Over 80 per cent of law CMOs to produce more content in 2017

More than 80 per cent of chief marketing officers at law enterprises are planning to produce more content in 2017, according to the latest State of Digital and Content Marketing Survey published by Greentarget and the Zeughauser Group. No respondents said that they will publish fewer articles, videos or other resources compared to last year.

Effective content creation and distribution is becoming a vital activity for law organisations as they attempt to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive legal and media landscape, and nearly half of the CMOs surveyed said that their content budgets have increased during the last 12 months to cater towards its renewed focus as a main business objective.

However, just a quarter of CMOs said that they now have a documented strategy, and while this is an improvement on the 13 per cent figure recorded in previous surveys, it still suggests that leaders in the law industry need to do more to embrace a strategic approach. A sizeable 45 per cent said that they are still using undocumented strategies, but these initiatives generally lack the sophistication and quality required for sustained, long-term success.

“The slight improvement in the documentation of content strategy is a positive sign,” Greentarget founding partner John Corey said. “But more law firms need to develop and document their own strategies if they hope to develop and optimally deliver robust content in support of their most important practices. In an era of information overload, strategy brings clarity, and the ultimate opportunity for firms is to bring the right content to the right audiences.”

“Information overland” has been identified as an issue for lawyers and professionals within the industry, who generally turn to LinkedIn rather than networks such as Facebook, as it is less populated with general content and more targeted to their needs. Seventy-three per cent of respondents said that they had used LinkedIn within the last week.

“We’re at an important inflection point when it comes to creating and distributing law firm content,” Zeughauser Group partner Mary K Young added. “Smart firms will embrace documented strategies, understanding doing the hard but important work of effectively distributing highly relevant content will pay off in the coming years.”