Law Firm Marketing & IT – When Worlds Collide

Have you ever had lunch with your IT Director? And, IT folks: What do you really think about the technology requests coming from your marketing people? Throw it on the pile and you’ll look into it? More than ever technology and marketing are in a sack race together. But the results are not always optimal.

As a digital marketing company whose deliverable is wrapped in technology, we often witness the Dance of the Marionettes as marketers and technologists steel themselves for the next engagement. And when that engagement is a high profile public website, the steeling may lose its subtlety. The happy ending everyone wants is at risk from the start.

This month IT guy from Ulmer & Berne, Sam Shipley, and Cole Valley Software CRM Maven, Jennifer Whittier, confronted this issue, “Succeeding with Technology: Marketing and IT Working Together”, in a joint presentation to the Chicago Chapter of LMA Midwest. It is a breath of fresh air to reveal this lurking project-killing gorilla when IT and Marketing are at loggerheads. Some good insights and good ideas blew my way and I’m spreading the gospel. Go forth.

Getting to Know You

While lunch is usually a common neutral ground for an IT/Marketing confrontation meeting, after you get past the family, the weather and the managing partner’s unique hair style, there may be a gaping void in the conversation. More constructively and effectively, strategies for breaking down the silos between your disciplines are the agenda. Get to work.

For Ulmer & Berne, bridging the disciplines took the form of an IT Vendor Forum – yep, a marketing event for the IT team which engaged firm members and core vendors together for an annual strategic and planning event. The success of the event aside (it was), it served to create an IT/Marketing community that facilitated future initiatives. And I bet there were plenty of lunches to plan this with no voids in the conversation.

Focus on the User – Together

Let’s get this out of the way: IT focuses on risk avoidance. Marketing explores new opportunities. The schism in mindset is wide and seemingly unbridgeable. Except both teams are engaged to serve their internal firm client. Therefore the task is to figure out how to do so in a way that satisfies the operational and performance requirement of each team. Not so easy, of course. But the presenters provided some examples that might help prime this stubborn pump.

Tech folks love new tech gadgets. Have you noticed that? And marketing folks are often gadget averse (OK, let me generalize for the point). Here’s an opportunity to use the technology together. Presenters suggested IT should let Marketing be early adopters. Tablets, phones, other devices. It’s a low risk test for IT who may want to get a strong handle on security issues and enables marketers to start spinning their wheels over applications and innovative uses.

Marketing should be givers too. The best technology is often the ones that go unnoticed. The Internet works, phones ring, printers function. IT successes are buried in their invisibility. Marketing can help IT market itself and its services internally. Tremendous upside here.

IT & Marketing Put it Together

When the focus is the firm and not the prospective burden of either risk (what IT fears) or obstacle creation (what Marketing confronts), good things can happen. Sam Shipley generously shared an example from his firm.

Seeking better ways to improve A/R collections, Ulmer & Berne was faced with having its attorneys call their accounts to PAY UP! This, of course, is not the most fun conversation and a message not necessarily delivered consistently by each attorney. I mean do you leave this as a voicemail or what?

Marketing and IT worked together to use the existing Cole Valley ContactEase client relationship management (CRM) system to integrate incoming calls with key client records from their time and billing system. Attorneys receiving calls were able to move beyond merely seeing who was calling to knowing specific factors regarding this client – like their outstanding balances and aging. The rest is obvious. Attorneys were easily able to integrate a comment about the balance due naturally and non-intrusively without being the bill collector. A/R improved. Marketing and IT shared credit. Bring on the next project.

(And think about it: When has your CRM system emerged beyond the status of Holiday Card list manager?)

All You Need Is Love

Not all stories are happy endings. Marketing and IT have to work this together. Mutual understanding and trust are surely core and often scarce ingredients. But the focus on a common objective is the driver. Do it for the kids.

Special thanks to Sam & Jennifer for sharing their experiences and making the trip to Chicago.