Digital transformation in the legal sector is well underway. Marketing automation tools are also becoming increasingly popular. Marketing automation tools refer to software and technology used to automate repetitive tasks. Firstly, this frees up staff time to focus elsewhere. In some cases, it also improves the quality of the marketing. For marketing automation in law firms, the biggest benefits come in time savings and increased return on investment (ROI).
Lawyers are no longer forced to sort through emails, social media and enquiries. Instead, they can focus on adding real value in other cases. This leads to greater capacity to deal with cases and therefore increased profits and ROI. Automating marketing can also lead to better engagement rates with customers due to faster response times. Finally, there is a significant reduction in margins of error. Consequently, there is no reason why law firms should not be using marketing automation.
Marketing automation in law is not a one-size-fits-all approach. There are a range of different solutions for law firms of all sizes. Additionally, every solution has to meet unique needs. Some law firms will need one single product, whilst others will require a suite of service to meet their needs.
Below, we’ve explored some of the most popular marketing automation tools for law firms.
Robotic Process Automation
Leading robotics process automation companies such as UiPath have championed the adoption of RPA in law firms. Although it is an expensive initial investment, it is a worthwhile one. RPA can help you understand and maximise your personal productivity and capacity. It also helps to unlock further opportunities for fee-earning, access to the market and time-saving benefits.
The majority of RPA solutions for marking automation in law firms revolve around using software to automate communications. Most commonly, email automation is used to share products or solutions to be shared with the relevant customer lists. Once these emails have been sent, your robotics collates and tracks open rates and engagements. RPA manages a further auto-response sequence that either provides the customer with more information. If necessary, the robot can also liaise with the client to arrange a meeting to discuss their case if required.
The big benefit of RPA for law firms is the time saved. Automating and digitalising services means that the manual paper-based approach of the past is no longer an issue for law firms. They can focus on adding value to their clients, which in turn helps to generate real revenue for the business. Paralegals in particular benefit as they are usually the people tasked with the repetitive activities. By freeing them from these burdens, you help to empower your staff further. This has positive effects on productivity and employee satisfaction.
Above all, lawyers want to practise the law and that is where they get the most stimulation from. With an appropriate RPA solution supporting marketing automation in law firms, it leaves your team free to actually focus on critical thinking and creative problem-solving.
HubSpot
For start-ups, small and medium law firms, HubSpot is an ideal marketing automation solution. Depending on your HubSpot package, you can incorporate customer relationship management, social media support and email automation amongst other things. By giving you this holistic support platform, you can manage all aspects of your marketing from one single platform. Although it’s not really suitable for bigger companies because it does have some limitations, it’s a good value option for growing your firm’s database and managing contacts.
You can integrate HubSpot with Salesforce via Zapier or integration platforms to help secure your lead flows and manage your clients effectively. This helps to save time and maximise your quality of leads. HubSpot connects your different departments via the Sales and Service hubs giving you complete interconnectivity across your firm. If you are looking to start marketing automation for your law firm, then HubSpot is a good tool to start with.
Marketo
If you are a larger law firm, you are more likely to have success by using Marketo. A well-established platform, with established systems and a number of other mechanisms. It has a lot of advanced functionality including client support management, record keeping and other data controls. These marketing automation tools aren’t available in HubSpot as standard. However, one of the biggest downsides of Marketo is the platform’s interface being extremely complex. If you are not sufficiently familiar with the tool, it can lead to a lot of problems.
However, if you are sufficiently experienced with marketing automation in law, then Marketo is the best solution for you. It is a premium solution and consequently, it has a premium cost attached to it.
MailChimp
Communication is key in the legal industry. However, far too many law firms fall into the trap of treating their clients as one-off circumstances. In reality, all clients require nurturing. The focus should be on retention as you can never predict when a customer will need legal services. In terms of retaining this contact, law firms fall into the trap of sending generic emails out to their entire list. In reality, they should be tailoring messages to both businesses and customers separately. To help facilitate this, it’s important to manage your email campaigns effectively.
MailChimp is a good solution for email marketing automation in law. You can create automated campaigns that immediately trigger based on response rates, gather new emails to multiple lists using automatic pop-ups and other mechanisms, and also send segmented emails with defined follow-up messages. With additional features available such as Mandrill to help filter email qualities and spam filters to help you ensure your emails meet sufficient messaging standards, you can mark your law firm out as a quality solution for your clients. This in turn helps you manage how you present your services to your clientele and adjust your messaging to socio-economic conditions or other factors.
MailChimp is a very good initial platform for marketing automation in law as it is easy to scale. However, like other platforms on this list, bigger law firms may find MailChimp insufficient for their demands as the costs can increase quickly.
HootSuite
In the early 2010s, everyone flocked to social media and law firms were no exception. However, as time has passed, law firms have stopped generally using social media effectively. They either fall into the trap of posting the same generic and bland content or alternatively not posting regularly enough to retain their audience’s interest.
We’ve already covered how to avoid the first issue in detail. To ensure you post enough content regularly, marketing automation is a great solution. One of the most robust platforms for managing social media for law firms is Hootsuite. It helps you schedule content and also manage the perception of your brand. In many ways, it incorporates the best aspects of TweetDeck, Facebook and LinkedIn Marketer to ensure your law firm can retain a strong and constant social media presence.
Oracle Eloqua
If you are a large law firm or you have a significant budget for market automation in law, Oracle Eloqua is the solution for you. It is the most expensive platform on this list. Oracle Eloqua combines an incredible service with a huge range of resources and services. It can be fully integrated with a number of the other tools mentioned above. The tool is most effective for law firms to create targeted campaigns across multiple platforms and channels.
With the adaptive campaign orchestration solution, law firms can create dynamic campaigns that respond to customer interests. You can create campaigns that account for the unpredictable customer journey that law firms often encounter and create multi-step campaigns quickly to deploy campaigns faster. With optimised send times and also program triggers to manage responses, you can quickly get a full picture of how your marketing is going.
If you are looking for a top solution for marketing automation in law, Oracle Eloqua is the best option.
Marketing Automation in Law: The Final Word
Law no longer has a closed-shop mentality and competition is rife. Additionally, law firms find online marketing especially taxing in terms of time taken. It also is increasingly becoming complex and difficult as marketing expands into more areas and onto more platforms.
Marketing automation in law is one of the best ways for lawyers to start taking back control of their time and resources. Rather than being bogged down with repetitive tasks and demotivating activities, you can instead focus on critical thinking and thinking outside the box to resolve problems for your clients. In doing so, you can still be assured that your marketing strategy is robustly supported by the range of marketing automation tools you are using.
As a result, law firms are now having to use marketing automation more and more to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their marketing. This can be either through social media posting and social listening, converting leads from your digital platforms or executing, managing and analysing an online email campaign. By using marketing automation in law, you can be safely assured that your marketing will meet the standards you require.
