What's Next?

• Author: Byrne, John
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

Whether it's a source of inspiration or aggravation, the question of "What's next?" in legal marketing is an inherent part of our professional life. If your experience is like mine, you hear it most around the beginning of a new year, on the calendar or for your budget--or both.

Thinking and discussing upcoming trends stretches our analytical muscles, as well as spurs reflection about strategies and tactics that could become important for our future success (maybe even survival). Inevitably, the conversation turns to the oft-dreaded concept of "change."

So what better way to kick off the 2016 editions of Strategies than by gathering some of the best and brightest leaders in legal marketing to opine on what's coming down the road this year--and beyond? We gathered several law firm CMOs and separately convened a variety of marketing consultants to share with us their insights on what's next for legal marketing professionals. And for more news-to-use, we compiled some of their best suggestions for you in a checklist you'll want to keep handy throughout the year.

You might find some of what they have to say in the following pages surprising or reassuring or maybe even provocative. Overall, the insights are often fascinating and always interesting. Of course, we couldn't fit everything these experts had to say in our print edition--we can be a chatty bunch. So, if you want even more of these conversations, check out the full transcripts of the roundtables on the Strategies+ blog on our website at...