Three Simple Steps of Marketing Mentoring

Clients want to know their attorneys beyond their work product. Referral sources, potential and existing, want some proof that a lawyer not only knows the substantive law, but will also provide a favorable client experience. Attorneys need to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Seasoned and talented attorney marketers know this and have seen how their marketing activities can benefit their law firm and themselves. Newer attorneys often need to hear stories about marketing successes and feel they have support in connection with their own marketing endeavors.

Providing just a bit of mentoring to new attorneys can educate them on why marketing is important and beneficial to them, help set them up for marketing success and ensure they are more likely to embrace their marketing responsibilities, now and into the future.

Understanding individual strengths related to marketing efforts. Not all attorneys can walk into a networking event, work the room, hand out a few business cards and leave with a few new client prospects. But attorneys have great talents, such as analysis and writing, which can be used for marketing purposes. Attorneys should not be forced to participate in marketing activities that make them wildly uncomfortable.

With respect to legal marketing, quality is more important than quantity. Sending socially awkward attorneys to a networking event will not help anyone and it could have negative consequences in terms of both marketing efforts and attorney retention. We all know a few attorneys who left law firms because the pressure to market was too great or they felt a lack of support for their marketing endeavors. Newer attorneys will be more likely to see success if they have support and freedom to personalize their approach to what feels more comfortable to them.

Talk to your mentee. Find out what she enjoys doing and see if there is a way to turn one of those skills or interests into a marketing opportunity. Writers can blog, update book chapters, draft social media posts and create newsletter articles. Those with natural socializing skills can attend broader networking events. Some people enjoy organizing events and can plan fundraisers to benefit the favorite charity of a potential or existing client. You may have a budding podcast host in your firm whom can highlight the work of other attorneys in the firm by interviewing them about their practices and common client questions. Choose a marketing tactic or two that your mentee can effectively execute upon.

Identify marketing targets and their interests. Given your mentee's best tactics, choose specific marketing targets to pursue: potential clients, current clients or referral sources. How can your mentee reach the given target? What does the target care about? Do they want to know more relevant information or more about the firm's expertise? Do they need help getting a new initiative off the ground? Can your mentee help them look good to their customers? If you're not sure what the target wants or needs are, then ask them. In addition to educating yourself on your marketing targets' needs, you will directly show the target that you care about them and want to help them beyond typical legal services.

Make a plan. Help your mentee set realistic goals and a timeline that ensures they will successfully accomplish them. What steps need to be taken to make their marketing pursuits a reality? Does the firm have existing resources or services to help? Use your experience and greater knowledge of the firm to help save your mentee time and hassle. Given your mentee's chosen tactics and targets, what will success look like and what will motivate your mentee to hit her benchmarks?

Include a timeframe for you to evaluate her progress and provide additional support. Also, identify a specific time, at least semi-annually, for your mentee to evaluate and extend her plan with more goals or to contemplate a modification of the plan, ideally with your assistance. Keep it simple and easy in the beginning. You can expand goals in the future, but if you start too big, you may set your mentee up to miss the mark and that may thwart future marketing participation.

Conclusion

Of course, not all attorneys will prove to be great marketers. We can bend over backwards, provide all the support in the world to newer attorneys and never reach some of them. Reaching out in a more meaningful, individualized manner cannot hurt, though, and it will absolutely make a huge difference for a good number of future extraordinary attorney-marketers. Some of the great results of that is less burden placed solely on your shoulders and more robust firm marketing.

Investing a couple hours of marketing mentoring for a newer attorney can save them frustration and allow them to more easily enhance the firm's collective marketing efforts. An individualized approach to marketing can keep newer attorneys more invested in their pursuits. If you lack resources for this within the marketing department, then ask your best experienced attorney-marketers to help you with the mentoring. It really does not need to be more complicated than guiding a mentee through three steps: strengths, targets and plan.

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With over 20 years of law firm experience, Aly Lynch is most passionate in the marketing realm. She is a graduate of Marquette University Law School and George Washington University's Master's Program in Law Firm Management. She may be reached at [email protected].