2015 STATE OF DIGITAL

&

CONTENT MARKETING

SURVEY

FULL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS – 2015

The FifthThis marks the fifth year that we at Greentarget, along with our

colleagues at Zeughauser Group, have published the results of

The State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey.

As in years past, it contains a wealth of insights for law-firm marketers and digital strategists. And as always, the most revelatory parts of this year’s survey lie in its nuances; in five years, for instance, we’ve seen in-house counsel steadily embrace social media, in particular LinkedIn, as a tool for consuming information and connecting with outside counsel. This year, in a new wrinkle, we see growing professional use of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, while law firm blog readership levels off.

The report below explores that, and many other subjects, in rich detail, and I’ll let it do the talking. We’re confident you’ll find the data and analysis here as valuable as ever. We’re also certain that law-firm marketing will continue to evolve, and that next year’s survey will be just as insightful.

Finally, we’d like to extend particular thanks to those who took the survey. By answering our questions, you’ve contributed to a smarter conversation. And speaking of which, we’re happy to discuss the results or hear your feedback, anytime.

All the best,

John E. Corey President & Founding Partner

FOREWORD

Table of Contents

Executive Summary: State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey 2015 .................................................... 4

Key Findings .............................................................................................................................................. 7

Key Implications ........................................................................................................................................ 8

In-House-Counsel Survey Results ............................................................................................................. 10

Law Firm CMO/Marketer Survey Results .................................................................................................. 28

Methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 46

4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey 2015

Law firms are producing lots of content, and they intend to produce a lot more. But

will anybody read it? That’s the crucial question raised by results of the 2015 State

of Digital & Content Marketing Survey, which shows that while firms are producing

content in increasing quantities, they may be neglecting the quality of what they’re

producing. The survey results also raise serious, related questions about whether

firms are taking adequate strategic steps to support their investments in content.

A lot has happened in this space since we issued the first of our surveys in 2010, particularly in one important measure of a firm’s content approach — firm-branded blogs. Five years ago, only about 250 blogs existed among the Am Law 200. Today, there are nearly a thousand, according to LexBlog’s 2015 “Am Law 200 Blog Benchmark Report.”

That’s a remarkable increase, and in some ways an encouraging one. But law firms’ rush to create more content risks failure on several important levels, judging by this year’s survey results.

• The percentage of in-house counsel who read blogs regularly has plateaued since 2014, as has the percentage of in-house counsel who ranked blogs as the most valuable law-firm-generated content.

• In a related finding, it seems that nearly a third of in-house lawyers aren’t reading firm blogs, period. We asked how often in-house counsel visit different types of blogs — from law-firm-attorney-authored blogs to industry-focused blogs from other sources. In every case, at least

30 percent of in-house counsel said they don’t visit those blogs at all.

• The importance of blogs in influencing hiring decisions also fell slightly. Only 38 percent of respondents said they could envision a future in which a high-profile blog would influence them to hire a firm — down from 50 percent in 2014 and 55 percent in 2012.

• Most noteworthy, the percentage of in-house counsel who rate firm blogs as somewhat or very credible fell significantly — from 75 percent last year to 65 percent this year.

• But, curiously, 74 percent of in-house counsel still said they find law-firm blogs valuable.

So if, according to our survey, in-house lawyers still perceive firm blogs to be valuable, but less influential than they used to be, where’s the disconnect?

We don’t think it’s a resource-allocation issue. Law-firm CMOs have said that a greater percentage of their budget is being devoted to

6

content marketing in 2015 than in 2014. And 87 percent of CMOs said they are investing in blogs in 2015, compared with 81 percent in 2014.

The problem, as we see it, is that many firms are producing content without thinking strategically about its value to their intended audience or its relation to their own business goals. In other words, firms lack coherent content strategies.

This deficiency first showed itself in last year’s CMO survey, and this year’s results found a similar gap. Only 13 percent of respondents said they had a documented content strategy, while just 45 percent said they had a strategy of any sort. The need for well-articulated strategies is heightened by the fact that CMOs are seemingly becoming more focused on measuring the effectiveness of their content; 74 percent told us they measured content’s effectiveness using analytics such as views and shares. That jumped from 59 percent in last year’s survey.

If law-firm content marketing is to achieve the results firms seek, we believe it’s imperative that they start with well-thought-out, documented strategies. An effective strategy must articulate precisely how content will serve both an audience need and the firm’s business goals. From there, it’s still vital to produce high-quality content that is accessible, credible and engaging — but without that first step, the most well-written, authoritative material is unlikely to achieve its desired effect.

The good news is that in-house lawyers still value firm-generated content — specifically client alerts and newsletters. The trick is giving them information they need, or want, badly enough that they’ll choose to read it over all the other content they receive.

