Digital White Papers

30 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER MARKETING TECHNOLOGY The Evolving Role of Marketing Looking ahead, what are the major operational/ technological challenges facing your function in the next 2-3 years? The biggest challenge is, and always will be, obtaining buy-in on why a new tool is necessary for the department and the firm. It's never easy introducing new technology due to associated costs. It takes time to build a case for a new product and educating management on why it's necessary. Having the resources to keep up with the latest developments. Technology changes so quickly, and it sometimes feels like it could be a full time job just to stay informed. Thank goodness for a tight-knit community and organizations like ILTA and LMA for helping with that! Of course, even when you know what's out there it can be hard to get the necessary resources, or move as quickly as you'd like to implement. If I had to pick one specific challenge, I'd say having more "light" shone on this role comes with increased demands and expectations that add a greater level of pressure. It is very satisfying, professionally, to have more people understand the value of data and depend on it to make critical business decisions. However, that means more people are depending on the accuracy and completeness of your data to make critical business decisions…so it beer be right! I am constantly looking not only to root out bad data, but also to take advantage of developments like AI – and I am particularly excited about progress with machine learning – to help grow and enhance the PA SB data we have. I believe firms who do not take that same stance will quickly fall behind. The biggest challenge in the short term is managing expectations on how fast we can move forward as a function. It is great to be working in an environment when the pace of change is so fast, however, with that comes a significant increase in expectations. Whether it is new technology, process improvements or new ways of working, they all take time to get right and scale up in a global organization. It's an exciting time for sure! I think we'll continue to see new data regulations go into place which will continue to change the way we handle our marketing data. I think we'll inevitably see AI creep into the marketing world. I think we'll see a continued focus on utilization of marketing and BD data to drive business decisions (also a likely area for AI to come into play). I honestly think we'll see legal marketing start to catch up to other verticals due to the increased focus on technology and operations. ILTA TL JW JOHN WITTS John Witts is Marketing Technology Director for Fox Rothschild LLP, an AmLaw 100 firm. In his role, he manages development, maintenance and administration of the firm's external website, blog network and other web properties, CRM and emarketing solutions, client-facing webinars, mobile applications and other resources. He oversees intersections of marketing and technology with a focus on internal efficiencies and integration of technology to support the business development function at the firm. John currently serves as co-chair of the Legal Marketing Association's Marketing Technology Shared Interest Group (SIG), and has previously held roles in LMA's Philadelphia Local Group as co-chair of the group's CRM SIG and as a member of the group's Website, Social Media & Video Committee.

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