Having been a media planner and buyer for 25 years now, I can attest the world of marketing and communications has gone through a significant transformation in the last few decades. The internet, social media, accountability, metrics, media strategy, attribution, and conversion didn’t exist or weren’t daily topics when I entered the industry. Glancing at my time in the media world and having a front-row seat to those transformations and seismic shifts, I have a deep understanding of what values and skills are needed to succeed in marketing products and services. In the category of law firm marketing, having the right team matters. From a perspective of 25 years in the media business, here is what makes for the right agency-client relationship.
If a law firm wants to stay ahead of the competition and grow, the right marketing strategy, execution, and analysis are critical. And hiring the right media agency is a massive decision that law firms must tackle. This decision is not easy as there are countless media agencies that specialize, typically, in one media discipline, like paid search or social media. Others focus solely on buying TV or video. Each tactic is important and valuable to a law firm’s success. But the last thing you want to do is isolate tactics across multiple vendors who are apprehensive about speaking to each other or sharing and aligning strategy, insight, and performance.
Going this route would be akin to building a house, and using one architect to design the bathrooms, another for the kitchen, and a third for the living room. Such an approach is lacking continuity, alignment, and accountability.
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For a law firm, accountability only comes when a media strategy is comprehensive, and tactics are used collaboratively. It must manage and measure all media efforts to clearly report which tactic(s) drove the case and how much was spent to generate the case. Accountability goes well beyond the last touch attribution, which too oft en is the crux of traditional reporting. Last touch attribution is the practice of assigning credit for the case to the last tactic a client was exposed to. The practice falls short in quantifying how previous touchpoints between client and brand ultimately impacted the client’s final decision to hire the law firm.
Today’s accountability is reporting on the media mix, weight and ratio of all media tactics, and how that mix is driving cases. The takeaway is true attribution – a clear understanding of which mix of media tactics drove cases to the firm, and at what cost.
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How does a law firm overcome this 21st Century dilemma? The solution is one that countless marketers, across a wide array of industries, have been relying on for decades – with a twist. The right media agency is built to drive results (cases) through the most efficient (cost per case) use of media (online and offline). There are four critical strengths that a media agency must possess for this to happen – people, strategy, tools, and experience (the twist I mentioned).
People
Look for media people. The media team consists of experts at some form of media, whether that is broadcast, cable, radio, search, social media, video, OTT, sponsor-ships, experiential or outdoor. Having that deep, intimate knowledge of each tactic’s strength (and what your law firm should pay!) and experience-based advice driving your media strategy, is priceless.
The team should consist of media veterans who are en-trenched in strategy, negotiation, and management of very specific media channels. This intimate, hands-on back-ground provides a clear understanding and recommendation to a firm on how a media platform will drive qualified calls that convert to cases for the firm.
A strong media agency should have proof of their knowledge and skills in the form of earned certifications and premiere partner status from platforms like Facebook, Google, HubSpot, and many others. They should be trained on best practices and the latest offering from premium media vendors and the American Association Ad Agencies (4A’s), the ad agency industry’s national trade association. All told, the people should help clients win through an increase in calls and case volume, at a reduced cost.
Strategy
Arguably the biggest value the right media agency can provide is a strategy. That is, the basis for designing and implementing a media campaign rooted in research, insight, and experience to solve the law firm’s marketing challenges. For many campaigns, whether for law firms or retail brands, a strategy is the foundation of all decisions and initiatives. In the simplest terms, it addresses the Why.
Given the massive array of paid and earned media tactics a firm can employ in its marketing efforts, understanding the “why” is now more important than ever. Sure, you can run paid search or social media, maybe a TV campaign. However, in the absence of strategy, marketing and advertising is nothing more than wishful thinking or flipping a coin.
Strategy builds a case around challenges or opportunities, for the greater good of a firm. It reads between the lines of research, insight, and market dynamics (read: competitor spending and market demand). By extracting observations from these efforts, an understanding of how to excel in the market is formed, a “go-to market” directive evolves, and there is a crystal clear understanding of which media channels (online, offline, earned, promotional, experiential) are necessary to achieve success.
Strategy also lends itself to one of the most pressing marketing (and business) decisions a law firm can wrestle with today – whether to enter into a new market. At one point or another, the decision to move into the next DMA (designated market area) will surface. The right agency can provide tremendous insight and support around this decision through several avenues. 1) With access to research (see below) the right media agency brings critical information around the competitor landscape in a potential new market. 2) First-hand knowledge of media costs in the potential market, through their existing work for other clients in said market. 3) Insight and recommendations on how to enter that new market, based on entry into other markets throughout the US for similar law firms.
Tools
If you’ve been to a legal marketing conference, you’ve seen it – a collage of logos for fancy tools and systems that some will claim is how the magic happens. Yes, most agencies have and use all those tools, too. Are they important? Yes. Are they solely responsible for the performance? Not a chance.
What matters is that the agency has them, arming the team of media planners and buyers to make the smartest, most efficient recommendations for your media strategy and buys. Plus, the reporting tools empower crystal clear information on how your campaign is performing and build a path for attribution (not last touch) and which media tactics are performing the strongest, and at what cost per case.
Experience
Finally, the twist. A media agency packs all the value of the first three points, making them a worthy partner. The fourth point, experience, sets some agencies apart. The media strategy, media buying, and media mix a law firm needs to succeed are different from all other marketing categories. Even the what and how of measuring performance and costs are unique. Finding a team of people who are experts in All media channels and have the tools and experience necessary to grow cases is rare these days. So, when your firm is wrestling with which media team can help grow cases, pay special attention to their talent and experience in driving cases. ◆
