Blogs

Recent conversations on social media lead me to believe that some marketers, like attorneys, wrongly see it as another channel for ad hoc campaigns rather than a means to listen, build trust and establish relationships with real people online.

Some firms’ initial attempts at using social media have been similar in approach to their email marketing and client alerts — simply ‘batching n blasting’ content to new and existing contacts, only this time via the latest convenient channel.
 
There are many consultants who can educate attorneys and accountants on the virtues of social media and the correct approach of listening and engaging one-to-one with a real person. My friend Adrian Dayton is one of the best. See his recent blog post titled ’How to motivate attorneys to become bloggers’, a great case study of theories put to practice.

This correct approach of listening, commitment and one-to-one engagement regarding social media needs to be applied to more traditional channels too. Email marketing and client alerts have long been abused and so too have subscribers. Many have been subjected to un-targeted content with no personalization or valued insight from professionals.

Some firms are doing it right, just like Bull Housser & Tupper in Vancouver, British Columbia.
According to Lynn Foley, Director of Marketing & Business Development…

“We manage our lists very closely. Some attorneys send alerts to thousands of people - one of our lists has just 72 people on it (like an attorney’s twitter profile). We make sure to always send the alert to the correct list. Then we look at open rates. Industry standards are about a 21-22 percent open rate, and we are at 35 percent. If our open rate is high enough, we put on a seminar about it.”

There are no silver bullets. Marketers and professionals need to listen to conversations taking place online and try to spark real relationships by adding value. The same approach can be taken to client alerts and other email communications.

Analytics derived from deep email tracking represent a conversation between the professional and their client. According to his latest post, Kevin O’Keefe ‘Real Lawyers have Blogs’ states lawyers and law firms ought to first focus on what is being said, as opposed to saying something.  Monitoring a recipient’s engagement with content in an email is the same as listening to the other half of a conversation.