Building Relationships through the Web

Building Relationships on the WebKalev PeeknaWeb Strategy Manager

History of Legal Websites

So there’s this thing called the World Wide Webs….

It starts in the 1990s

Can we get it in cornflower

blue?

Can that guy get me a web?

Where does the floppy go?

Let’s put a small ‘i’ in front. No, wait, a

small ‘e’!

We should call ourselves Cyberfirm

Look! I can make the text

flash!

“Under Construction”

Total Chaos

Marketing & IT quickly step in

1996 1998

By 2000

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Introduction of CMS driven sites, including Hubbard One’s dedicated legal platform.

The Web meets Data

Web Content

Home

People Firm News

About

2000-2004: Extending the data platform

Home

People Firm News

About

Web Content

Mini-sites

PitchesExtranets

Intranets

Data provides value

Data-driven web sites provided huge advantages that are simply assumed today:

• Immediate updates

• Content editing by non-technical resources

• Information re-use and re-deployment

• Integration into the law firm data ecosystem

By 2005

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Web technology advances to

include new forms of content,

distribution, and access

• Video• Audio• Images

Rich Content

• Blogs• RSS• YouTube

Distribution

• Commenting• Bookmarking• Folksonomy & Tagging

Collaboration

• AJAX• Search• Flash, Silverlight

Interaction

Web 2.0 was hard to define because it wasn’t really one thing.

At its heart, Web 2.0 was a constellation of technologies that extended data and how it is presented. More importantly, Web 2.0 made data actionable.

Web 2.0

Data Technology Engagement

Thanks to “Web 2.0” technologies, we can now do more than just consume information on the internet. We can now do things with the information we discover.

2008

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Recession

The BD Turn

Technology investment became not only more controlled during the recession, but also took a new direction. Organizations of all types quickly realized that survival meant shifting effort to problems of revenue retention and current client development.

Within professional services, the disciplines of Business Development (already trending strongly) received new emphasis.

Business Development• CRM• ERM• RFP / Pitching• Mergers & Lateral

acquisition

Marketing Communications• Websites• Brand development• PR

So what’s next?

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Data Technology ?Chaos

People.

The Internet is made of People.

Connecting with People

What people?

Anonymity is woven into the fabric of the internet.

Technically, it’s one of the very reasons the Internet works so well. Tracking only information, and not who requests it, adds simplicity and robustness.

Lifting the veil of anonymity

Influenced by the perspective of Business Development, firms are looking for new and better ways to ensure a connection with site visitors.

Fundamentally, this means breaking the veil of anonymity and reaching out to establish a relationship with the visitor.

PersonalizationWeb

Establishing a relationship

Learning

Responding

Ongoing Value

Building a relationship on a website requires attention to key activities and communication. To be successful, these activities must be bi-directional.

Web

Traditional challenges to breaking anonymity

Participation Creepiness factor

Technical complexity Legal barriers

New investments in Web

Which applications do you plan to integrate with your Web content-management system?

Analytics

CRM

Digital Asset Management

Social Networking

Email Marketing

29%

26%

14%

8%

8%

22%

12%

17%

15%

13%

11%

12%

13%

17%

18%

1st Priority 2nd Priority 3rd Priority

Source: Forrester, Web Content Management for Online Customer Experience, Q3 2011

New investments in Web

Which of the following does your organization deploy, or plan to deploy in the next 12 months?

Customization

Localization

User profiles

Email Marketing

Social Networking

Analytics Integration

User-generated

Content Targeting

Web 2.0

Video

Mobile

19%

30%

18%

36%

21%

21%

28%

15%

40%

49%

22%

33%

23%

39%

23%

39%

40%

33%

47%

25%

24%

54%

Currently Deploy Next 12 months

Source: Forrester, Web Content Management for Online Customer Experience, Q3 2011

Naming the trend

Forrester Customer Experience Management: “the management and delivery of dynamic, targeted, consistent content… and interactions” – July 2011

Gartner Group Context Aware Computing: “The concept of leveraging information about the end user to improve the quality of interaction… [Application of] personalization, web analytics, and recommendations… allows interactions to be richer and more relevant.” – September 2010

Database Marketing Institute

Customer Relationship Marketing: “CRM is active. The Web is passive. How can you combine the two?” – July 2011

The Guardian “If web 2.0 could be summarised as interaction, web 3.0 must be about recommendation and personalisation” – February 2008

Examples: The usual suspects

Accenture

Accenture’s login doesn’t get you access to more content – all content is public – but it does get you personalized recommendations and alerts.

Accenture

The profile page is simple and uncomplicated. It’s not positioned as a way to gather information about you – avoiding the creepiness factor. Instead is presented as a way to help refine the recommendation tools.

AccentureRecommendations are offered as soon as your profile is complete.

They are refined as your activity reveals more of your interests.

Accenture

In addition to recommendations, registration gets you access to key tools that improve the usability of the site.

IBM

IBM is engaged in a long-term transition away from a business based on hardware and B2C transactions, towards a software and business services firm for the B2B market.

Personalization is a key enhancement available as part of this transition.

IBM

Registration is kept as simple as possible. Like Accenture, IBM avoids the creepiness factor by not asking for any information beyond what is needed to drive recommendations and alerts.