What follows are some key highlights from this year’s report, followed by the survey results in full.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

7

Key Findings

In-House-Counsel Survey

While use of blogs by in-house counsel (IHC) is plateauing, their use of social media is growing incrementally. And they’re still big on LinkedIn.

• IHCs find traditional client alerts and practice group newsletters to be the most valuable types of law-firm-generated content.

• When asked what type of firm-generated content they found most valuable, just 35 percent of IHCs picked blogs — down from 38 percent in 2014.

• Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are quickly gaining on blogs in professional use by IHCs. Blogs trailed LinkedIn and Wikipedia as the most commonly used social networking and new-media tools — as they have for the past four years.

• LinkedIn usage continues to grow incrementally — 68 percent of respondents said they used it in the last week, compared with 62 percent in 2014.

• Meanwhile, Wikipedia is becoming more popular among IHCs; 71 percent said they used it to conduct company and industry research — up from 51 percent in 2012.

CMO Survey

• Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they had a content strategy, but only 13 percent said it was documented. When we asked a similar

question last year — without distinguishing between documented and undocumented strategies — only 25 percent said they had a documented strategy.

• Law firms lag the broader B2B marketing community in this regard. The Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 “B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” report found that 83 percent of B2B marketers had a content strategy, and 35 percent said it was documented.

• Meanwhile, the vast majority of law-firm CMOs (87 percent) expected to produce more content in 2015 than 2014, while less than half (43 percent) were getting larger budgets to do so.

• Forty percent of firms had a dedicated content manager, up from 29 percent last year, but only one in five has staffed the position with a journalist, content specialist or professional storyteller.

• Roughly half of the dedicated content managers have general marketing backgrounds; only 19 percent have journalism backgrounds. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but strong writing skills are important for strategic content creation — which is increasingly important as firms seek to distinguish and burnish their brands in a crowded market.

• Firms are stepping up how they measure results; 74 percent of respondents said they used analytics such as views and shares to justify content-marketing investments.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

8

Key Implications

1. Develop a Content Strategy — and Write It Down

Recently, the Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 “B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” found that 83 percent of B2B marketers say they have a content strategy and 35 percent said it was documented (as opposed to a verbal strategy). Not surprisingly, 62 percent of those in the CMI study who had a documented strategy rated their content-marketing effectiveness highly, compared with just 32 percent who rated themselves highly if they had only a verbal strategy.

As noted above, it seems clear that law firms are largely proceeding without content strategies — and that their content is coming up short when it comes to engaging in-house lawyers. A good content strategy, as described by content strategist Christopher Collette, is grounded in the firm’s business strategy and aligns with audience needs and behaviors to ensure that content will support the firm’s business goals and yield measurable results. A good strategy establishes sustainable and manageable systems for creating, publishing and maintaining content.

We further believe that the most effective content strategies for law firms and professional service organizations should be rooted in corporate journalism, a practice that combines an organization’s market intelligence and subject-matter expertise with the credibility and narrative

techniques of professional journalism organizations, which survey respondents still rate as most credible. Corporate journalism allows organizations to act like media companies by shaping and sharing the most compelling stories they have to tell in order to demonstrate thought leadership and build brand awareness consistent with the firm’s vision and strategic priorities.

2. Social Media, for In-House Counsel, Isn’t Just LinkedIn, Wikipedia and Blogs

One of the seemingly immutable truths we derive from conducting five years of social- and new-media surveys is that LinkedIn reigns as the social platform of choice for in-house counsels’ professional networking. That said, this year we saw a notable increase in their use of other platforms.

Twitter, YouTube and Facebook all saw big increases in professional use among IHCs. LinkedIn usage went up again, but use of our usual second- and third-place finishers — Wikipedia and blogs — stayed flat.

Interestingly, while the frequency of Wikipedia use didn’t increase year to year, how IHCs are using it, notably regarding conducting company and industry research, jumped to 71 percent, up from 51 percent in 2012.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

9

3. Analytics Rising — but Still Evolving

As noted above, law-firm marketers are increasingly relying on analytics such as views and shares to measure the impact of content-marketing efforts. Analytics trailed only brand enhancement as a justification for content marketing.

While using metrics to assess content’s effectiveness is obviously a good idea, we would caution that not all metrics are created equal. For instance, views and shares can easily be skewed by firms that encourage lawyers and staff to share content through social networks, as opposed to organic sharing. That said, the increasing use of analytics is important to note — and lends further support to the need for a content strategy, which should clearly lay out measurable goals.

4. Suboptimal Staffing for Increased Content

We asked legal marketers whether they agreed with the statement by marketing guru Seth Godin: Companies need editors — not brand managers. While none of our survey respondents told us they disagreed with that sentiment, 59 percent said they believe firms need both — and we agree.

