By Tina Carey

As leaders who help develop strategy and drive change within our firms, legal marketing professionals have been on the front lines of helping navigate the COVID-19 crisis, learning to quickly adapt beyond our usual routines. Just as our lawyers counsel clients to operate in phases — new normal, next normal and whatever might be in between — we too need to consider how to position our firms to grow successfully through our current state to the near and long-term.

Times of great change can spur innovation, and legal marketers are helping their firms navigate choppy waters in new ways. Change also creates a great opportunity to shore up fundamentals and give new twists to old tactics. We asked legal marketers from law firms of all sizes across the country how they are leading the way through the current landscape.

Times of great change can spur innovation, and legal marketers are helping their firms navigate choppy waters in new ways...

“We are leading by promoting paperless work, and new and more efficient technologies, including automation and data-driven strategies. We were already focused on ROI and ways to improve efficiency. We are putting our efforts through the data grinder to measure the financial results they do or do not bring, and this helps us adapt our strategy as we go forward. These efforts have affected our event, paid media and content strategies. We are training attorneys to reframe how they measure the success of their marketing initiatives and they are becoming more open to change and trying new things as a result.”

—Jeremy Tiedeman, Marketing Operations and Communications Manager, Tonkon Torp LLP

“There are a lot of downsides to our current situation, but one of the upsides is that people have generally been more open to considering new ways of doing things than they may have been in the past. I’m using that openness as a way to engage our attorneys in a dialogue about new approaches, and then leveraging those conversations into plans and concrete steps so that we can take action toward achieving our marketing goals.”

—Lisa Olney, Chief Marketing Officer, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman

“As a solo marketer, it’s a challenge to stay focused on our strategy while handling the multitude of marketing activities that need to get done. I make sure that I never lose sight of the big picture and lead by nurturing and championing the marketing and business development culture at our firm. I am using my expertise to ensure that we stay focused on our firm strategy, and do not fall victim to random acts of marketing.

—Karie Trujillo, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Markowitz Herbold PC

“I’m leveraging my years in B2B marketing outside of the legal world to suggest and implement process and technology changes that complement our practice. I provide opportunities for individual attorneys and jurisdictional groups to increase our exposure to clients and prospects. Some of my suggestions have not been from this firm’s traditions but are based in B2B methods. I’ve begun to dive deep into our database to uncover trends, the value of key relationships and missed opportunities.”

—Scott Wolff, Administrator of Marketing, Reinisch Wilson Weier PC

“We are investing in our digital marketing platform, our brand strategy, and reshaping our marketing plans and the tactics we typically employ. We are focusing on innovation, recognizing that the way we go to market has changed dramatically since COVID-19 and has changed the way we work. Much like our clients are thinking about a phased approach to returning to normal, we are thinking of marketing in the same way. What creative tactics can help us engage our clients and provide them value currently, and how will that evolve in the coming year and beyond? From a marketing planning perspective, we have an opportunity to evolve the way we market tremendously.”

—Wendy Tucker, Senior Director of Marketing and Business Development, DLA Piper

Tina Carey is the marketing and PR manager at Stoll Berne and a member of the Legal Marketing Association Professional Advocacy Committee. She can be reached at tcarey@stollberne.com.