For a quick recap of Part I - 
Lawyers Suffer from a 7 Year Itch: Stop Scratching. Start Sniffing … - Modern Law Magazine

PART II

Reflecting on my first book The Naked Lawyer: How to Market, Brand and Sell YOU!, that is, its substance, content and advice, I was wrong. Well, sort of. Maybe I was right at that time, back in 2010 (which was ahead of its time). But the world has moved on you see. Even the science of algorithms has moved on, understandably. My own thinking on this subject has been influenced due to the passing of time and progress too, understandably.

It’s fair to say I purposely focused primarily in this book on the ‘soft’ marketing elements and only touched a teeny-weeny bit on the ‘hard’ Data Science / digital marketing, failing miserably to credit a major part of the book to it. Doofus. I missed a trick there. Anyhow, go check it out here if you’re curious btw – The Naked Lawyer 1 – because it’s still highly relevant today and certainly not too late as the present and the future is all about the AND, and not the OR; that is, the human relationship marketing alongside the Data Science marketing.

The reality is it takes time and may be relatively expensive

However, it comes as no shock to me therefore when I read, listen, talk and consult with many digital marketing experts, SEO specialists and ambitious lawyers, to learn that law firms are still not investing enough time or money on SEO and digital marketing. I know from my own experience when I used to wear my lawyer / BD / marketing hat many years ago as a trainee solicitor assisting the marketing manager in the law firm with online digital marketing including SEO and content marketing tricks.

The reality is it takes time and may be relatively expensive to get the Data Science (in relation to the digital marketing eco-system) right because it needs ’working’ over time. It’s going to take 8-10 days for 6 months and then a continued commitment thereafter around 4 days a month. BUT the reward speaks for itself. The potential to double your PEP, I suppose?

Why limit your window to the world? Instead of a lattice opt for the bay

So, if we take SEO / website performance as an example of where small steps can be taken towards embracing ‘the science’ and making incremental improvement over time, it would be a giant leap in reaching the 89% of people who begin their buying process with a search engine.[1] Btw more than 80% of potential clients start searching for solicitors online. I’ve always been an advocate for lawyers to rely on recommendations from friends, family, colleagues and existing clients etc BUT that 11% – 20% net is extremely limited, as you can see by the 89% and 80% statistics.

*Whiz-bang* *Whoosh* *Zing* *Splat*!!! The Naked Lawyer hurled a muse bomb which caught me full pelt on my forehead. OUCH! …

The old grey matter now stimulated like a neurograin working overtime in a brain-factory got me thinking … Hmmm … I guess this just points to how meaningful an impact a website underpinned and embedded with Data Science – as the first point of contact – could have.[2] … Hmmm … Why limit your window to the world? Instead of a lattice opt for the bay. With Data Science smarts you can reach those that wouldn’t know to recommend you. Why limit your digital marketing to a small market rather than the entire market? Data Science techniques, methods and processes will certainly help you niche micro to macro. 😉

The good news is that it’s not too late to start or to review one’s Data Science / digital marketing efforts. I know I will be!  Actually, I already have. I’m scratching that itch having sniffed out the right man to help me. I recently sat down to have a chat with Sam Borrett, one of the Tech Ambassadors on the Technology in Law Law Land board of Modern Law magazine who mentioned he offers a 1 hour consultancy service to advise on website performance (the Data Science behind it all) aka the things you need to fix to get it performing better and/or the strategy to get it to perform better. With Sam’s impressive track-record it was a no-brainer choice for me to spend a quality hour with him.

Sam identified half a dozen issues that needed to be resolved and sorted immediately

He did not disappoint. It was the best hour I invested in myself and my company since I can remember. It was a quick way to get golden nuggets of value on my website performance and to learn and understand more about the Data Science behind it all. Sam identified half a dozen issues that needed to be resolved and sorted immediately. I was surprised that even though I’d been using an agent on my website there were still many flaws that required rectifying.

I guess just having a different set of eyes brought a completely independent impartial view (looking at it critically); having that ‘sense checking’ with where I was at, was particularly helpful as I try to do a lot of the heavy-lifting myself wherever possible. I’m a Yorkshire lass, after all, and I don’t part with my hard-earned pennies easily. I was sooooooooo chuffed that Sam didn’t suggest I sign up to a retainer either. The fact that going forward I can simply book ad-hoc appointments at my convenience and have as many, or as few, sessions as I may need rang a huge bell.

As Eddy Merckx, a champion and legend in the cycling world once said: “Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” With my own Data Science journey, I’m going to nick Eddy’s mantra and replace ‘ride’ with ‘Data Science’. And THEN I’m going to pedal like a sewing machine!

My parting words of advice… If you’re a lawyer who suffers from the 7-year itch, before you scratch, start sniffing 😉.

By Chrissie Lightfoot – an Independent Non-Executive Director and Advisor, a global multi-award winning Legal Futurist, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Lawyer, AI LawTech Pioneer, Strategist, Marketeer, Brand builder, best-selling Author and Keynote Speaker. Founder and CEO of EntrepreneurLawyer Ltd.  Chief Tech Advisor and Writer to Modern Law (Chair of the ‘Technology in Law Law Land’ roundtable).

[1] https://www.vividfish.co.uk/blog/89-of-customers-begin-their-buying-process-with-a-search-engine-source-fleishman-hillard

[2] https://legmark.com/ top-200-law-firm-websites