It’s no accident that this column so regularly delves into the world of digital. After all, the corporate website often acts as a reasonably accurate shop-window of everything a firm does and everything it has to say about itself. But how long is that going to be the case? We’re starting to see firms build websites with the user experience at the top of the agenda. Sites that wrap themselves around a simple proposition – “what do you want from us?”. It’s a giant leap is a profession that’s still playing catch-up against rival professional services marketing methodologies. But is it sustainable?
The problem with classic law firm websites is that they’re is still too compartmentalised and rigid. The experience is still overly pre-defined, all site-map and no trousers. It’s easier to get a website off the ground when the project is driven by classification and segmentation. Get your matrix of sector and service lines nailed, knock together your know-how, list your people and where you can find them and there you have it. CR and careers usually get a little place at the back, maybe with something ‘a bit cool’ for the grads. Nobody ever won the art prize for painting-by-numbers, however colourful the canvas turned out.
Enter, a different way of looking at things. Some people are heralding “The end of the website (as we know it)”. How the future’s ‘all spokes and no hub’. I’ve seen a marketing piece sum it up as “The Splinternet”. Zeitgeist aside, it’s not just about getting everyone to start taking social media a bit more seriously (don’t talk to ME about social, our Managing Partner tweets on weekends and EVERYTHING). It’s coming to terms with a broader affirmation that all of the meaningful conversations about your organisation are happening outside of your website. When I say meaningful, I’m talking about your employer reputation. Your clients’ feedback. Their commercial issues. And why your competitors might be a better choice.
There’s only one way you should be looking at your digital marketing strategy this year. And that’s to take the real action to where your clients are. Become an essential part of their communities. Build and develop engagements that merge a unique service with must-have content and genuine utility for your them. Understand that, in a world of open platforms and API, it’s not about ownership anymore, it’s about energised participation.
Our advice? Think beyond a fixed destination voiced by a monologue. Be part of an ecosystem. Forge those dialogues. And start building experiences, not websites.
P.S. A great map for all those conversation platforms you could engage with lives here. Get involved!