And while it’s encouraging that more firms are appointing dedicated content managers — 40 percent did so in 2015 compared with 29 percent last year — it’s not surprising that only 19 percent of those people had a journalism background, as firms still have a mostly traditional perspective on departmental staffing. Sixteen percent had backgrounds in public relations and 47 percent had general marketing backgrounds.

5. Earned Media Still Considered Most Valuable, Credible

We’re obviously big advocates of well-conceived, intelligently written firm-owned content. But we shouldn’t forget about traditional media, which, as far as credibility is concerned, remains the gold standard for in-house lawyers. We think the reason is pretty simple: Like most readers, IHCs believe that publications like The Wall

Street Journal or The Economist operate with an independence that lends them credibility. The credibility reinforces the need to seek opportunities to deliver insights and express points of view in order to garner earned-media exposure. It also bolsters the value of approaching owned media through corporate journalism.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

10

IN-HOUSE-COUNSEL

SURVEY RESULTS

11

OTHERYOUTUBETWITTERBLOGSWIKIPEDIAFACEBOOKLINKEDIN

Please indicate how recently you used the following social networking and new media tools for professional reasons.

PAST 24 HRS

PAST WEEK

NEVER

34%34

%

8%

22%

15%

41%

20%27

%

17%17

%21%28

%

14%

10% 13

%15%

58%

37%

2%4

%

73%

• There was incremental growth in the use of social networking and new-media tools for professional reasons by in-house counsel.

• LinkedIn topped the list, as it has every year; 68 percent of respondents had used it for professional reasons within the past week. That’s up from 62 percent in 2014. Wikipedia and blogs remained flat and ranked second and third for the fourth year in a row.

• But Twitter, YouTube and Facebook all saw gains of at least 8 percentage points compared with last year.

12

WIKIPEDIAONLINE LAWYERLISTING SERVICES

(L AW YERS.COM, FINDL AW.COM, AV VO, ETC.)

LINKEDINLEGAL NEWSAGGREGATORS

(JD SUPRA, LEXOLOGY, ETC.)

TRADITIONALMEDIA

(WALL STREET JOURNAL,THE ECONOMIST, ETC.)

TOP 5 CREDIBILITY

VERY CREDIBLE SOMEWHAT CREDIBLE NOT AT ALL CREDIBLE DON’T KNOW

Please rate the following in terms of their credibility as

sources of legal, business and industry news and information.

71%

OTHER VIDEOPLATFORMS

(V IMEO, MEERK AT, PERISCOPE)

TWITTERFACEBOOKYOUTUBEBLOGS

BOTTOM 4 CREDIBILITY

7%

58%

18%

16%

4%

35%

29%31

% 37%

36%

25%

33%

23%

2%

41%

14%20

%

1%

65%

2%

40%

24%

63%

7%

6%

20%

14%

51%

65%

12% 16

%

6%

14%

30%

28%

2%

27%

2%

0%

13

• Respondents found traditional media, such as The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, to be the most credible sources again this year.

• Traditional media ranked especially high in the “very credible” category, with a 71 percent score, up from 62 percent in 2014. Legal news aggregators came in a distant second among very credible sources in 2015, at 40 percent, down from 44 percent in 2014.

• LinkedIn fared well based on respondents who marked it as very or somewhat credible at 87 percent, similar to last year. But only 24 percent said LinkedIn was very credible, similar to the 2014 findings.

• Blog credibility dropped significantly, from 75 percent to 65 percent. We believe, as noted above, that this could reflect IHCs’ information overload and the failure to produce strategic content at many firms.

14

• Significantly, all categories for LinkedIn usage among in-house counsel saw increases or stayed relatively level this year — reflecting the platform’s popularity.

• Compared with last year, the top three choices switched spots, and connecting with in-house colleagues was this year’s top choice. Interestingly, 78 percent chose that option in 2015, compared with just 55 percent in 2014.

• As one respondent put it, LinkedIn is a way to see “what’s happening with colleagues.”

• Finally, a higher percentage of respondents (58 percent) said they are using LinkedIn to stay abreast of job opportunities, up from 47 percent last year.

80 90706050

If you are using LinkedIn for professional reasons, how are you using it?

78%

55%

CONNECT WITH

IN-HOUSE COLLEAGUES

CONNECT WITH OUTSIDE COUNSEL

WITH WHOM I WORK

TO STAY ABREAST OF JOB

OPPORTUNITIES

AS A PLATFORM TO RECEIVE

NEWS AND INFORMATION

CONNECT WITH BUSINESS AND

INDUSTRY LEADERS

20152014

58%

60%

51%

51%

58%

47%

67%

53%

15

• The percentage of respondents who said they used LinkedIn to contact and/or build connections with outside counsel rose from 56 percent last year to 70 percent. It was the top result for the second straight year — and the growth is another indication of the importance of LinkedIn for forming relationships with law-firm clients and potential clients.

