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2020 legal survey: 3 trends driving customer engagement and growth

 

Emerging software drives marketing efficiency, customer retention and new business

As the accelerating pace of digital-change shows no signs of slowing down, it feels like more law firms are stepping up their marketing and business development activities. The market is growing, but so is the competition, and law firms can no longer rely on securing new business based on reputation.

To add pressure, many law firms are also battling with the emergence of tech-savvy millennials as they want services ‘on-demand’. They are expecting seamless digital communication that articulates value throughout all channels.

So, how can Marketing and Business Development turn these challenges into client-driven solutions that boost competitiveness, marketing efficiency and sales performance?

In this article, we discuss key emerging trends that will empower Marketing and Business Development to rapidly deliver high-value solutions to clients as well as create better templates and pitch/bid apps for growth.

Trend 1 – Implement the right tools to optimize Business Development

According to Marketing and Business Development professionals surveyed, almost half of the respondents (49%) stated that lack of training, coaching and leadership had hindered their performance recently. When we asked Managing Partners, 41% agreed that recent business development performance was also impacted due to the lack of digital tools. Almost a third of Managing Partners (29%) identified equipping teams with better tools as the best solution for resolving these issues.

Moreover, looking over the fence, Marketing and Business Development said their competitors were more advanced in digital transformation (38%), they monetized their data better (32%) as well as being customer-focused (32%).

Trend 1 – Implement the right tools to optimize Business Development

According to Marketing and Business Development professionals surveyed, almost half of the respondents (49%) stated that lack of training, coaching and leadership had hindered their performance recently. When we asked Managing Partners, 41% agreed that recent business development performance was also impacted due to the lack of digital tools. Almost a third of Managing Partners (29%) identified equipping teams with better tools as the best solution for resolving these issues.

Moreover, looking over the fence, Marketing and Business Development said their competitors were more advanced in digital transformation (38%), they monetized their data better (32%) as well as being customer-focused (32%).

Trend 2 – Boosting retention with better customer engagement

Over half of the survey respondents (54%) were challenged by customer-driven issues, such as cut budgets, sales cycle velocity and the lack of customer insights. Almost half of the Marketing and Business Development professionals surveyed agreed that the essential solutions to better customer engagement and retention were UX tools that enabled customer-driven messaging at 48% and customizable client solutions at 45%.

Trend 3 – Business Development and Marketing alignment is key to maximising returns

According to Marketo, Sales and Marketing alignment is potentially the largest opportunity for improving business performance today. When marketing and sales teams unite around a single revenue cycle, they dramatically improve marketing return on investment (ROI), sales productivity, and, most importantly, top-line growth.

Our survey revealed that there is still some work to do in legal firms as misalignment is still a challenge. 23% of Marketing and Business Development professionals described their internal relations as missing coordination and being either ad-hoc or non-existent. And, when working remotely, the misalignment between Business Development and Marketing jumped to 39%.

2020 tech predictions: Why will mobile apps lead the future?

With a plethora of technologies available on the market today, how do legal firms navigate in the maze and choose the right tools? Key considerations are easy integration capabilities, scalability, enterprise security and flexibility to ensure a future proof solution.

There is one trend that has not shown any signs of slowing down. According to Statista, in 2017, there were 178 billion app downloads. That number is projected to grow to 205 billion this year, and 258 billion in 2022 – a 45% increase over five years. Big players like Amazon Honeycode and Microsoft Power Apps have realized the lucrative potential and created their own low code/no code mobile app platforms recently. But technology alone will not support businesses in their goal. Choosing a solution provider that understands your industry, has a portfolio of firms with active use cases is the key to success in this area.

The low code/no code app platforms provide flexible technology allowing B2B organizations, including law firms, to create easy-to-access. Whether you are looking to improve marketing efficiency, getting customer insights for retention or new business pipeline, mobile apps offer a fast-to-market option.

With templated solutions, such as sales messaging, event or bid/pitch apps, legal firms of any size can create high-value mobile and web apps, legal apps and apps for lawyers that boost customer engagement through tailored messaging and real-time sharing. The unified platform aligns all departments, Marketing, Business Development, IT or Operations seamlessly and provides customer insights valuable for driving the common goals. The adding benefit of using apps over PDF’s include real-time analytics and push notifications to ensure your message is getting through.

What does the future hold for you?

So, what happens to legal firms that don’t invest in modern Business Development and Marketing technologies, tools that empower them to work collaboratively and gain customer insights in real-time for growth? Would they cease trading or get acquired by competition?

In the increasingly competitive and fast-paced market, the leaders will carry on adopting client-driven technology that not only improves marketing efficiency and Business Development performance but also helps to align the two teams for better results seamlessly. The essential investment in emerging technologies will pay back in increased customer satisfaction, retention, as well as new business.

As for laggards, will they disappear or downsize and then eventually disappear?