ESADE Law School launches the first digital marketing course for lawyers
In autumn 2015, ESADE Law School will launch #inDIGITAL Law, the first course designed to help lawyers become more competitive in the legal industry by enabling them adapt to the evolving digital environment and arming them with the necessary knowledge to understand business tools that can improve their brand positioning.
#inDIGITAL Law responds to a new market need: digital lawyers. This new type of professional understands and applies sales and knowledge techniques via the web, while also interacting with customers and finding and sharing new information online. Julio Villalobos, digital marketing lecturer at ESADE and co-director of the course, commented: “Knowing and understanding the digital world is part of the transversal training that lawyers need in order to understand the new business opportunities offered by the digital world.
Lawyers need not become experts in the digital world, but they should understand the trends that shape it and know what questions to ask their IT suppliers. They should therefore be familiar with pay-per-click search engine marketing (SEM) tools such as Google AdWords, as well as search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques for ensuring that search engines can index and interpret a website’s content, thereby naturally improving the site’s position in search results.
Virtual law firms
Offline word-of-mouth recommendation has become an important factor in the legal industry. There is no better marketing tool than a recommendation from a satisfied customer, but recommendations of this sort can reach a wider audience on the Internet.
The legal industry, however, has taken things one step further: virtual law firms. These online companies have no physical offices, and their lawyers work from home or at other workplaces. Despite the upheaval in today’s legal industry, the digital world is opening up a wide range of possibilities that can be converted into opportunities.
New business opportunities
Eugenia Navarro, legal marketing expert at ESADE and co-director of #inDIGITAL Law, commented: “Changes in the legal industry have been disruptive. In order to adapt, the legal profession has evolved to create a new, more complete profile that includes transversal skills and competencies that go beyond technical knowledge of the law. Business development, for example, is essential to career advancement, whether you work for a firm or run your own business, however small.
Ms. Navarro added: “It’s tempting to think that the legal profession has nothing to do with the digital world, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, to be a legal professional, you have to understand where you stand in the context of the business world. In today’s competitive environment, where the number of players is increasing and the amount of money customers have to spend is decreasing, one mustn’t ignore tools that offer new opportunities for business development.
Social media and online reputation
Until recently, using search terms to choose a lawyer online was unthinkable. Informational portals for various industries – including law – have taken on an important role in the sale of services. Simply having a website is no longer sufficient; in order to generate business, one must go beyond this basic service by structuring a useful site. A social media presence can drive web traffic; in other words, it is possible to attract one’s target audience by providing valuable content.
According to the experts, digital reputation and brand building play a key role in sales and pricing, especially for those who have associated themselves with particular values.
#inDIGITAL Law will be imparted on ESADE’s Madrid and Barcelona campuses starting this autumn. The class schedule will follow an ‘executive format’: Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.
