I’m not one for “manifesting things into the universe” or vision-boards and such. But writing these goals lists every year seems to help me stay on track and make things happen. And after 57% growth at LISI in 2020 and 62% growth in 2021, I’m thinking I might be onto something here.
Apparently this whole goal-setting thing really works wonders.
So, here I go again. 22 goals for ‘22. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into these. And I share my goals openly with you in the hopes that some might be inspired to do great things in 2022 too!
1. Make diversity, equity, and inclusion a priority as our agency looks to continue growth in 2022.
Not a digital marketing goal, but it is in first position on this list for a reason. As we look to continue growth in 2022 and beyond, we seek diverse experiences, talents, and backgrounds to fill out our ranks. It’s always at the forefront of my mind, as it should be yours.
2. Take written content to the next level.
LISI spent 2020 and 2021 creating, testing, and standardizing our process around content creation. Now, we publish multiple articles, presentations, videos, and resources a month, and repurpose everything across multiple channels.
Data tells us we’re doing the right work, but nothing felt better than when I asked a new client where he found us, his response was, “I read your article about outsourced legal marketing and I knew I’d finally found the agency that understood what I was looking for.”
We got a new client directly from the content we were producing.
SO! Now we’re doubling down on all the things, streamlining our production process, and investing strategy and resources in new-for-us and emerging platforms.
A word of warning: It can be overwhelming to feel like effectively using content to market your services means constantly churning out new articles. It doesn’t. Part of an effective content strategy is doing a really good job of repurposing existing content too.
3. And video too.
According to Cisco, by this year, 82% of all online traffic will be attributed to video. And – fun fact – landing pages with videos are 53x more likely to show up on the first page of search engine results!!
There are a lot of reasons video continues to lead the marketing game. First, it leads the way on social media, and as such has become the most common way people consume content. Want to know how to finish that DIY project? Check YouTube. Curious what the heck your 12-year-old is doing lip-syncing around your living room? Look no further than TikTok.
93% of marketers across all industries report that video is a core part of their content strategy.
As we continue with our written content efforts, we’ll be adding to the library of video content we create as well. Quick videos that explain key concepts. Livestreams. Virtual and hybrid programming. The possibilities are endless!
4. Conduct a survey.
I’m a data nerd, through and through. Give me a bunch of information to sift through and I’ll gladly dig in elbows deep. Part of the reason I love surveys so much is because they are so ripe with information; often information you weren’t expecting to see. So one of our goals this year is to execute an informational survey that helps legal marketers and law firms market their work effectively.
(If you have burning questions that you don’t have the time to answer, we’d love to hear from you!)
An aside: Undertaking surveys is something I wish more law firms would do. And don’t grab your pitchforks, legal marketing friends. I don’t mean another survey *response*. I mean having the firm’s research and information center put together a thoughtful, data-driven survey that could be useful to the firm’s clients and in turn, help generate client loyalty.
5. Segment contacts.
This goal will never not be on my list. We do our fair share of list segmentation, and that has been very useful in our marketing efforts. But it is not a set-it-and-forget-it exercise. New segments are created every year, beyond the basic service-line-specific ones we all have. Maybe it’s clients who are supported by less than five members of the team, or clients for whom we have proposed new service lines within the past six months. The possibilities are endless, and the data we could collect from marketing to specific segments of your list is worth its weight in gold.
6. Segment marketing messaging.
Once we’ve got that down, it’s time to marry segmentation with automation and create dynamic content that speaks to audiences who are seeking certain information, resources, or data. Delivering more of that content, especially to contacts who have opted-in to receive it, is incredibly powerful and important when it comes to marketing.
7. Make sure digital content is accessible.
It’s not enough to focus simply on an accessible website. All of our digital content needs to be accessible to people who are differently abled. This means burned in captions on all videos. Alt text that is more than simply “Jane Smith, Partner.” It means creating ways for screen readers and other accessibility devices to take in the information you are trying to convey and assist their users with consuming it.
There are lots of reasons to do this. Not the least of which is: It’s the right thing to do.
8. Improve domain authority (DA).
Domain Authority is a search engine ranking score that gives a measure of how successful a site is when it comes to search engine results. It is a score between 1 and 100, and according to Google it has no impact on search engine rankings. According to pretty much everyone else, it does, but the exact calculation and how it is determined by search engines, remains a mystery.
Another aside: You can read this whole post from Moz, but I’ll boil it down for you really simply: Increasing DA isn’t about increasing the number for its own sake. Your DA could be 7 or 77 and neither of those numbers mean anything without context. If your DA is 7 but all your competitors are 4, then that tells you something. Likewise, if your number is 77 but all your competitors are at 90, that tells you something too.
(Here’s a quick and free way to check the domain authority of any site.)
9. Map the client lifecycle.
A client lifecycle map guides the team through all the stages a client will experience when communicating and working with us. Understanding how a client engages with our agency before, during, and after engagement will influence the messaging we use at different points of the life cycle. We have added several new service lines in the past two years, so revisiting our client lifecycle map is a major priority this year.
10. Formalize an analytics program to maintain long-term success.
We have analytics galore. (See above re: data nerd.) And we do a lot with that information. But now we’re getting close to the point when we need to pull disparate systems and information together to get an even fuller picture of our marketing efforts and outcomes. We will be looking at tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Klipfolio, and other similar products to pull the mountains of information we’ve been gathering into a system that helps us become even more efficient and powerful at what we do.
