Lewis Silkin implemented a digital transformation strategy with Reading Room to improve their online presence and digital marketing efforts. This included developing a new website on Sitecore that provides personalized, engaging content across multiple devices and platforms. They also focused on building relationships through social media, blogs, newsletters and other coordinated communications channels. Key goals were supporting new business, growing their reputation, and facilitating client relationships. They have begun measuring success through analytics, social media tracking, and CRM data, which show improvements in engagement and time on site. While more progress is still needed, they have moved closer to "digital nirvana" compared to their prior online approach.

1. Legal Nirvana
Sam Booth – Reading Room
Mark Grant – Lewis Silkin

2. Digital success in the B2B marketplace is
notoriously hard to track

3. Professional services companies offer an
even bigger challenge

4. Crowded market place

5. Confusion

6. Lack of differentiation

7. Success is hard to quantify…

8. And even harder to track

9. Management are focused on core
business activity

10. Often not seeing the value in digital
activity

11. Reading Room and Lewis Silkin set work
out what success would like

12. and have started on a journey to achieve
success (or as close to Nirvana as we can
get)

13. Who are Lewis Silkin?
• Commercial firm – with real specialisms
• 5 years in the ‘Sunday times Top 100
Companies to Work for’ Listing
• Established in 1952; 60 partners and over 300
staff, with offices at Clifford’s
Inn, London, Oxford and Cardiff
• Member of two global Alliances

14. Who are Lewis Silkin?
• Main specialisms in employment, brand
management and real estate and regeneration
• A ‘rather more human law firm’
• Strong brand (pre 2012 – offline stronger than
online)

15. What was the situation?
• Public facing website built on Sharepoint in
addition to intranet and extranet.
• Whilst the website held the brand to a certain
extent it was flat, cold and not dynamic;
difficult to update
• Outside of the website the digital presence
was poor
• The competition were gaining ground
• Clients in the sector were asking......

16. The business challenge was clear
• Develop a digital strategy that brings on line
presence up to speed with off line
• Demonstrate value add
• Do it quickly

17. What could be achieved?
• Promoting the brand
• Supporting new business activity
• Growing the profile of teams and individuals
• Servicing / growing existing client accounts
• Recruitment (trainee and ‘laterals’)
• Protecting reputation

18. Transformation not redevelopment
From a text based website

19. Transformation not redevelopment
To engaging media, interactivity &
engagement

20. Transformation not redevelopment
From desktop access

21. Transformation not redevelopment
To multi-device, multi-platform

22. Transformation not redevelopment
From one-size fits all content

23. Transformation not redevelopment
To content that adapts

24. Transformation not redevelopment
From anonymity and equality of service

25. Transformation not redevelopment
To personalised adaptive messaging

26. Transformation not redevelopment
From another face in the crowd

27. Transformation not redevelopment
To being a rather more human law firm

28. Transformation not redevelopment
From waiting for people to arrive

29. Transformation not redevelopment
To motivating people and reaching out to
people wherever they are

30. So what did we do?
We developed a digital transformation
strategy with Lewis Silkin

31. Digital Strategy:
Legal sector founded on ‘traditional’ service principles
• Credibility, expertise and personal connections
• These principles are mirrored in the way digital works
Focus on Reputations & Relationships
• Pro-active participation and engagement
• Multiple co-ordinated channels to maximise impact
benefit
• Listening and monitoring against success metrics

32. Co-ordinated Communications
An effective digital
Strategy will require
the co-ordination of a
number of channels social
blog
website

33. Co-ordinated Communications
Essential elements of the digital communications mix:
• Company, people, expertise (Website)
• Approach, thinking, personality (Blog)
• Relationship building, personalised content (Newsletter)
• Communities centred on service areas (Linkedin / Twitter)
• Content repositories, supports SEO (Slideshare / Youtube)

34. Building Relationships
• Digital requires a conversational approach
• CRM is not just about technology
• Requires a holistic change in approach
• Social dialogue is key to building relationships
• Offer multiple channels for clients to connect
• Talk to clients in the way that suits them
• Tailor communications to the platform

35. Building Relationships
• Sitecore allows us to personalise the
content and target different client
sectors.
• Media want a different updates, news
and social content compared to the
social housing clients.

36. What did we do?
• We used Sitcore to deliver a corporate site and
blog, incorporating social media content and surfacing the
latest personalised content.
• We are now in phase two considering tying in the Sitecore
email marketing capability to utilise that capability and
provide further tailored experiences

37. Measurement: Objectives / KPIs
We needed to agree clear objectives & measurable KPIs
• Support new business
– lead generation (email enquiries, dedicated phone number)
• Grow reputation / influence
– attendance at events, social mentions, search ranking
– email signups, social follows, Linkedin group members
• Facilitate client relationships
– regularity of interaction (all channels)
– engagement (clicked link in email, posted comment, attended event)
– Source of traffic (email, blog, tweet, linked in group)

38. Measurement: Monitoring
We also need a means of monitoring them
• Web analytics
– track interactions as well as page views
– report on sources of traffic and segment
– user journey monitoring & goal tracking
• Email tracking: opens, clicks, social shares
• Social Tracking: track reach of social activity
• Conversation Monitoring: track social mentions
• CRM: capture individual interactions with clients

39. Changing internal behaviour
We built “the journal”, to encourage the
profession to engage, comment, debate and
argue… something lawyers are very good at.
We ran a social media “road show” explaining
the basics of twitter, linked in and blogging and
took it around the business

40. Governance: Management
• Teams and individual staff need to own their content
– Responsible for accuracy and timeliness
– Proud of it – would happily recommend
– Easy to author and maintain
• Social media champions
– People follow individuals more than organisations / teams
– Need key staff to become social champions, volunteers not forced labour
– Need ground rules / acceptable use policy; a framework for creativity
– Workflow would stifle totally – must be based on trust

41. The path to enlightenment
Analytics show real
improvements.
Engagement is up with
bounce rates reducing
from over 60% to 25%
Spending longer on site
engaging with more
content

42. The path to enlightenment
Mobile usage on the site
has increased massively –
vindicating the mobile first
approach
People are engaging on
mobile devices not just
bouncing

43. The path to enlightenment
A couple of anecdotal examples of how
the strategy has been realised

44. Have we reached Nirvana?
• Much closer than before………
• Other firms adopting Sitecore so need to stay
ahead!
• Real engagement from the business
• More to do – marathon not a sprint

45. Thank you
Questions?