no matter who you are targeting.

Content Management Systems

Often referred to as a CMS, a content management system does just what the name implies. It allows you to manage the content of your firm’s website. A common and popular example of a CMS would be WordPress. If your firm only has a static website that never changes, you’re falling behind. A modern website should be dynamic and add fresh new content on a regular basis.

Advertising Technologies and Management

Advertising technologies can cover everything from social media ads to PPC campaigns on specific website networks. It may be as simple as using systems like Google Ads, Facebook advertising, and Bing Ads, or it may involve specialized software to help you analyze and control all of your advertising from a central dashboard.

Email and CRM Systems

Email communication is a critical part of customer relationship management (CRM) and almost every marketing effort and there is no shortage of email service and CRM providers. If your firm is not taking advantage of email marketing to help convert prospects into leads and new clients, you’re really missing out. Any successful law firm martech stack will include email technology.

Social Media Management

Social media technologies can do everything from simply sharing content and making posts to more complex tasks like monitoring your audience and controlling ad campaigns. The right technologies can help you to grow your audience, create better engagement with your existing audience, and boost your returns. See: Social Media Management Tools for Law Firms.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO goes beyond just publishing good content. It’s important to take advantage of available technologies to monitor and analyze results. You can find systems to help you with everything from keyword research to link building strategies. See: SEO Tools for Lawyers.

Interactive Content Creation Systems

Competition is fierce. To stand out from the crowd, it’s going to take more than just interesting articles and text. There are a number of technologies available that can help you to create everything from original pictures to complete videos, podcasts, and webinars.

Analytics

Analytics are essential for tracking results. In most cases, Google Analytics will do everything you need, but there are other companies that provide various forms of specialized analytics to help you drill down into the details and find new ways to tune and improve marketing efforts. See: Website Analytics Tools for Law Firm Marketers and Lawyers.

Collaboration Software

Even a small marketing team will benefit from using collaboration tools that help keep everyone organized and on the same page. It’s no secret that everything works more efficiently when all the people involved know their roles and the status of the project.

Takeaway

Marketing technology enables business development and legal marketing teams to achieve more in less time. From marketing and email automation to analytics and personalization, marketing technology has changed the way organizations and law firms scale their marketing engine and reap the rewards. Building your marketing technology stack, and analyzing how everything in that stack works together, could give you the insights you need to take your marketing campaigns to the next level.

What’s in your law firm’s martech stack? If your law firm is not achieving its marketing goals, it could just be that you’re not taking advantage of all of the tools available to you. Contact us today for a free consultation.  We provide marketing technology consulting to help law firms and organizations develop custom marketing stacks to realize efficiency and scalability of business development and marketing programs which in turn helps them to achieve their business objectives.

Updated and Republished from May 7, 2018.