The Legal Marketing Association Southwest Region (“LMASW”) recently presented its fifth annual Your Honor Awards (“YHAs”) at the LMASW Regional Conference in Dallas.
Legal marketing and business development professionals and their employers were honored for their brilliant work and impressive dedication to the legal marketing profession.
This year, Your Honor Awards were presented in three initiative-based categories, including: Communications: Content Marketing; Business Development: Coaching/Planning/Training; and Technology: Social Media/Email Marketing and Other Digital Promotions.
Congratulations to all 2022 LMASW YHA winners:
Communications: Content Marketing
First Place – Dykema – “Armed with Content to Attract Talent in Challenging Recruiting Times”
Business Development: Coaching/Planning/Training:
First Place – Jones Walker – Offshore Wind Business Development Initiative
Technology: Social Media/Email Marketing and Other Digital Promotions
First Place and 2022 Best in Show – BoyarMiller – “Focused Digital Strategies Drive Demand”
About the winning projects:
Communications: Content Marketing
First Place – Dykema – “Armed with Content to Attract Talent in Challenging Recruiting Times”
The competition for talent at law firms has become fiercer than ever – for both attorneys and staff. To continue to grow and best serve their clients, recruiting had become a Dykema firmwide strategic imperative. The BD/Marketing team knew they had a role to play by creating persuasive, attention-getting content to potential candidates. The new Dykema website was designed to target and engage candidates by type of role including: Partners & Senior Counsel, Associates, and Professional Staff & Paralegals.
For each type of role on the website, Dykema created three things:
- Case studies of current employees telling their stories about experiences at Dykema, with an emphasis on perspectives from diverse attorneys.
- Quotes from current employees, each featuring a different aspect of the firm culture; and
- An interactive series of details about the firm, each of which address what the team’s research has shown as key factors in career considerations.
The Careers section of Dykema’s website has seen a 100% increase in traffic since the year prior.
For the openings in the marketing/BD team specifically, Dykema created a series of creative social media posts. Linda Moss, the firm’s Chief Business Development & Marketing Officer, said the intention was to show potential candidates that the team has a “reputation for being a collaborative and fun team that performs well… that keeps bringing new and creative ideas to all we do.”
At the time of the submission, all BD/Marketing roles are filled and the firm has 8% more attorneys than last year. Dykema has shown that creative, on-target content can be an effective tool in this time of unprecedented battle for legal talent.
Business Development: Coaching/Planning/Training:
First Place – Jones Walker – Offshore Wind Business Development Initiative
Jones Walker recognized that the transition in the energy market from traditional oil and gas to renewables, along with the development of offshore wind off the East Coast of the United States, provided a unique and time-sensitive business development opportunity. Other larger firms across the country were quickly ramping up to be involved in the offshore wind market, and Jones Walker believed that it was in a unique position to aggressively pursue this line of business. Because of its existing representation of national and international companies associated with the offshore energy industry, its more than 80 years of market presence along the Gulf Coast, and its vast experience with unique coastal water matters pertinent to offshore wind development, in 2021 Jones Walker created a strategic team to investigate and identify opportunities.
Jones Walker initiated an offshore wind team comprising two attorneys, both of whom had either direct renewables experience or transferable skills applicable to the early stages of offshore wind development. The team was charged with (1) building market presence in a new industry sector; (2) identifying existing or transferable skills; (3) increasing billings for attorneys across various practices and offices; and (4) creating a collaborative, inclusive team aimed at identifying new talent and mentoring younger attorneys.
Since August 2021, this team has grown from two attorneys in two offices to 41 attorneys in five offices. It has collected over $1 million in fees since 2021, published 24 thought leadership pieces, participated in 12 conferences, and earned a 32% share of voice in the target market.
The team has been in the forefront of the evolution of Jones Walker’s industry sector team model through five new strategic programs. Those programs are now being used as best practices for existing teams and serve as templates for new teams as they develop.
The measurable results and new business development team strategies have created real momentum within the firm. Further, the effort’s success and emphasis on inclusivity have encouraged more attorneys from various practice teams to participate in business development efforts.
Technology: Social Media/Email Marketing and Other Digital Promotions
First Place and 2022 Best in Show – BoyarMiller – “Focused Digital Strategies Drive Demand”
As part of its 2022 marketing plan, BoyarMiller launched a digital advertising campaign to drive more brand awareness and generate leads for the firm in specific industry verticals. The integrated plan included a mixture of Google Ads, Display Ads, Retargeting, Content Marketing, and SEO. The goals were to drive website traffic, build awareness around BoyarMiller being an experienced business law firm in Houston, and capture leads from prospective clients searching for BoyarMiller’s specific services. Part of the plan also included a better system of tracking leads who came in through the campaign. BoyarMiller installed a third-party application called CallRail to better track calls and form field submissions.
This was an innovative approach to launch a digital campaign with a conservative budget which yielded successful 550% ROI. The results show that digital law firm marketing isn’t just for massive budgets and firms who can outspend their competition. The strategy included a well-defined buyer persona, which supported the niche targeting where search volume is typically a hurdle. It also used audience-specific messaging and content to support the campaigns with relevant and helpful information. The campaign also went a step further with enhanced lead tracking to streamline the follow up process for attorneys and better support the tracking of ROI.