Around JD Supra HQ, there's a short but illuminating anecdote we return to again and again when discussing the business development value found in a firm's reader data. This from an exchange that occurred earlier this year, when a BD director at a client firm asked for a tour of the firm's analytics dashboard on JD Supra.

Until that point, mostly folks in a marketing capacity had been focused on the firm's JD Supra results. Makes sense: for so many of us in these roles, the impact of our content is measured, ultimately, in targeted visibility.

Now, someone in BD with a focus on specific industries/sectors, around certain well-defined topics/practice areas, and with particular companies, was interested in what he could learn from the data we provided. Did the data surface any opportunities?

"We've been approaching this company through the wrong practice group..."

Early into the conversation, we arrived at a Beacon Insights report showing top reader interests within an industry (healthcare) and then interests and concerns within a specific company in that sector.

...it's not just the data, it's the findings.

Immediately upon seeing the data, the BD director stopped the conversation with an exclamation. "Wow! We've been coming at them from the wrong angle! We've been trying to meet with this company through a specific practice group, but I can tell here that they are actually interested in something completely different. It looks like there is a better approach..."

His business development insight was instantaneous and came about because, as we say (and hear) a lot: it's not just the data, it's the findings.

And, as Kathryn Whitaker, Director of Marketing and Business Development at McNair Law Firm, said recently in an LMA Tech Midwest panel presentation on the relationship between law firm content and data: expect the unexpected.

"There will always be something unexpected in the data..."

In that LMA Tech Mid-West panel (co-presented with JD Supra's Adrian Lurrsen), Kathryn told a remarkable story of how data informed a series of smart decisions within her firm.

First, it confirmed a hunch among attorneys in a practice group that a particular, emerging topic (Opportunity Zones) deserved attention and time, because of broad, rising interest. Such a data point enabled the firm to double down on content efforts, with blog posts and video, because the intelligence showed: people were interested.

Returning to her metrics around the new content, Kathryn was then able to learn that a specific industry seemed to be most interested in the topic of Opportunity Zones, and the firm already had many clients in that industry. The team built an outreach campaign for those existing clients (being served for other reasons) around Opportunity Zones, which led to new matters.

So many great takeaways from both of these stories, but the one we want to make here is simply this: 

If you want your firm's content investment to impact business development, make sure your BD folks see your reader data...

...they will be able to bring their BD insights to the table.

If, as we hear so often, it isn't the data but the findings - and if you can expect to be surprised by those findings - don't let your actionable intelligence fall victim to internal silos.

Your BD team members have particular insights that can help find the unexpected in your reader data - or support hunches, or alter the path to a prospective client, or...

For one example, this is why we agree wholeheartedly when we hear Kathleen Flynn, CMO at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, say that you should share your reader data with your RFP team. Watch Kathleen's explanation in this short video:

[Use Your Firm's Reader Data to Support RFPs and Business Development] 

Give your business development folks access to your reader data. And give your teams the time to make sense of the data.

We heard this refrain again at the excellent LMA Mid-Atlantic conference, held recently in Washington, D.C., in another panel at the intersection of data and law firm content, co-presented by Adrian and Michelle Woodyear, Director of Digital Marketing at Covington.

Michelle echoed the sentiment as she told stories of how data (and the tools she has built to capture that data) supports internal decisions and external outreach throughout the firm.

In one example, she told (anonymizing the details) of a new matter that came to the firm, from an existing client, because of what the team was able to learn by piecing together seemingly disparate data points about the client.

At the heart of Michelle's story was access.

The right people, internally, had access to the information she was providing, and as a consequence the team was able to determine a good approach, which lead to a successful conversation with the client and new work.

In a follow-up post we'll look at how your business development team members can slice and dice rich reader data and learn from it; for now, do this one thing:

Set up BD folks with their own login access to your analytics.

Via JD Supra, that is as simple as reaching out to our Client Services specialist, Carla Reiner, who will help you get it done.

You'll be glad you did!

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[Robin Oliver is Global Director of Business Development at JD Supra. Kara McKenna is Regional Business Development Director at JD Supra. Click their names to connect on LinkedIn.]