Jeff Berardi, Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer, Arnold & Porter

Getting people to work together in a highly collaborative, integrated, and productive fashion across practices, regions, and function areas is no small task. Organizations of all sizes often struggle with this approach because their professionals are frequently responsible (and are rewarded) for overseeing distinct and narrow areas of expertise, and thus they do not see or fully appreciate the benefits of working in a truly cross-disciplinary manner. In this article, I’ll share some suggestions for how lawyers and business professionals can organize, lead, and motivate diverse groups of client-facing practitioners; I’ve learned through direct experience that this objective can be successfully achieved through the creation of compelling and distinct thought leadership campaigns that are specifically designed to strengthen and grow relationships with existing as well as new clients.  

Many of the world’s largest and most respected professional services organizations are lauded for their robust content-driven marketing and business development campaigns. These companies fully understand and embrace the value that can be generated by developing useful and relevant content, which they use as a tangible asset to engage with members of their target audience. So, why don’t more law firms follow their lead? According to a recent survey conducted by Passle, 45% of leading law firm Managing Partners ranked thought leadership among their top 3 marketing priorities. Somewhat surprisingly, only 28% of law firm CMOs ranked thought leadership in their top 3 priorities. We will examine this disconnect in more depth, but the short answer is that it can be incredibly difficult to support such initiatives when internal barriers exist within an organization along practice group, regional, or function area lines. 

The good news is that companies, including law firms of any size, have the potential to do hard things!  The 7-step process I have detailed below will make this sometimes difficult undertaking significantly easier to navigate. Some of the steps might seem counter-intuitive, and they aren’t always simple to execute; however, I’ve found that success is certainly achievable with the right level of attention and focus. Such thought leadership initiatives can be as big or as small as you’d like them to be. The key is to think horizontally across a broad category of services, rather than vertically along narrow practice group, regional or function area lines. 

Step 1: Choose the Participants

A lot of law firms fall into the trap of beginning the thought leadership process with the development of content. Instead, I recommend having your first step be to give a great deal of thought to determining the group of client-facing practitioners who are best suited to be involved in a novel content development approach. There are benefits to selecting a service line, industry group, or even hand-picking individuals who are willing and interested to try something new, as they could potentially serve as a pilot group for future expansion more broadly throughout the firm. At the same time, it’s not enough to just pick people who are open to trying a different approach. You also need to select professionals who have both the drive, and the ability, to grow the amount and the type of work within a particular service, set of practices, or business line. I generally like to focus on industry groups rather than narrow practice groups, as they have the potential to unify across practice group lines in service of the client within a specific sector.

Step 2: Focus on a Target Audience

Answer this question: Who are the clients – existing and new – who will benefit most from the research and corresponding market insights that we might capture? Once that group has been determined, then you can find ways to directly engage members of that target audience in the research collection process. Rather than telling your clients what you think they should know, this joint process is designed to ask members of your target audience for their views and thoughts on a particular topic. By having your clients be involved in the process, they will be more likely to be engaged and interested in the results of the research you are conducting.

Keep in mind that the end product doesn’t have to be a robust research report; instead, it may simply entail weaving in perspectives from clients and prospects who have valuable insights to impart.

Step 3: Conduct Your Research - Begin at the End

I am a big believer in following the backward market research process, rather than taking a more traditional applied research process. By working backwards, you start by considering the ideal actions that you are looking to take based on the research you would like to collect, before you actually begin the process of conducting market research. For instance, think about the services you offer and carefully examine what the client needs are now, and what they might be in the future, considering various macroeconomic or other market-driven trends. Assuming you have a clearly defined value proposition to clients, then you can begin to envision what sort of content your clients might find to be valuable. It will be important to gather views on market trends from outside as well as inside the organization since both perspectives are important.

Step 4: Develop and Produce a Report

Resist the urge to create a lengthy report, as it is often better to hold some information back to share at a follow-up meeting that allows for an interactive discussion. In addition, having a shorter, more concise report is compelling and certainly easier to digest for your presumably busy and time-starved target audience. Use infographics and other visually interesting elements to stand out in a sea of text-based content from your competitors. This is a great opportunity to represent your brand and position the firm as an expert in a particular field.

Step 5: Atomize the Content

Break the content into numerous bite-sized pieces, which you can share in a drip campaign via social media or in other distribution channels. I recommend communicating the results in a steady stream after you’ve actually launched the report. By atomizing the content, you can get the maximum value of your overall investment in the thought leadership campaign. If done well, this can effectively grow brand awareness in a specific category as well as generate new business leads.

 

Step 6: Distribute and Promote in a Broad Fashion

Another important element in this campaign will be to ensure that members of your target audience receive and engage with the thought leadership you’ve developed. This can be achieved in the form of a webinar, client roundtables, speaking engagements, client advisories, white papers, blog posts, media opportunities, and much more. Think of this step as the broadcast approach to try and hit as many people as possible in the client community. Also, don’t underestimate the internal community of client-facing practitioners who can and should circulate the report to their clients and contacts. 

 

Step 7: Drive 1:1 Meetings

Ultimately, this step is where the rubber meets the road. The thought leadership that you’ve developed creates an opportunity to actually meet and speak with individual clients or prospects in order to get their perspective on what they found to be valuable in the report, as well as to explore avenues for future collaboration. Essentially, you should be using the thought leadership you’ve developed to get in front of your audience with something of inherent value to them. And, to the extent possible, you should track, measure and report on the successful outcomes of the thought leadership campaign. Some of the metrics that you might want to consider tracking are the overall number of client meetings, anecdotal feedback regarding the report (good or bad), and perhaps most importantly, any new engagements (and corresponding revenue) that may have been generated as a result of this campaign. The data that you gather will be enormously helpful as you reflect upon the overall value and ROI of your investment in this campaign.

Conclusion:

One of the most important things that a legal marketer can do is to help support the development of compelling and client-focused content. We often imagine that if we write or speak on a particular topic that we are knowledgeable about, then our clients will come flocking to our door. However, I’ve found that in order to truly generate interest and enthusiasm about a subject, it’s better to gather the views of your target audience and share them in a way that provides useful insights and analysis of what the market thinks. By following the 7-step process that I’ve defined above, you can take advantage of working across internal boundaries to develop content that your clients will actually want to read, and you’ll be able to have a better sense of how your investment in thought leadership campaigns can pay off in the form of stronger client relationships.