IBM

Once registered, you get access to the entire “MyIBM” section, including:InterestsCommunity forumsTargeted supportSubscriptions

Web CRM Relationships

No matter what you call it, building a relationship with your site visitors means:

• Looking at your site from the perspective of Business Development

• Adding personalization tools to provide more targeted and relevant content

• Bringing together your CRM and communications strategies

Why Personalization for Law Firms?

Legal Business Acquisition Process

Despite continued efforts, most website communications focus on the last part of the acquisition process. At this point, it’s often too late. Taking a BD focus helps your firm:

• Connect with clients earlier in the process.

• Build a relationship over multiple points of contact.

• Coordinate off-site BD activities with your site communications.

Problem

Investigation

Framing Response

Procurement

Rethinking the role of your site

Marketing Communications Tools

• Website• Blogs• Print Collateral• Social Media• Email Marketing• Events

Business DevelopmentTools

• CRM• ERM• Competitive Intelligence• Pitch Automation• Matter / Experience

Management

Personalization extends your CRM to the Web

Web

CRM

ERM

Pitching

Matter Management

Blogs

Social Media

Events

Print

Mutual Benefits from Personalization

Clients• Avoiding “big data”• Speed to information• Increased relevance• Enhanced usability• Validation of firm

relationship

Firm• Increased engagement• Deeper relationships• Connecting marketing

and business development efforts

• Immediate, actionable information

Scenarios

The Challenge

• Extend the Hubbard + Wells site by adding new personalization and CRM/ERM features

• Enhance, but don’t disrupt the existing site design or information architecture

• Design modular features that can be implemented independently or part of a larger project

Personalization Scenarios

Identification

Registration

Profiling

Acknowledging

Responding

Connecting People

Recommendations

Tools

Measuring

Qualifying Visits

Tracking Activity

Analyzing Relationships

Passive Identification– IP scanning

– History tracking

Active Identification– Login / Register

Identification Options

• Difficult• Imprecise• “Creepy”• Increasingly illegal

• Accurate• More common and

accepted• “Opt-in” nature avoids

regulatory challenges

Registration is a transaction

The key to ensuring participation is recognizing that Anonymity has value. In return for surrendering their anonymity, visitors expect something of value in return. Your registration process should be thought of as a transaction.

Functional ValueAnonymity

Identification: Registration Offer

Identification Step 1: Signing Up

Keep your signup as simple as possible. Only collect information that is needed, especially on the first screen.

Identification Step 2: Profile

Avoid the feeling that you are mining for personal data. Focus the profile on their interests, not on their identities.

Identification Step 3: Acknowledging

Acknowledging a visitor is the critical first step to building a relationship.

Offered tools and information are presented clearly, consistently, and globally.

Responding: Connecting with People

By integrating with an ERM solution or a social network like LinkedIn, you can easily show visitors their top contacts.

For existing clients, it adds usability. For prospective clients, it demonstrates that you already have a relationship.

Responding: Recommendations

Sophisticated recommendation engines can pull information based on visitor history and activity on the site. If a site has a built-in taxonomy (or system of content categorization) then you can make recommendations based on simpler connections. Thankfully, almost all law firms categorize content based on:

Practices and

Industries

Regions or Offices People Content type

Responding: Recommendations Landing Page

Recommendations are another kind of navigation tool on your site. Like menus or search, the job of recommendations is to get let your clients take the easier path to new information.

A consolidated Recommendations page can be part of the profile, or even integrated into the site search.

Responding: Recommendations In-Page

When embedded in a page, recommendations build “narrative navigation” by allowing clients to explore a topic link by link.

Responding: Recent Searches & Recommendations

Options include:SynonymsBest BetsRecent SearchesRecommendations

Responding: Streamlined registrations

Most sites inflict a lengthy and cumbersome registration process on site visitors. Usually, visitors must complete long forms every time they register.

With personalization, you can greatly improve the subscription process for:

• Events

• Publications

Responding: Tracking Events

Returning visitors can easily reference or revise their existing registrations

Responding: Custom RSS

A custom RSS tool sustains the flow of content (and the relationship) after the visitor leaves the site.

Responding: Binder / Saved Pages

Personalization increases the usability of the binder, and makes it easier to track usage.

We could go further

Once you know who is on the other side of your website, the opportunities to connect are almost endless. Some recent ideas include:

• Extending ERM/CRM to mobile presence

• Simplified sharing for preferred social networks

• Commenting & recommendation tools

• Single access point & login for multiple web presences:– Main website

– Client extranet

– Mini-site / Blogs

– Alumni site

• Feeding recommended content to extranets, blogs, and mini-sites.

Measuring: Tracking Activity

61%13%

17%

2% 8%

Visits

Non-registered

Current Clients

Prospectives

Alumni

Firm

In the anonymous web, traffic information has significant limits. We know how many people are coming to a page, but we don’t know who they are or what they are doing.

With a website that has integrated personalization and CRM features, you can finally make connections between visits and people.

Measuring: Tracking in CRM

Personalization allows you to incorporate site activity into your CRM platform.

Measuring: ERM

The potential exists for feeding site behavior into ERM as well. In addition to activities like email, telephone, and billing, ERMS systems could measure relationships according to:Site visitsRegistrationsEvents

Measuring

How do you measure the success of an event?

Attendance

ERM / Email Follow-up

Site Visits(Attendees vs Public)

Materials Download(Attendees vs Public)

Video Views(Attendees vs Public)

Subscriptions(Attendees vs Public)

Getting back to Data

Data

TechnologyPeople

QUESTIONS?