Many of our customers in the legal industry have been asking for research to better understand how customer needs have changed over the past year and how product trends will shift over the next six months.
Research requests are focusing on a few key areas:
- Will our customers still love us? Several customers whose products did really well during the remote-work reality of the pandemic need to understand how the objectives of customers and prospects will change as we head back to offices, even part-time.
- Help us define key customer segments. With targeting even more important to marketers post-pandemic, we’ve seen a number of our customers looking for crucial data points to help define fast-changing trends in key segments of their businesses.
- Find data to make the case for a new product. New entrants to markets are even more interested in finding compelling data points to help them drive awareness and pull mindshare away from incumbents.
- I need to make a splash with data. With lots of market upheaval and change, there is a big appetite for vertical market data to make sense of it all. As a result, companies are looking for data to make news and get attention.
If any of these needs seem familiar, I’d welcome the opportunity to talk to you about how Law.com can tailor a custom research program to help guide and drive marketing programs as we move forward in the second half of the year. For more information on our custom research offerings, click here.
Trends Legal Industry Marketers Need to Know
- Corporate knowledge of legal tech is increasing. Corporate legal departments historically have only had a cursory interest in firms’ tech choices – just as long as the job gets done. But as firms are using technology as differentiators for themselves, in-house leaders have quickly gotten up to speed – and now have input. Legal ops directors are now not only evaluating what they want from firm-developed tech, but more strongly stating what they want in it. And sometimes, these opinions are at direct odds with firms. Even if corporate insourcing isn’t necessarily increasing, corporate legal influence and knowledge over purchasing decisions is only expected to increase.
- Being an effective change agent. How can legal department transformation and in-house leaders effectively implement change management? Gaining buy-in from internal stakeholders and avoiding potential pitfalls are key. Difficulty and resistance to change was spotlighted recently by Coca-Cola’s decision to sideline Gayton after implementing well-received diversity initiatives intending to make significant needle movement in the legal profession. This brings up a real need for a conversation around change management and how to be an effective change maker in your legal department and company.
- Back to in-person events/office decisions. As Biden promised to ramp up vaccinations for all adults by May in an attempt to bring back a semblance of normalcy, the push raised a slew of legal issues that employers must tackle. Among them: Can an employer require vaccinations? What happens to those who refuse to return to work or want a vaccination exemption? Can employers offer incentives to employees to get vaccinated and back to the office as soon as possible? Some companies are eager to welcome clients or the general public back to in-person events, but many are still unsure whether or not they can require attendees to be vaccinated.