• Meanwhile, usage of LinkedIn to research potential outside counsel rose as well, from 34 percent to 42 percent. These are compelling reasons for attorneys at law firms to have strong profiles and to employ LinkedIn as a publishing platform.

20152014

Which of the following describes how you are using

LinkedIn with regards to outside counsel? 42

%

34%

TO RESEARCH POTENTIAL

OUTSIDE COUNSEL

70%

56%

TO CONTACT AND/OR

BUILD CONNECTIONS

WITH OUTSIDE COUNSEL

16

• 2015 saw a big jump in the percentage of respondents who use Wikipedia to conduct company and industry research, from 57 percent to 71 percent.

• This is an important finding, indicating that firms should watch what is said about them on Wikipedia.

Which of the following describes

how you are using Wikipedia?

To conduct research on outside counsel

To conduct research on prominent business professionals

To conduct company and industry research

To conduct research on topics of personal interest82

%

71%

21%

6%

57%

2014 2015

51%

2012

65%

2013

Which of the following describeshow you are using Wikipedia?

50

55

60

65

70

TO CONDUCT COMPANY AND INDUSTRY RESEARCH71

%

17

• Traditional forms of law-firm-generated content — client alerts and practice group newsletters — maintained the top two spots.

• But the order changed, as client alerts saw a big jump in 2015, from 63 percent in 2014. This is more proof that creating strong content and staying on top of the news is important for firms.

• As noted above, blog content is plateauing in value among our respondents, with 38 percent finding it valuable in 2014 and 35 percent in 2015.

What types of law-firm-generated content

do you find most valuable?

Client alerts

Practice group newsletters

Website content

Blogs

Social media (Twitter feeds,LinkedIn groups, etc.)

Video

Other

77%

76%

39%

35%

12%

2%

2%

18

• The overall trend stayed the same. For the fourth straight year, in-house counsel said they used social media to mostly listen but not to engage, though the percentage of those who only listen grew from 71 percent in 2014 to 78 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents who said they used social media to listen and engage dropped — from 29 percent to 22 percent.

71%

2014 2015

68%

2012

74%

2013

20

40

60

8078

%

29%32

%

26%

22%

Which of the following best describes theway you use social media today?

LISTEN - to stay informed of the latest news,

developments and conversation occurring on

topics that I'm interested in

LISTEN AND ENGAGE - I use SM tools not only

to listen but also to disseminate information

and engage with other users

19

VIDEO USAGE

TO SOME EXTENT

TO A SMALL EXTENT

NOT AT ALL

TO A GREAT EXTENT

To what extentdo you access video

on law-firm websitesor law-firm-brandedYouTube channels?

SUBSTANTIVE PRESENTATIONS

AND SEGMENTS ON LEGAL

TRENDS, TOPICS AND ISSUES

CAPABILITIES

PRESENTATIONS

(PRACTICE- OR INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC)

5%14

%

28%

54% 60

%

19%

17%

4%

• Interestingly, despite the fact that these results were largely the same as in 2014, several CMOs we surveyed said they were planning new videocentric projects.

20

READ PRINT VERSION

How frequently do you access the

following news and information

sources?

LEGAL INDUSTRY

TRADE PUBLICATIONS

TRADE PUBLICATIONS

COVERING

YOUR INDUSTRY

GENERAL

BUSINESS MEDIA

(I.E., WSJ, LOCAL BUSINESS NEWS)

64%

20%

8%7

%

24%

36%

30%

7%

25%31

%31

%

10%

WEEKLY MONTHLY NOT AT ALLDAILY

21

SOCIAL MEDIA

WEBSITES(T WITTER, FACEBOOK,

LINKEDIN, ETC.)

BLOGSBROADCAST(T V, RADIO)

TRADE

PUBLICATIONS

COVERING

YOUR INDUSTRY

LEGAL

INDUSTRY TRADE

PUBLICATIONS

GENERAL

BUSINESS MEDIA(I.E., WSJ, LOCALBUSINESS NEWS)

Through which delivery methods do you accessthe following news and information sources?

75%

53%

41%

60%

27%

25%

61% 62

%

6%

23%

60%

5%

56%

38%39

%

64%

11%

59%

ACCESS VIA THE WEB

NOTE: Multiple answers per participant possible. Percentages added may exceed 100 since a participant may select more than one answer for this question.

46%

58%

48%

31%

PC SMARTPHONE/TABLET EMAIL ALERTS MOBILE APPS

26%29

%

22

Which of the following describes how

you are using law-firm blogs?

Other

To connect with thought leaders

in my company's industry

To evaluate the perspective and credentials of prospective

outside counsel before making hiring decisions

As a supplement to a legal-industry trade

(and other) traditional media reporting

To access substantive content and perspective within

narrow legal practices and specialties 55%

52%

17%

18%

20%

• While it was still the top choice, accessing substantive content and perspective within narrow legal practices and specialties fell 10 percentage points in 2015.