11. Optimize website for voice search.
According to Google, about 20% of searches are done via voice search. This means people are using a voice-enabled device – their phone, Alexa, etc. – to access the internet and by extension the information they seek. The exciting thing about voice search for marketers is the opportunity to nail down personas and develop content that succinctly answers those queries.
According to Constant Contact, “For many of us, asking Siri has become more convenient than typing out a Google search. It can also return results faster and be more user-friendly for people who can’t type due to a disability.”
WAY easier said than done.
Voice search is inherently conversational, so the first step is taking a deep dive into the language used throughout our website, and make sure to optimize for the keywords people using when they search with their voices.
12. Embrace social media innovation.
This one shouldn’t be hard for us since we like to think of ourselves as a social media dream team. But pride comes before the fall, so this is another one I make sure to keep on my list year over year in one form or another.
This means critically looking at the demographics of our social media followers and those who engage with our content, and more importantly perhaps, knowing which platforms are up and coming and jump on the bandwagon. What’s the next Clubhouse, for example?
And it’s not just the platform itself, it’s keeping up with the innovations and algorithm enhancements that are constantly being developed.
13. Apply influencer marketing tactics in legal marketing.
Wikipedia’s definition of a social media influencer is “a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field.”
What’s so funny about this to me is how similar it is to seeking testimonials and positive reviews from satisfied clients. Yet, as far as I am aware, those plaudits are most commonly if not exclusively used in proposal opportunities, buried on the website, or in rankings submissions.
It’s time to let client satisfaction speak for itself!
A word of warning for law firm professionals considering adding this goal to their 2022 list: We all know it’s a bit of a sticky wicket in legal. Prohibited statements, testimonial solicitation, and confidentiality all need to be considered when investigating an effective influencer marketing strategy.
14. Go all-in on LinkedIn.
If you know me or follow me on LinkedIn, you know this is already a passion of mine. Being a content creator on LinkedIn has significantly increased my professional profile and nearly doubled my followers on the platform in the last year, not to mention led to over a dozen legitimate business opportunities for our agency.
The social network for professionals continues to grow, with roughly three-quarters of a billion users as of the writing of this article. The platform continues to launch new features and optimize opportunities for business professionals to network digitally.
Going all-in in 2022 will mean consistent livestreams, in-platform hosted events, native video, and other content, and leveraging this powerful tool even more to grow awareness and create meaningful connections.
15. Lean into creating an “Omnipresent Digital Presence.”
Having an omnipresent digital presence means being present across all the appropriate channels for our brand, consistently. This requires diligent strategic planning, consistent content production, and coordinated efforts across each platform. In the unlikely event you skipped straight to this goal and missed everything I’ve said so far, in a nutshell this means giving the audience what they want, how they want it, when they want it, where they want it.
16. Launch a podcast.
I’ll admit it. I’m not always an early adopter. As it relates to podcasts, I am what you could call a very late adopter, only really digging into the endless options in 2021. And now I am hooked.
I listen to them all day long. In between meetings while I work. Walking the dog. Shopping at the grocery store. Running errands. While I eat lunch. I’m so visually oversaturated, I like giving my eyes a rest and letting my ears do all the work.
After being reluctant for so long, I’m looking forward to LISI’s forthcoming podcast and seeing what comes out of this new medium for our agency!
17. Formalize client feedback initiatives.
The time has come. We are rolling out a new HRIS this year, and with that comes an exciting opportunity to seek mid-project, and post-project reviews from clients. I think we’ve done a good job wearing our hearts on our sleeves and asking the hard questions when possible, but now we need to standardize our process and make it a habit.
18. Explore the utility of micro education via social media.
We all know that short, one to three-minute videos are the best for capturing attention, especially on social platforms. And we’ve done our fair share of these over the past year. We’re looking to double down on this and develop content optimized for IG Reels, TikTok, and the like, that still holds true to our brand promise and educates our audience in the process.
19. Seek ways to achieve “position zero” on search engine results pages.
I learned a new term last year: position zero. This means being found in featured snippets and “people also ask” section on search engine results pages, an enviable position to be in since users get the information they’re looking for right there. Can you imagine what this means for brand authority if your content answers a question so well, Google features it front and center?
20. Elevate client experience to a level unmatched in the industry.
Client experience isn’t just something for a specific point in time. It means being present at every step of the client journey. (See my goal re: client journey mapping above.)
Let’s boil it down: It’s harder to attract new clients than it is to keep existing ones. But existing clients won’t stay just because they liked you at one point.
I can’t tell you what we’re planning here, but trust me…it’s amazing.
21. Rethink our multi-generational marketing strategy.
I’m tired of hearing about Millennials. Not because Millennials are “the worst.” (NOT MY WORDS! )
But because there’s more to it than what Millennials want. Or what Gen Z wants.
There are currently five generations in the workforce. And that means five different generations with five different sets of unique characteristics for how they prefer to receive and consume information. Such a diverse audience can make content marketing challenging, but it also creates opportunities for reaching different segments through personalization.
22. Create an upskill framework for the team to grow and expand our digital marketing skills.
If you’ve seen me on LinkedIn, you know I’m a big fan of my team at LISI. (Understatement of the year, I know.) One of the things that makes this team so great is that everyone is always excited to learn new things and expand their skills. So my own personal leadership goal for this year is to create a standard framework for identifying and sharing opportunities for that growth. Digital marketing is always evolving and there is always something new to learn, and making it a priority to seize that knowledge is top of my list.
