How does Vable help legal BD teams deliver meaningful content to clients?

Your clients need and value your firm's professional expertise. They are looking to their trusted legal advisors to cut out the noise and reduce information overload. One of the roles of the business development and legal marketing team is to take a strategic approach and deliver only the content that matters to your clients. 

An effective content marketing strategy ensures you can demonstrate legal expertise and create awareness for your legal services. But it is so much more than that. The 4 questions that follow aim to explain some important concepts and get you thinking about how premium content aggregator Vable makes it easier for you to engage with your clients through carefully selected content.

So what is the difference between content marketing and content curation?

First, we need some definitions to ensure we are all on the same page. According to the Content Marketing Institute, "content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action".

Content curation is the process of finding and collecting online content and presenting items that resonate best with your audience. Unlike content marketing, curation doesn’t necessarily involve creating your own content. After all, everyone enjoys reading and responding to quality content, whether it is third-party or proprietary information.

Vable gives you options to make the most of your content strategy. We provide innovative technology to deliver handpicked content to the people you do business with - generating trust and discussion by informing them about the news that matters to them.

How does content aggregation impact content curation?

Vable is a premium content aggregator, meaning all the information you need is brought together in one place. For instance, subscription or free quality news feeds, blogs, press releases, financial information and social media etc. Don’t forget to include your own internally created content. The information is processed by the aggregation software so that you can run targeted searches against the content.

Aggregation is the first step in your knowledge-sharing process.

The next step is content curation. This is when aggregated information is selected and annotated by people who understand those to whom the information is going. It's a careful thought process and forms part of the broader business development communications strategy. Obviously, curated material will vary in type and tone depending on where and how it will be disseminated. 

The difference between these terms - aggregation and curation - is important. It differentiates the work of the knowledge and information services from that of the business development departments. Working collaboratively across departments in the firm is essential and ensures a client-focused outcome. 

When was the last time you reviewed how you delivered content to clients?

Client newsletters are nothing new. For many years, lawyers and law firms have relied on updates and newsletters to maintain and build relations with clients. However, when was the last time you reviewed your content workflow? It can be a time-consuming and heavily manual process. After all that work, are your newsletters bringing real value to your readers?

In a recent interview about content and its importance in effective professional services marketing, they opened by stating that, 

“The world has experienced an accelerated shift to digital and this has presented new opportunities for professional service marketers. Consequently, the way content is consumed has also changed and clients increasingly expect more personalised up-to-the-moment content that is delivered when they need it.”

Legal business development professionals have a wealth of technology at their fingertips to select, comment on, and deliver content that matters. 

What are the benefits of curated content? 

Content matters because it enables you to:

• Demonstrate your firm’s expertise - content should not only highlight the contributor’s expertise in a particular area but also clearly explain how and why certain developments (etc) will impact the client’s business.
• Build authentic relationships - if you consistently demonstrate your expertise, people will want to maintain a relationship with you and your firm. It also offers opportunities to continue conversations if you have a relevant article/podcast/video to share and discuss with your clients

What are the benefits of a content aggregation platform?

Aggregation, curation and delivery matter because they enable you to:

• Save time with automated workflows - putting together content takes time so if you can automate some of the processes, your team can focus on what is important. Automatically aggregate your favourite sources, curate and edit the content, and then send out newsletters - all from the same platform. 
• Generate reports to identify where you’re adding value - data is everything. You cannot make data-driven decisions if you don’t have access to data! You want to demonstrate that your content strategy is having an impact. Analytics and reporting will show whether you are reaching and engaging with the right audience.

How does your client benefit from receiving curated content?

Your clients are awash with emailed newsletters so you have to stand out from your competitors. What else can you offer? It’s clear that with so much white noise, content marketing needs to be approached strategically in order for the right information to get through to the right people. 

You need to ensure the following:

• Get to the point - they want to digest the information you send as efficiently as possible. Save them time with relevant, trustworthy and actionable content and they will keep coming back for more.
• Do they want emails - get creative with content delivery. Ask whether they want an alternative delivery method, for example, dashboards, RSS feeds, or intranet delivery?
• Are you listening? - are there better ways of fostering collaboration? Ultimately you want to add value to the client experience and give them exactly what they need. 

And finally, some thoughts about dashboard delivery of curated content

Presenting information on a dashboard is a win for everyone. Dashboards or any type of shared end-user portal could be an interesting move for business development professionals. Shared dashboards make it easier for entire teams to be ‘on the same page’:

• It's a place for you to see and manage all your content
• It’s a place for your legal professionals to see their information feeds
• It’s a place for your clients to receive a selection of curated - or general - information feeds. 

After all, if it matters to your firm, it matters to your clients. It could be a game changer in the way information is delivered to them. Corporates, pharmaceuticals, financial houses, in-house legal teams, barristers etc., could have access to their own dashboards, with expert searching and curation provided by the law firm.

Dashboards remove the need for emailed newsletters unless clients specifically request bespoke roundups. Unlike scheduled alerts, dashboards can provide them with an at-a-glance view of their feeds on their desktop or mobile.  

Vable understands that legal business development professionals want to build authentic and meaningful client relations. We enable you to do this by providing the tech to deliver handpicked content to the people with whom you do business - your curatorial expertise and invaluable analysis will make all the difference.