• The vast majority of respondents who marked “other” elaborated by saying, in various formulations, that they aren’t using law-firm blogs at all.

23

How often do you frequent the following types of blogs?

IN-HOUSE ATTORNEY AUTHORED BLOGS

MEDIA-BRANDED BLOGS WRITTEN BY

PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS/BLOGGERS

BLOGS FOCUSED ON MY COMPANY'S INDUSTRY(E.G., TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE, FINANCIAL SERVICES)

LAW FIRM ATTORNEY-AUTHORED BLOGS

38%

37%

35%

17%

VERY + SOMEWHAT OFTEN

How would you characterize the overall value of the content produced by the following types of blogs?

60

65

70

75

IN-HOUSE ATTORNEYAUTHORED BLOGS

74%

MEDIA-BRANDEDBLOGS WRITTEN BY

PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS/BLOGGERS

BLOGS FOCUSED ON MY COMPANY'S INDUSTRY

(E.G., TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE,FINANCIAL SERVICES)

LAW FIRM ATTORNEY-AUTHORED BLOGS

66%

65%

63%

VERY + SOMEWHAT VALUABLE

• Maybe they’re not reading, but IHCs do perceive blogs to have value. Despite the responses to the previous question, the majority of in-house counsel surveyed said they considered all types of blogs we asked about somewhat valuable. As the chart above indicates, law-firm-created blogs are generally considered more valuable.

24

• It’s notable, and somewhat discouraging, that only 43 percent of respondents ranked the value of law-firm content as very good or better.

On a scale from 1 - 10, how would you characterize the overall value of content produced by outside

law firms (alerts, newsletters, blogs)?

78 -

VERY GOOD9

10 -

EXCELLENT6

11%

33%

22%

7%

3%

2 -

VERY POOR

0 -

UNACCEPTABLE43

5 -

SATISFACTORY1

0% 1

%1

% 2%

16%

5%

25

PEER-DRIVEN RANKINGSAND DIRECTORIES

(CHAMBERS, U.S. NEWS-BESTL AW YERS, ETC.)

LINKEDINPROFILE

ARTICLES AND SPEECHESTHE LAW YER

HAS AUTHORED

BIOS ONTHE FIRM'S

WEBSITE

RECOMMENDATIONSFROM SOURCES

YOU TRUST

VERY IMPORTANT

SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT

NOT IMPORTANT AT ALL83%

Please indicate the importance of the following in helping you to research outside lawyers

and law firms for potential hire.

TOP 5 FACTORS

57%

32%

12%

65%

18%17

%

58%

16%25

%

44%

15%

41%

15%

2%

TWITTER FEEDSFROM LAW YERS

WIKIPEDIASHARING OF LAWYER'S CONTENT

ON SOCIAL PLATFORMS,SUCH AS BLOGS, LINKEDIN, TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

QUOTES BYLAWYERS INRELEVANT

MEDIA OUTLETS

CONNECTIONS/ENDORSEMENTS

ON LINKEDIN

BLOGS PUBLISHEDBY LAW YERS ON

TOPICS RELEVANTTO YOUR BUSINESS

9%

BOTTOM 6 FACTORS

57%

35%

9%

43%47

%

4%

30%

66%

4%

47%49

%

4%

28%

68%

2%11

%

87%

• These results were fairly consistent with what we found in 2014, though bios on firm websites and peer-driven rankings and directories dropped slightly.

• The percentage of respondents who ranked LinkedIn profiles as at least somewhat important in researching outside counsel jumped from 63 percent last year to 74 percent. Clearly, law firms should be paying close attention to the quality of attorneys’ LinkedIn profiles.

26

To what extent do you access content from your outside-counsel firms provided through

new-media tools, including Twitter feeds, blogs, Facebook pages, firm-branded mobile

applications, LinkedIn discussion groups, etc.?

TO A SMALL EXTENT NOT AT ALLTO A GREAT EXTENT TO SOME EXTENT

6%

24%

46%

25%

27

6%

32%35

%

14%

13%

9%

30%32

%

16%

13%

3%

11%

21%

28%

37%

To what extent do you agree or disagreewith the following statements?

I envision a future in which a law

firm's prominence through a

high-profile blog will play an

important role in influencing

clients to hire that law firm.

I envision a future in which the

extent of a lawyer's profile and

engagement on LinkedIn (i.e.,

number of connections s/he has,

participation in group, distributing

quality content, etc.) will play an

important role in influencing

clients to hire that lawyer.

I envision a future in which an

individual lawyer's prominence

on Twitter will play an

important role in influencing

clients to hire that lawyer.

