Law Firm Marketing and Business Development Technology Must Haves | Build the Ultimate BD MarTech Stack
We all wish we had a crystal ball and could know exactly what our firm and our marketing and business development departments will look like a year from now... or even 6 months from now. Wouldn't it make it SO much easier to know your firm could weather economic storms and land big business with a lean marketing and BD crew?
Business development and good marketing strategy shift, new online platforms emerge, and we're always racing to complete the next RFP on the list... no matter how big your staffing budget is or if your skeleton crew is running your digital marketing strategies and business development outreach.
Whether you're helping grow an emerging boutique firm or are head of a massive MBD department for an industry titan, the issues faced by marketing and BD teams of all sizes are very similar, and they all have a similar solution: the ultimate BD martech stack. Having a solid martech stack cuts costs and helps firms excel regardless of economic downturn.
What is a business development and martech stack?
“Stack” is the operative word here, because the odds are definitely stacked in the favor of firms who get this right.
A BD martech stack is the ultimate collection of technologies that help law firm marketers and business development professionals improve, augment, and optimize all of their initiatives with streamlined processes and a resource bank to beat even the most mundane tasks on their list.
If you want to streamline your law firm marketing efforts and BD initiatives, this one is for you. We've put together a list of the components every law firm needs to succeed, and we're breaking it down for you here.
1. Experience Database
2. Proposal Management
3. CRM
4. INform
5. Document Management
6. Outreach Tools
Law Firm Marketing and BD is Better with an Experience Database
How often is it all-hands-on-deck with your entire law firm pulling out bits of representative experience in piecemeal form to meet the deadline for a proposal request or awards submission? If you think it's not often or that your legal marketing and business development teams aren't sweating this particular type of research...you either already have an experience database, or you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing the mad dash to dig up this information.
An experience database is a helpful tool used to amass, store, and display your firm's representational experience. You know, all of those little tidbits of experience requested by every single potential client, awards submission, or RFQ!? This is a game-changer and is an application your firm marketing team will thank you for bestowing upon them.
Whether you build this tool yourself or reach out to big names in the industry like this one, implementing an experience database will help your law firm improve business development initiatives like legal marketing collateral updates, boost targeted marketing strategy, and cut time and cost on internal firm management.
Make sure your marketing channels and business development messaging are all sharing the same stats and information from a singular location - your law firm's experience database!
Powerful Proposal Management
You don't have to look hard to find incredible options for this powerful marketing tool that is sure to cut time and cost and improve your business development and marketing budget overall.
Why are there so many great options for a proposal management tool? Because it really improves the entire arduous process of responding to requests for proposals and qualifications, outperforming other marketing efforts of hunting down data and digging through emails to find the status of the work.
This isn't just a value add to your business development and law firm marketing budget, but to your firm budget overall.
Proposal management tools allow your c-suites to shine because we all know shareholders want to quickly and efficiently see the data and information imperative to their bottom line. These tools can quickly pull together statements and progress reports for your insiders, too. Not just prospects.
A CRM to Master them All
This may sound very simple, but the simplest axioms are usually the best, so here it goes.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.
You probably know that, but do you implement that idea in every step of your business development and firm marketing strategy?
Listen, we're not just talking about ensuring you have a list of your firm's email contacts. We're talking about technology to maximize impact on all your communications and messaging.
A strong CRM do so much more than just house a list of names and contact details, but can also analyze data, create smart groups, and give you the data that will really help you know your audience and be able to properly reach them in your content marketing, social media marketing, event messaging, and any and all online marketing and business development efforts.
Check out these reviews of some of the biggest and best tech options for CRM to stock your BD and martech stack!
Pack Your Stack with INform
Ok, we might be a bit biased on this one because it is our brainchild, but we speak from experience here. We have decades of collective experience in legal marketing and business development, which is why we created this tech tool.
INform is our software that uses gamification strategies to help professionals track BD efforts while creating accountability, providing intuitive reminders for follow-up + procuring data to demonstrate return on investment through a fun + competitive online teaming platform. It's really an all-in-one tool that attorneys actually enjoy using (believe it or not).
Imagine knowing which parts of your business development strategies worked, what was too costly, where there were hang-ups, and our favorite: a built-in reward system that turns attorney BD efforts into a literal game.
You technically CAN build a business development martech stack without INform, but it most definitely won't be the ultimate!
Supreme Document Management System
You might think there's not a law firm in existence that doesn't rely heavily on a document management system, but you know as well as we do that law firms don't always like change, especially change that exists in the technology space.
The bottom line is that paper is costly and outdated, among other issues, and the world pretty much solely operates digitally. If your firm isn't utilizing a document management system for electronic files, you're probably wasting a lot of time (and paper…and money) unnecessarily.
Ok, you probably knew that. BUT did you know that your firm's document management technology isn't just for client briefs and court filings? Give your business development and law firm marketing department keys to that system and watch your costs and time sucks decrease dramatically.
Here are some options for some of the buzz-worthiest options for law firms.
Outreach Tools to Top Your Tech Stack
Staying engaged and connected with relevant industry news and changing social platforms is a full-time job for a fully stocked team, but there are tons of tech tools on the market to lessen the burden carried by your BD and law firm marketing departments.
Reuters is a wealth of knowledge for literally any data and information you could want, and they have tools that send alerts and bring to your firm's attention the data and analysis needed to create targeted messaging and build connections with impact.
Reuters doesn't have the corner on the market, however. Many of the best social media marketing and email marketing databases have features to alert your firm to related industry news or changes that your clients need to hear about... from your law firm!
Check out some of the biggest options for this technology in 2022.
We know that was a lot to cover, and we could go on endlessly about the tech tools that are absolute game-changers for the way your law firm marketing and business development departments operate.
What does it say about our industry and world that there are SO many options? It should say that times are changing, and the shift in the legal landscape in how we connect with clients and potential clients is not exempt from that shift.
Clients and prospective clients want quicker comms through more targeted measures with deeper meaning. Surface connections and spending untold hours putting together a response for clients just won't cut it anymore. Firms who are lean or fully staffed are all adapting their processes to adjust to these needs, and the martech tools mentioned here are invaluable for getting the job done efficiently.
Whatever tools you choose (or don't choose) for your ultimate business development and marketing technology stack, it's important to remember that the technology you choose is worthless without a strong strategy behind it!
Want to build more meaningful connections with your target audience and increase firm efficiency while you're at it? Let's talk!
Society 54 is here to help supplement your team, build robust initiatives, and help you make the most out of your efforts. Reach out to us to learn more about how we use technology and the ways we help law firms exceed their goals!