This is a reprint of the article I wrote for the Louisville Bar Association’s Bar Briefs.  It appears in the December edition on page 15.

It’s been a busy year. As we close out the fourth quarter and focus on holiday celebrations, it’s also an opportunity to look back at what we learned. There were several important macro-trends, in addition to what you may have seen in your own local landscape. Taking stock of these changes can prepare you to increase your business in 2016.

Macro-Trend #1: YouTube and Digital Content

My September article detailed Google’s revenue increases and the astonishing growth of YouTube. The way consumers search for information is rapidly changing. Video-based content is growing in importance. Did you start a video-strategy for your firm? Have you launch your firm’s YouTube channel? If not, put it on your calendar to complete in the 1^st quarter (you’re already behind).

Digital Video content is already beginning to impact how large advertisers allocate budget expenditures. There’s a significant shift away from TV advertising. That budget is now being spent on digital video in various formats and channels.

There’s been a rapid increase in Facebook and YouTube advertising. Combine that with an industry shift toward demand-based programming (i.e. Netflix, Hulu and others) and you can see that the landscape is changing at a macro-level. It won’t take long to have a significant impact for more localized markets. We’re already beginning to see it. I’m not ready to strongly advocate for Vine, Instagram or Periscope for law firms, but these platforms are evolving. You’d do well to keep an eye on them.

Macro-Trend #2: Google’s Ranking Factors Continue to Change

The Google continues to alter how it evaluates and ranks online content. The days of solely focusing on keyword strategies are dying quickly. Google has generated so much search data that it is pushing “Semantic Search.” This focuses more on the user’s intent, which even includes the device being used. Consumers are more intelligent in how they search. Google is taking it one step further by showing them results based on the way they search, not just the words they use.

Google considers your search history, your location, your social media habits and whether you’re on a laptop, tablet or smart phone among many other factors.

For law firms, this means is means achieving the highly coveted #1 position on results page is significantly more difficult, and possibly irrelevant. I say irrelevant because it depends on too many factors, namely who was actually doing the search.

There’s no guarantee that what one consumer sees for a particular search is at all related to what another sees. The key here is to make sure you’re providing content across multiple channels (e.g. website, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). More importantly, if you want to rank at all, be increasingly more specific in your topics. Use the next couple of weeks to work on your content strategy and schedule for 2016. It’ll pay off and save you some frustration.

Local Landscape Factors

If you handle personal injury (including workers’ comp) or family law cases, there’s no doubt that Morgan & Morgan and Cordell & Cordell impacted your practice. Your local landscape is changing. These firms are bringing a different approach to the market. If you’re not monitoring what they’re doing, you might get caught off guard. The important point is that you can learn what they’re doing and adapt it to your own arsenal.

Our market has a history of heavy advertisers. That’s probably not going to change. You can ignore them, or you can compete. Don’t try to out spend your competitors. The only one who wins is the vendor. You can expand your market presence via blog content, videos, articles (all 3 are free) and small tactical moves involving online, legal and non-legal directories. It can be done effectively, without crushing your operating budget.

Your Vendor Productivity

Now is a terrific time to finally begin looking at those reports your vendors have been sending you. Compare them carefully to your own intake records. You have to dig deeper because many of the reports can be skewed. Don’t blindly renew your contracts without breaking down the individual components of your vendors’ offerings. You may find specific areas that can be deleted, lapsed or increased based on closer inspection.

Now for the good news, your vendors are working feverishly to make their end of month, end of quarter and end of year quotas. Discounts and special deals are yours for the asking. But wade through these opportunities with a solid understanding of your firm’s historical performance.

Did your own firm experience any significant changes in 2014-2015? Just because an offer is cheap, doesn’t mean it’s a good deal for your particular practice. Price and cost are two completely different factors. Trust me on that point.

I hope this has been a strong year for you and your firm. Success in the business of law typically comes down having a solid plan and executing it well. Next month is the start of an entirely new year. How quickly you get started is up to you. Take stock of what you’ve learned, what’s going to be different and why you started in the first place. So, what’s your plan?