building relationships through the web
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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
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?