AGREE SOMEWHAT AGREE NEUTRAL SOMEWHAT DISAGREE DISAGREE

PERCENTAGE OF COUNSEL WHO BELIEVE WELL-EXECUTED

BLOGS WILL INFLUENCE HIRING DECISIONS

40

45

50

55

60

50%

53%55

%

50%

38%

20152014201320122010

• Again, we see a change in respondents’ thoughts on blogs, as the number who think they’ll play an important role in hiring dropped for the third straight year — and by 12 percentage points.

• This year’s respondents were also less likely than last year’s to agree that LinkedIn would have an important role in hiring decisions, while Twitter’s expected impact stayed about the same.

28

LAW FIRM CMO / MARKETER

SURVEY RESULTS

29

1%

YES

NO

BUDGET HAS

INCREASED

BUDGET HAS

REMAINED

ABOUT THE SAME

BUDGET HAS

DECREASED

Does your firm actively engage in

content marketing?

Is your budget forcontent marketing

in 2015 different from 2014?

98%

2%

43%

56%

1%

• Content budgets keep getting bigger, with 43 percent of respondents telling us their budget for content marketing increased in the past year, compared with 39 percent in 2014.

30

• Fifty percent of respondents said 0 to 10 percent of their marketing department’s budget went to content marketing, up from 41 percent last year.

• But the percentage of respondents who don’t know how much of that budget goes toward content is still surprisingly high at 23 percent (compared with 24 percent in 2014). This may result from content being generated from many different sources in a firm.

Approximately what percentage (%) of the marketing department’s budget Is allocated to content marketing?(Marketing budget refers to all marketing expenditures except for practice group business

development, and includes staff salaries and costs associated with outside consultants.)

DON'TKNOW

MORETHAN 20%16 - 20%11 - 15%6 - 10%0 - 5%

5%

15%

7%

23%23

%27

%

31

YES, THE AMOUNT OF

CONTENT WILL GROW

THE AMOUNT OF

CONTENT WILL STAY

ABOUT THE SAME

NO, THE AMOUNT

OF CONTENT

WILL DECREASE

Do you expect that your department or firm willproduce more content in 2015 than it did in 2014?

13%

87%

• As noted above, it’s possible that some content creation will be covered by lawyer and staff time — and not under the marketing budget.

32

• The first chart is one of the survey’s promising findings. The percentage of respondents who have a dedicated person for content-marketing strategy and implementation rose by 11 percent.

• Meanwhile, 19 percent of those people were said to have journalism backgrounds, up from 9 percent in 2014. That’s a nice jump, but content chiefs were still most likely to have a marketing background, at 47 percent — though that was down from 67 percent in 2014.

19%

19%

16%

47%

29%

40%

YES, WE HAVE A

DEDICATED PERSON

WHAT BACKGROUND DOES

THIS PERSON HAVE?

2014 2015

Do you currently have a single person who oversees content marketing strategy and implementationat your firm (e.g., Director of Content Strategy)?

JOURNALISM

PUBLIC RELATIONS

GENERAL MARKETING

BACKGROUND

OTHER

33

YES

NO

NOT SURE

Do you plan to hire for or create a

director-of-content-type position in the coming year? 67

%

29%

4%

• Last year, 87 percent of respondents said no to this question, so a decline of 20 percentage points would appear to be a good sign. But fewer CMOs said they planned to hire someone (4 percent compared with 8 percent), while the largest increase was in the percentage who weren’t sure. That group grew from 6 percent to a striking 29 percent.

34

We have no content strategy in place, and have no plans

of implementing a content strategy in the near future

No, but we are planning on putting a content

strategy in place within the next 12 months

Yes, we have a content strategy but it is not documented

Yes, we have a documented content strategy 13%

45%

30%

11%

Does your firm have an overarching content strategy in place?

• We changed the question this year to allow for unwritten strategies, so the results shouldn’t be used for apples-to-apples comparisons with last year’s survey.

• That said, 58 percent of respondents said they had a content strategy, documented or otherwise.

• Thirty percent said they planned on putting a content strategy in place in the next 12 months, down from 47 percent last year.

• Encouragingly, only 11 percent said they had no strategy and no plans to implement one, compared with 28 percent in 2014. This is one of the more hopeful findings in this year’s survey.

35

Other

Client retention

Winning new business

Client service

Lead generation

Building website traffic

Building new relationships

Expanding relationships (and work)with existing clients

Attorney awareness/exposure

Brand awareness

Demonstrating thought leadership within strategic practice groups and industry sectors

Securing additional exposure opportunities for attorneys and the firm (publishing, speaking engagements, etc.)

90%

90%

79%

74%

73%

65%

63%

61%

61%

50%

49%

4%

How would you describe the overall goals of content marketing within your firm as it relates

to marketing and business development?

• Importantly, CMOs saw content marketing as very important for brand awareness, credentialing and business development at high levels.

