When we established Practice Proof over 10 years ago, we were essentially a design agency, taking care of online and offline marketing collateral. Since then, as both marketing and technology have matured and garnered broader attention and use in the legal industry, we work across a plethora of objectives. We demarcate these objectives into four categories, Branding for Law Firms, Design for Law Firms, Marketing for Law Firms and Technology for Law Firms.
Take for example what now is largely a typical law firm request for our help.
“ We want a new website, our brand has become antiquated, so we need help refreshing it and all collateral associated with it. We know we have to write content, but we have limited time, so we’ll need your lawyers to write for us…and we want to get you to do videos for us as well. By the way, we want to run Google Ads for a developing practice area, maybe some Facebook ads too, and we’ve heard about remarketing…so we want to do this as well. Incidentally, we’d also like to use your online booking platform for some of our lawyers too. And we need a CRM, or more specifically we want to track every interaction a potential client has with our online presence so we can consistently improve our marketing efforts. And, ROI, we want some really accurate reporting”
In this context, platforms like HubSpot are great at providing part of the solution. We use to be Hubspot partners, so we certainly did see and continue to see value in their product, but having been there and used a succession of platforms since, like Active Campaign, Agile, Zoho etc, we are now proudly Sharp Spring partners because in our experience it outcompetes the others and we’ve been able to customise it for law firms.
Should Our Law Firm Even Be Thinking About a CRM?
If you’re a firm of 8 lawyers and above, we see the benefit in your firm adopting this technology sooner rather than later! If you have fewer numbers but are on a keen growth trajectory, then you may see the value deploying now.
What Should We Do Before Deploying a CRM in Our Law Firm?
Ideally, your firm has a proactive marketing strategy in place that’s delivering results. Solutions like Hubspot, from a lead generation and nurture perspective come alive when you have what we call lead magnets littered throughout your website. For example, downloadable guides, webinars, videos etc that require an email address to view. This type of magnet will introduce the details of the lead into your solution of which at that point, you’re going to start seeing the benefit.
For more in-depth information on integration a CRM into your law firm download the Free CRMs for Law Firms Guide Here.
What’s the pain of disconnect?
Often a forgotten piece of the puzzle! Despite contractual obligations relating to the term of the agreement, the unplugging of this type of software isn’t easy, largely because its likely that you may have plenty of lead magnets, contact forms etc throughout your website that have been built within the framework of the software, not to mention automated follow up sequences following a lead entering into your marketing workflow. So, be aware, that once you integrate a platform like Hubspot, detangling your firm from it, despite assurances otherwise, isn’t without pain.
What’s the Cost of a CRM?
Some CRMs you can get on to at minimal monthly cost and they can scale according to actions, size of data and number of users. Usually, assume though that nothing comes for free and don’t let it be the reason that your law firm gets on-board, because once you invest time and effort, not to mention the integration of forms etc you’re going to be hanging around, which is painful if the product has reached its limitations or the price point that has been introduced because of your usage has spiked through the roof.
How Can You Help Our Law Firm?
We can assist your law firm in helping you understand the objective, the decision-making and the wider integration.
Download the Free CRMs for Law Firms Guide Here.
