Utilizing Agile Marketing in Your Law Firm Marketing Strategy
Outpacing Your Competitors With Agile Marketing
The legal industry is inherently conservative, not necessarily in the political sense, but rather in the sense of adhering to traditional ways of getting things done and building business. If you think about it, lawyers resolve many cases by researching similar issues in the past, so forging new ground might feel uncomfortable.
But as the world changes at an increasingly rapid pace, a law firm’s ability to survive might hinge on its ability to innovate and adjust. Clients want a more personalized experience, and law firms are being forced to operate under some strange conditions. How can your firm continue to build its business and give its clients the service they need and deserve? Enter a concept called agile marketing, which could transform your legal marketing strategy.
What is Agile Marketing?
When your law firm created its marketing plan for 2020, it probably didn’t anticipate a global pandemic and everything that has come with it. In most cases, it’s no longer affordable or logical to create a 12-month marketing plan that you take a peek at annually.
In this ever-changing world, a Google update can pull the rug out from under your plans, or something like COVID-19 can come along and change everything. While traditional marketing emphasizes client development and marketing production cycle, agile marketing places a priority on the clients and their buying process, which makes more sense in today’s environment.
Inspired by the term “agile software development,” agile marketing is a legal marketing strategy that has teams work collaboratively and collectively to accomplish goals within definitive, short time periods.
With agile marketing, team members publish content quickly, track results, and make necessary changes based on performance. Firms can also quickly adjust their approach to respond to changes in the market. Websites and campaigns can be created in a launchpad format and revisited whenever necessary for revision.
How Agile Marketing Differs from Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing processes follow a linear and rigid timeline. Marketers set goals and approach tasks one-by-one without making adjustments. Large projects like websites might not be revisited for several years.
Agile marketing uses a more rapid cycle that enables teams to make changes when necessary. Here are several ways that agile marketing differs from a traditional approach:
- Fast-paced – Instead of dealing with lengthy development cycles, agile marketing accomplishes short-term goals with frequent meetings to gauge progress.
- Collaborative – Agile marketing eliminates traditional hierarchies and silos, with members of the team sharing accountability for results.
- Rapidly Iterative – Teams produce initial content that is tested and later tweaked to improve performance and better respond to client needs.
- Driven by Analytics – Agile marketers rely heavily on data to analyze the effectiveness of efforts and identify opportunities for additional approaches.
The Benefits of Agile Marketing for Law Firms
If you’re going to shake up the way you approach marketing for your law firm, it’s helpful to understand why you’re doing it. Agile marketing has a number of advantages over traditional methods. Marketing teams not only work more effectively using agile methods, but they also achieve better results.
Get More Done
Agile marketing is an incredibly efficient means of marketing your brand. SEO experts at Moz report that teams who use agile marketing methodology accomplish up to 40% more tasks than those who stick to conventional methods.
Better Internal Communication
By having more frequent meetings, you’ll ensure that there is improved communication between members of the marketing team and between the marketing team and the firm’s senior management.
Quickly Adapt to Change
No one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, a month From now or six months from now. But we do know that the future isn’t going to look like the present, and businesses that survive are the ones that can quickly adapt to change.
Google changes its search parameters frequently, and firms using this approach can adapt more quickly. Also, some law firms were quick to post COVID-19 content to reposition themselves in a shifting market, and others are still thinking about it.
Measurable Results
The foundation of agile marketing is using data to improve your results, so it’s not surprising that brands using these methods are seeing results. According to researchers at McKinsey, companies that adopt agile marketing see revenue increase by up to 40%.
Stay Competitive
Agile marketing allows your firm to produce a more relevant message that matches the current environment and meets the needs of potential clients. Since delivering a positive client experience should be a priority, this approach gives your firm the best opportunity to engage with prospective clients and convert more visitors to clients.
Creating Your Agile Framework for Legal Marketing
The benefits of agile marketing are clear for a business that is ready to commit to something different. But, how can your law firm implement this new approach? Here is a breakdown of the agile framework to give you an idea of how this works:
Strategize
Start by setting goals for your project. You can begin by auditing your current website or marketing tactic to see what’s working and what needs improvement. As with any marketing strategy, the agile process should have SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
Launch
Take your website or next marketing initiative live quickly, meaning within two to four weeks. This is much faster than the many months it generally takes to launch a traditional website or produce tangible results from a content strategy. Agile marketing is characterized by short bursts of activity that move you towards accomplishing long-term goals.
Improve
Based on the data you collect about your marketing initiative or launchpad website, you can identify any necessary improvements to boost results. Compare your results to the goals you set at the beginning. Figure out what is working and what isn’t so that you make adjustments as you move to the next iteration of your marketing strategy.
Get a Head Start on Your Competition
With too few law firms taking advantage of proactive processes and strategies, agile marketing can give your firm the competitive edge it needs. Sundown Legal Marketing specializes in helping law firms identify and implement the best approach to legal marketing. We have an experienced team of designers, developers, copywriters, and strategists that are ready to work with your firm on a website design and robust marketing strategy.
Contact us today for a free evaluation of your internet marketing plan and no obligation assessment of your website content. Call us at (800) 864-1764 or reach out online through our website contact form.