36

Other

Digital news sites and/or magazines

White papers

Infographics

Video

Webinars

Firm-branded, in-person events

Articles authored by attorneys on the firm’s website

Client alerts/newsletters

Social media (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)

Website content

Blogs

93%

91%

89%

87%

80%

78%

67%

62%

38%

33%

32%

5%

In which of the following content-marketing areas is your firm investing in 2015?

• Echoing the 2014 findings, CMOs in 2015 said they’re investing in nearly every category. Interestingly, and despite blogs’ overall fade based on our in-house-counsel results, the percentage of CMOs who said they’re investing in blogs increased from 81 percent to 87 percent. Digital news sites and/or magazines increased from 20 percent to 32 percent.

37

YES

NO

NOT SURE

Are you currently investing in third- party resources

to help distribute the content your firm produces?

4%

76%

20%

• JD Supra and Lexology were common methods for distributing content, according to the CMOs.

38

YES

NO

NOT SURE

Does your firm have a social media policy in place that guides what those within the firm can post

and share?

4%

81%

15%

39

YES

NO

NOT SURE

Do you have plans to create new and

innovative content vehicles in 2016?

(e.g., launch a digital newsroom

such as GE's GE Reports or

Chevron’s Richmond Standard)

46%

33% 21

%

• Of CMOs who provided details on their plans, most talked about new video products, including video channels on YouTube, video alerts and videos for partner bios.

40

Seth Godin, the renowned content strategist, said recently that “companies need editors, not brand managers.”

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

DISAGREE OTHERAGREEDISAGREE, I BELIEVE

THEY NEED BOTH

38%

59%

0% 3

%

• While no one surveyed seems to disagree with this statement, the percentage of firms with trained editors serving as content chiefs, based on our survey, is still less than one in five (19 percent).

41

DISAGREESOMEWHATDISAGREE

NEITHER AGREENOR DISAGREE

SOMEWHATAGREE

AGREE

79%

17%

4%

0%

0%

"I believe LinkedIn is a valuable tool for marketingand business development."

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

• LinkedIn’s prominence rose here again, with 79 percent of CMOs agreeing to the above statement. That’s up from 65 percent in 2014. Ninety-six percent either agree or somewhat agree with the statement, up from 89 percent last year.

• Given that the percentage of in-house counsel who use LinkedIn for research when hiring outside counsel rose to 74 percent this year, we’d expect to see even more CMOs agreeing with this statement.

42

No, we do not offer training, and

we have no plans to do so

No, but we have plans to

start offering training

Yes, we are providing some

informal training

Yes, we provide formalized

training to our lawyers 65%

32%

2%

0%

Are you providing lawyers at your firm with training to use LinkedIn more effectively?

• We changed the phrasing and options for this question; last year we didn’t distinguish between formal and informal training. With the new options, 97 percent of CMOs said they would provide some sort of LinkedIn training this year, compared with 81 percent last year.

43

Lack of staff time

Budget

Other

Lack of engagement from attorneys within the firm

13%

12%

18%

Lack of support from firm leadership 0%

44%

5%

9%

Lack of a dedicated professional to oversee content marketing efforts

Lack of talented writers and other staff

What is the greatest challenge your department faces in using content-marketing to elevate your firm’s brand and reputation in the marketplace?

• As in 2014, lack of engagement was the top answer to this question.

• As one respondent put it, “Not enough attorney engagement or staff bandwidth.” Another said, “Both lack of engagement from attorneys within the firm and lack of support from firm leadership.”

44

10%

34%

51%

5%

NOT AT ALLA LITTLESOMEWHATA GREAT DEAL

To what extent has content marketing contributed to your firm being able to secure new matters from existing and new clients?

• The percentage of CMOs who answered “a great deal” or “somewhat” to the question shrank from 70 percent in 2014 to 61 percent this year.

• It’s possible that content marketing isn’t helping to secure new matters because of the lack of lawyer engagement and staff time noted in the previous question.

45

Other

Client retention 47%

Protecting/enhancing competitive advantage 67

%

Brand enhancement 79%

1%

47%ROI for new or expanded business

74%Analytics, such as measuring

“views” and “shares”

How does your firm justify investment in content-marketing efforts?

• The biggest jump here was in the percentage of CMOs who said they are using analytics to justify investments in content marketing. As noted above, this likely indicates increased emphasis on accountability after many firms have increased content efforts, and costs, in recent years.

• Here is one interesting response about the cost-benefit analysis: “Because we use our content to drive traffic to our website, where we can hopefully generate leads that can be qualified and converted to opportunities and closed as a new business engagement, we value analytics over traditional financial-return data. The cost of producing content is so negligible for us that the return is always a positive.”

