Modern marketing

Eclipse Legal Systems spoke to Modern Law Magazine about whether law firms are utilising a large enough variety of marketing techniques to promote their practices. 

In the ever-changing legal landscape, law firms need to be quick to adapt and to adopt a holistic approach to marketing campaigns. The client journey often begins online, and the last few years have seen clients become much savvier when selecting and buying legal services. As a result, the number of practices with an in-house marketing team is on the rise; however budgets are still somewhat conservative.

Although law firms are slightly more restricted working within a regulated industry, there are a few key concepts that need to be implemented and executed more efficiently.

Social media  

Most firms are participating in one way or another, and some have developed sophisticated strategies to ensure they truly engage with both prospects and clients. However the fact remains that most are only using it as a one-way channel to distribute content.  

Additionally, law firms need to step away from focusing on conversion in a traditional sense - i.e. turning a prospect into a client. Generally speaking, conversion can be defined as persuading a potential client to interact with an aspect of the website, and as such, there are now softer objectives, such as subscribing to a newsletter or attending an event. 

Responsive websites  

2015 saw Google release an algorithm update to penalise non-responsive sites, with the aim to phase them out of the top search results pages.  

As mobile-only internet is becoming increasingly common, law firms need to ensure websites are optimised and that content can be easily downloaded on a mobile device, yet many firms are still only in the planning stage of this process. 

Multi-channel marketing  

The overall experience across all platforms needs to reflect the service on offer and business branding.  

As part of this, multi-channel marketing is crucial for law firms with regards to image and interfacing with clients - but consistency is key, and this is hugely underestimated within the legal sector. For example, a lot of firms have a beautiful offices in a prime location, yet a poorly designed website and an inconsistent brand message. 

ROI  

A recurring theme among the legal sector is difficulty in measuring the success of a marketing strategy,  

Firms are often collecting the data but they don't take it any further. It's crucial to analyse and act upon those results to derive meaningful business insights and a thorough analysis of a marketing campaign is invaluable in enabling firms to develop better methods of client and prospect engagement. 

Currently, many law firms are missing these key opportunities to expand and develop practices.

Archers Law rolls out Eclipse's Proclaim Practice Management Software solution firm-wide

Archers Law, an established Teesside based firm, has selected the Proclaim Practice Management Software solution in a 6-figure investment with Eclipse Legal Systems, the sole Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

With longstanding roots in the regional area, Archers Law has grown from humble beginnings on the high street to a modern law firm with a 60 strong team. Providing a full range of services to private clients and business organisations, the practice continues to build upon its foundations to offer a responsive, empathetic and reliable service, ensuring clients receive the highest standards in legal advice.

Archers Law has chosen to implement the Proclaim Practice Management Software solution across the firm including case management modules for Conveyancing, Debt Recovery and Probate. The system will serve to provide legal teams with a consistent approach to matter management, whilst the integrated financial platform will enable a seamless approach to billing and overall practice management.

To further enhance client service, Archers Law will implement a number of Eclipse's additional systems and integrations. The lead management system will provide true end-to-end management of all incoming enquiries, and will incorporate the online document delivery and acceptance tool, SecureDocs - serving to streamline all client inception procedures. Following instruction, Archers Law will use FileView as a further option to keep clients and referrers informed, enabling staff to securely display case information on the firm's website, therefore reducing the number of 'update' calls received.

Additionally, Proclaim's integration with the LRBG will allow conveyancing fee earners to access Land Registry services directly from the system, whilst the integration with BigHand will expand the functionality of Proclaim and enhance the current digital dictation solution, including speech recgonition, which the firm already uses.

Vicky Browning (pictured), Practice Director at Archers Law, comments:

"Whilst our current technology is already in advance of some other local firms, we saw an opportunity when developing our business plan to invest further in our IT infrastructure, impacting specifically on enhanced client service and improved internal working practices.

"Our primary goal is to have a system that will expand with our commercial objectives and move us towards a paper-light environment internally. After a thorough selection process, it became clear that Eclipse's Proclaim system will deliver on all accounts, providing us with unrivalled intelligence, detailed reporting, and most importantly, a centralised and consistent solution."

Brown Turner Ross builds upon existing reputation of excellence within Eclipse's Proclaim Practice Management Software solution

Brown Turner Ross, a longstanding law firm in the North West, is implementing the Proclaim Practice Management Software solution from Eclipse Legal Systems, the sole Law Society Endorsed legal software provider.

With offices in Southport, Liverpool and Birkenhead, Brown Turner Ross has been delivering a comprehensive range of legal services across England and Wales for 130 years. The experienced and expert team of solicitors offers a first class service to both private and business clients, and aims to build lasting relationships to ensure Brown Turner Ross is always the law firm of choice.

Eclipse will implement its Proclaim Case Management system throughout the offices and across a number of departments - including Conveyancing, Probate, Personal Injury and Family - serving to streamline efficiencies and standardise working practices. As part of the project, Eclipse will conduct a full accounts conversion from Brown Turner Ross' incumbent system, providing a seamlessly integrated and centralised Proclaim Practice Management Software solution.

Samantha Bushell (pictured), Director at Brown Turner Ross, comments:

"We needed our core practice management system to be as efficient as possible and it was clear to us from the outset that Eclipse offered the best solution, enabling us to build upon our existing reputation of excellence."

To further enhance client inception procedures, Brown Turner Ross will use Eclipse's lead management system, and will benefit from comprehensive management of all incoming enquiries. Staff will be able to nurture on-going prospect relationships, target them with relevant marketing materials - such as event invitations - and when the time is right create a live client file to include all pre-existing data, providing a truly personalised client service experience. To further streamline the inception process and ensure compliance, Eclipse's integration with an ID/AML checking service will allow fee earners to request 'one-click' ID checks directly from Proclaim, with search results returned to the relevant files.

Samantha continues:

"Using Proclaim to streamline the administrative tasks that are often associated with client inception processes will allow us to further perfect our clients' journey, and free up our time to do what we do best - provide the highest quality service and advice."