Extremes are the enemies of effectiveness when it comes to tracking marketing data. Looking at metrics without any consistency can present a distorted picture that leaves marketing efforts vulnerable to decisions based on data that, while technically correct, suffers the influence of a flawed perspective. Consistency over time provides insight and overcomes micro-thinking.
A larger question: is this something that the law firm managing partner should be doing, or can it be assigned? If you have tasked someone on the team to devote some billable time to marketing, they should be presenting you with regular updates of the overall activity. A monthly basis is fine if your marketing tools are in order and humming along.
If, however, there are still some bumps and bits being fixed in your marketing machine, you may want to consider devoting your own time to making sure things are working, until the system is up to speed. That may call for more frequent reports, perhaps weekly.
Measure every aspect of the marketing process. That means everything from website visits to phone calls from the web to referrals from other professionals. How many times a week did you post a blog, add to a social media page or sponsor a community event? In other words, measure everything.
What are you measuring? If you have the E2 CRM, you have access to a wealth of information about contacts, prospects and conversions. You know what sources are working, and where people are becoming clients or, equally importantly, when they are not.
Simple but essential—appointments. What does the firm’s calendar look like? If there are too many blank spaces, you have a problem that requires more than someone looking into Google Analytics.
Website traffic and page views. This matters for SEO and conversion data. Look at year-over-year numbers to get a sense of whether your firm is keeping up or losing ground to competitors. Does your practice have any kind of seasonality to it? Or is there a time of the month when people call you—possibly after certain banking transactions take place? Don’t get too granular, or you risk getting lost in a too-small worldview.
Are you prepared to respond? Having the data is one thing; doing something with it is another. If your team reveals a significant shift in website traffic one month, and then a second month is even worse, what’s the action plan? Don’t expect change to occur without making changes. Is it time to update your website, or add lawyer videos?