• Here is another detailed response: “[W]e routinely measure ROI for our blogs using both analytics and revenue secured from new clients. We track client generation from blog activity on a quarterly basis and blog stats on a monthly basis. In other instances, we may establish a secured section of the website that we promote only to attendees at a conference/event and we measure the ‘success’ of that via tracking logins, etc. We often create Web content and link that content’s promotion to particular market-facing activity so we can measure the traffic to gauge ‘success.’ Overall, however, the more one can link revenue — via concrete analytics or anecdotal information from attorneys — the better in terms of gauging ROI and making a case for continued or additional investment.”

• Our survey found increases in protecting/enhancing competitive advantage and ROI for new or expanded business.

46

METHODOLOGY

47

Our SurveysIn August and September 2015, Greentarget and Zeughauser Group distributed

individual surveys to the following segments of the legal industry: corporate

in-house counsel (the buyers of legal services), and law firm CMOs/Marketers

(those who market outside legal services) at the top 350 law firms across the

nation. The results were tabulated, analyzed, and released in November 2015.

For the in-house counsel survey, respondents identified themselves as GCs/Chief Legal Officers, Deputy/ Assistant GCs, In-House Counsel, and related titles. For the law firm marketer survey, respondents identified themselves as Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Business Development Officers, Directors of Marketing, Directors of Communication, and related titles.

181 corporate counsel responded to the in-house counsel survey; 81 CMOs/Marketers responded to

the CMO survey. (11% from firms with more than 1,000 lawyers; 48% from firms with 251 – 1,000 lawyers; 30% from firms with 101 – 250 lawyers and 11% from firms with less than 100 lawyers.)

Percentages in certain questions exceed 100 percent because respondents were asked to check all that apply. Due to rounding, percentages used in some questions may not add up to 100 percent.

METHODOLOGY

48

METHODOLOGY

Other

In-House Counsel

Deputy/Assistant GC

GC/Chief Legal Officer

WHAT IS YOUR JOB TITLE?

WHAT WERE THE FY 2014 REVENUES OF COMPANY?

3%

30%

56%

11%

$10 billion or more

$1.5 to $9.9 billion

$1 billion to $1.4 billion

$100 million to $999.9 million

$10 million to $99.9 million

Less than $10 million 3%

6%

6%

8%

38%

41%

5,000 +

1,000-5,000

500-1,000

100-500

0-100 1%

4%

2%

19%

75%

HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES YOUR COMPANY EMPLOY?

DEMOGRAPHICS

IN-HOUSE COUNSEL

49

WHERE IS YOUR COMPANY HEADQUARTERED?

Other

Our headquartersare not in the U.S.

West

South

Midwest

Northeast 37%

26%

14%

16%

4%

4%

AGE RANGE

Prefer notto disclose

60 +

50-60

40-50

30-40

Under 30 3%

26%

23%

8%

5%

34%

GENDER

4%

MALE

FEMALE

PREFER NOT

TO DISCLOSE

38%

58%

METHODOLOGY

50

METHODOLOGY

DEMOGRAPHICS

LAW FIRM CMOs/MARKETERS

5%

HOW MANY ATTORNEYS DOES YOUR LAW FIRM EMPLOY?

151 – 250

101 – 150

501 – 1,000

251 – 500

6%

12%

23%

18%

25%

More than 1,000 11%

Fewer than 50

50 – 100

34%

WHAT IS YOUR TITLE?

Marketing Director

Director of Communications

Marketing / Communications Manager

Business DevelopmentDirector

12%

17%

23%

6%

8%

Other

Chief Marketing Officer /Chief Business

Development Officer

51

METHODOLOGY

West

South

We are an international firm with no specified headquarters

We are a national firm withno specified headquarters

30%

23%

12%

6%

13%

14%

Our headquartersare not in the U.S. 1

%

WHERE IS YOUR FIRM HEADQUARTERED?

WHAT WERE THE FY 2014 REVENUES OF YOUR FIRM?

Northeast

Midwest

50-59

40-49

Prefer notto disclose

60 +

22%

5%

40%

1%

24%

8%

AGE RANGE

GENDER

Under 30

30-39

$401 million to $600 million

$201 million to $400 million

$801 million to $1 billion

$601 million to $800 million

19%

22%

23%

8%

9%

8%

$1 billion or more 11%

Less than $100 million

$101 million to $200 million

7%

MALE FEMALE PREFER NOT

TO DISCLOSE

69%

24%

52

About

About Greentarget

Greentarget is a strategic communications firm focused exclusively on the communications needs of highly competitive business-to-business organizations. We counsel those who counsel the world’s leading businesses and direct the conversation among their most important audiences to help deepen the relationships that impact the long-term value of their organizations.

About Zeughauser Group

Zeughauser Group is the firm of choice for legal industry leaders seeking to increase competitive advantage and profitability, enhance market position, and strengthen organizational culture.